The Balkans (was Re: Greenberg's universals for SVO languages)

> However, virtually all languages have equi-nounphrase deletion, as with
infinitive
> constructions.  There is one area of the world that doesn't:  the
Balkans,
> and it's not surprisingly a Sprachbund there.  In those languages, you
have to
> say "I want that I go" instead of "I want go" or "I want to go", which
are more
> in keeping with the universal.
In Romanian (the only Balkan language that I know much of and also the
only language where I'm in striking distance of fluency) this is true,
but it's almost a non-point because Romanian is pro-drop.  AFAIK, the
other Balkan languages are too, and so saying "I want that I go" without
the second "I" is meaningless, since that "I" is only indicated by an
agreement ending (which obviously cannot be lost).  The other option is
nonsensical within Romanian, since the infinitive proper is very rare in
speech, being more of a literary feature

There is, however, a non-finite form which occurs after a few special
verb particles.  I guess you could consider this the infinitive in modern
speech.  However, this is limited to

the direct future: voi merge (I will go)
and
the conditional: as merge (I would go)

The  verb "a putea" can take either the direct non-finite form or the
finite phrasal construction:

pot merge (I can go)
pot sa merg (I can that I go)

Jesse S. Bangs     Pelíran
jaspax @juno.com  jaspax@yahoo.com
"All for the sake of paradise, the tyrants of our generation
stacked bodies higher than Nimrod stacked bricks; yet they
came no nearer heaven than he did."  --J. Budziszewski