Re: Da Mätz se Basa: Syntax

Henrik Theiling het geskryf:
> Hi!
>
> René Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...> writes:
>
>>I think the difference is illustrated by the following examples:
>>
>>'n Voël kan vlieg, maar 'n koei nie.
>>A bird can fly, but a cow cannot.
>>
>>Ek het 'n voël gesien, maar nie 'n koei nie.
>>I've seen a bird, but not a cow.
>>
>>I guess this means that putting "nich nä" at the end of the sentence
>>introduces ambiguity. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, though.
>
> Well, but in De^Ha Mätz se Basa, the first one would put the 'nich' just
> before 'nä' and in the second, puts it in front of 'a cow'.
Ow, of course. I hadn't thought of that.

> My question was why you would regard an elided constituent (in this
> case the verb) special so that you asked whether then, 'nich nä' would
> not be allowed.  I see nothing special -- and I was thinking that a
> simple rule in Afrikaans deletes any two adjacent 'nie' into just one.
> (Adjacent 'nä's in my language *do* collapse.)  Perhaps I missed your
> point and am overseeing a problem.  Hmm.
I don't think there is a problem. I was sort of thinking out loud which
irregularities there are in Afrikaans concerning "nie" (I think I've
covered all that I know of) and how Da Mätz se Basa handles these. It
seems that the conclusion is: differently, but in any case not more
ambiguously.

Goeienag,
René

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