Re: Sketch of Germanech 4/4: Syntax

> But but but...what about Dutch!?!
>
> "gelezen heeft Anna het boek niet"
> "read had Anna the book not"
> I mean, there's no case marking, but is still works...
> or...is this totally different?
This is not standard Dutch. It _might_ occur in poetry, but even then it is
a contrived example.

In normal Dutch, when due to V2 rules the word order changes to SVO it is
very clear which is subject and which is object, since th subject comes
before the object. This can happen in questions:

"Waarom heeft Anna het boek niet gelezen?"
(Why has Anna the book not read-PART)

Or in subordinate clauses:

"Hij zegt dat Anna het boek niet gelezen heeft" or "Hij zegt dat Anna het
boek niet heeft gelezen."
(He says that Anna the book not read-PART has) or ( He says that Anna the
book not has read-PART)

It becomes somewhat more difficult with summations:

"Waarom hebben Jan, Willem en Piet Kees, Guido en Klaas geslagen?"
(Why have Jan, Willem and Piet Kees, Guido and Klaas hit-PART).

But a native dutch speaker will have no trouble parsing it.

Maarten

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