Re: NATLANG: Dutch (jara: Has anyone made a real conlang?)

----- Original Message -----
From: John Cowan <cowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 8:29 AM
Subject: Re: NATLANG: Dutch (jara: Has anyone made a real conlang?)


> Jan van Steenbergen scripsit:
>
> > In German, the verb that changes when you put the sentence in the past
tense
> > (how do you call that? In Dutch it is "persoonsvorm")
>
> The "finite verb". Infinitives, participles, and such are "non-finite".
>
> > Dutch: "Als ik niet kan gaan vissen, blijf ik thuis."
> > German: "Wenn ich nicht fischen gehen kann, bleibe ich zu Hause."
>
> English of course parallels Dutch:  "If I can't go fishing, I stay home."
> but is relentlessly SVO in all non-question clauses.
>
Except where be is the main verb and not an auxiliary questions are also SVO
in English, because they have inversion of the auxiliary not the main verb

  do you see the book?  being auxVSVO is still SVO
   is she there?     VS
   is she buying the house?     auxVSVO is still SVO


Clauses starting with negative adverbs, little, only, so,  also have
inversion of auxiliary so they also keep the SVO order

Never did she want what would happen auxVSVO
little can she know...
only with difficulty has he understood.
so carefully would she work that....

True variation from SVO happens in
 a) clauses starting with place expressions are VS(O)* so do not lend do
does did for simple tenses as in questions and negative adverb clauses

over the hill lies a small village
here are the books I wanted
here comes Peter

*mostly? entirely? used with intransitive verbs of location so (usually?) no
O
 (at the moment I can't think of any examples with transitive verbs)

In compound tenses questions only invert the auxiliary; clauses starting
with place expression invert the auxiliary and the main verb

will she have the time?
on this spot will stand a new building

the inversion only happens when the subject is a noun not when it's a
pronoun

here are the papers v  here they are

b) OSV is also possible in English

 that I can see, but I don't agree with it
him I know, but I don't know her

These variations from SVO are not commonly used so in that sense SVO is
relentless.

David Barrow

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