Re: past tense imperative

Hi!

René Uittenbogaard writes in response to me:
>...
> > I'm often tempted in
> > the same way to use constructions in Dutch that Dutch people find
> > quite wrong for the most interesting reasons. :-)
>
> Hmmm :) examples? 8-)
Well, if I could only come up with good examples -- these situations
have happened some time ago...  I'll think about this...

Another example in the *other* direction, maybe: understanding.  The
proverbs (I don't know whether they are called like this in Dutch and
German), i.e., the prefixed morphemes to some verbs that split off in
sentences, like 'doorgaan' (to continue) -> 'Ik ga door' (I continue).
These thingies create very strange word order issues in both German
and Dutch.  And although Dutch and German word orders are fairly
compatible when learning the other language, I was once unable to
parse a sentence when an auxiliary came into play.  The order of the
verbal complex is the reversed in the two langs:

    ... dat ik moet   werken. / ... daß ich arbeiten mußte.
    ... that I had-to work    / ... that I  work     had-to.

Now, with something like 'ophalen' (to fetch), literally 'to
on-take/get' (~'take/get on') it took me quite a while to understand a
clause like:

    ... dat ik hem op moest  halen.
    ... that I him on had-to take.
    ... that I had to fetch him.

The problem probably was that this is not only just reversed order
compared to German -- it's totally strange to actually *split* the
verb here.  But due to the different word order, I assume it just
cannot be split in German, so it it confusing for me in Dutch.  It
need not split in Dutch, but it can.  The following is ok, I think,
too, and then perfectly understandable from a German viewpoint:

    ... dat  ik hem moest  ophalen.
    ... that I  him had-to fetch

That's just reversal:
    ... daß ich ihn abholen mußte.
    ... that I  him fetch   had-to


And I'm going to think about something that I misgenerated, too.


BTW: My dialect of German can topicalize the proverb in spoken
language.  Sounds a bit strange in isolated sentences, but it is
actually encoutered.  It's grammatical to say:

    Auf   eß  ich das nicht.
    On/up eat I   that not
    I won't eat that up / finish that.

More precisely, the meaning is: 'Eating up is not really what I'm
going to do with that food.'

Is that possible in Dutch?

    ?Op eet ik dat niet.
    ?Op zal ik dat niet eten.

Normal German can only topicalize the whole verb, with the help of an
artificial auxiliary 'tun':

    Aufessen tu ich das  nicht.
    up-eat   do I   that not

**Henrik