Re: Language Change
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 6, 2000, 14:41 |
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> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 07:01:00 +0100
> From: Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
> The Germanic languages had a word order similar to that still used in
> modern German & Dutch, i.e. main clauses are V2 & subordinate clauses are
> verb last; English & the scandinavian languages have moved toward VSO
> orders in both clauses.
Danish is still firmly V2 (except in yes-no questions, which are
verb-initial). Something has to go in front of V, and that something
is very often the subject, so the unmarked order is actually SVO ---
but if something like an adverb is fronted, you get VSO. AFAIK, it's
similar but not quite the same in Swedish and Norwegian.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)