Re: LIFO languages (was Re: "Theory informs practice" - OK?)
| From: | Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, November 16, 2008, 14:29 |
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Hallo!
On Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:57:46 +0100, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> Quoting Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>:
> > Den 15. nov. 2008 kl. 17.53 skreiv Jörg Rhiemeier:
> [...]
> > > The Fith grammar allows for really bizarre manipulations of word
> > > order which are indeed at least very hard to follow for humans.
> >
> > Well, so does German, for example. German legal or technical text can
> > be really hard to figure out sometimes. Sentences often end with two
> > verbs belonging to different clauses, and I think I have seen three.
>
> Does anyone ever use those registers of German in real-time conversation,
> however?
Not much at least. Complicated nested sentences are a matter of
written language almost exclusively, and spoken German avoids
such hairy constructions. Nobody ever *speaks* sentences like:
Wer denjenigen, der den Wegweiser, der an der Brücke, die über
den Bach, der von Ahausen nach Bettelheim fließt, führt, steht,
umgeworfen hat, anzeigt, erhält 500 Mark Belohnung.
That's grammatically correct German, but almost impossible
to follow.
... brought to you by the Weeping Elf
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