Re: Colloquial German, experiencers and the construct state

Hi!

Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder@...> writes:
> More colloquial Dutch:
>
> Jan DIE heeft een nieuwe fiets
> "John THAT has a new bike" = John has got a new bike
>...
Same, but with comma in German.  Feels like an emphasised
topicalisation to me (and the pattern is very similar to French):

   Jan, der hat ein neues Fahrrad.
 = Was Jan angeht, der hat ein neues Fahrrad.

   Wat Jan betrefft, hij heeft een nieuwe fiets.

   Concerning Jan, he has a new bike.

The explicit topicalisation with 'was ... angeht' is overly formal,
I'd say.  It's reserved to translating Japanese sentences and to
writing grammars of German only. :-)  The repetition of the
corresponding constituent does the same job more naturally.

(Anyway, there are situations where you cannot use this, e.g.
if the topic is not an argument or adjunct of the verb, e.g.
the standard Japanese example:

   Sakana-wa tai-ga          ii.
   fish-TOP  red_snapper-NOM is_good.

I think this'd need 'Was Fisch angeht, ist Schnappfisch gut'.
Colloquially, maybe: 'Ja, Fisch -- da ist Schnappfisch gut'. :-))

> Ons huis DAT moet een nieuw dak hebben
   Unser Haus, das muß ein neues Dach haben.
 = Was unser Haus angeht, das muß ein neues Dach haben.

   Wat ons huis betrefft, dat moet een nieuw dak hebben.

   Concerning our house, it needs a new roof.

>...
> In spoken Dutch, <die> (common gender+plural) and <dat> (neutrum)
> are virtually always used, although they're omitted in Standard Dutch.
>
> Do you have that in Coll. German, Middle English and/or Afrikaans, too?
It's both written and spoken German, definitely not restricted to
spoken, and definitely not used virtually always, but only for an
emphasised topicalisation.  At least I'd say so.

Concerning Afrikaans :-) -- I have no idea.

**Henrik