Re: Adpositions gaining new uses

"I want on your shoulders" sounds like perfectly good English to me.
No need to posit a German influence for that one.



On 11/17/08, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 21:45, Ina van der Vegt <gijsstrider@...>
> wrote:
>> Something I've been noticing about my L1 (Dutch) is that in some
>> situations, the adposition 'op' (Roughly the same as the English
>> adposition 'on') has gained a new use.
>>
>> As I am no good at explaining, I'll give some examples, and try some
>> of my theories afterward.
>>
>> Hij / moet / op / de / computer.
>> He / should / on / the / computer.
>> He should use the computer.
>>
>> Ik / wil / op / de / playstation.
>> I / want / on / the / playstation.
>> I want to use the playstation.
>>
>> Ik / zit / op / gitaarles.
>> I / sit / on / guitar lesson.
>> I am taking guitar lessons.
>>
>> Now, I think this use originally came from the last use, as 'op'
>> defaults to 'zitten' (To sit), and 'zitten' is only removed when there
>> is another verb. What I think is that 'opzitten' (Literally: To sit
>> on) has gained the new meaning of 'to make use of' or 'to use', and
>> that the 'zitten' part is left out when another verb is present. The
>> reason that 'zitten' is still present in situations where there is no
>> other verb is because there must be a verb.
>>
>> Does this sound plausible, and are there any situations similar to
>> this in other languages?
>
> German can omit the verb for verbs of motion (typically "go") in some
> situations: "Ich will auf deine Schultern" (I want on your shoulders
> -- which is something that my daughter actually says in English,
> though it's obviously a loan construction from German), "Ich muss auf
> Klo" (I must onto toilet), "Ich will nach draußen" (I want to outside
> = I want to go outside).
>
> I'd interpret "Er muss an den Computer" (He has-to to-at the computer)
> and "Ich möchte an die Playstation" (I want to-at the Playstation)
> similarly, with an understood "go" or similar motion verb.
>
> In other words, they sound like German, except that Germans sit "at" a
> computer rather than "on" it, so they move "to-at" it.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
>
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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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