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Re: Dutch questions

From:Douglas Koller <laokou@...>
Date:Friday, July 13, 2007, 23:22
From: Ben Haanstra <kof@...>

> What do you want to know? > (I'm native Dutch)
I'm *so* glad you asked. So I'm reading this text, see, published in 1922. It retains article declensions and apparently, there was a spelling reform some time in your history since then, all of which I can handle. But the following two sentences have thrown me for a loop, even after leaving the text for a while and coming back to it with fresh eyes. Please to elucidate: 1) Hij onderscheidde er zich herhaaldelijk en ook later, aan de universiteit te Cambridge, hebben weinigen meer eerbewijzen ontvangen dan hij. Question: What's happening in the second clause? If the meaning is akin to: "He distinguished himself there repeatedly and later, at the university of Cambridge, he received a few more honors.", then why not: ...heeft hij dan weinigen meer eerbewijzen ontvangen. or ...werden weinigen meer eerbewijzen ontvangen door hem. or some such? What does "hebben" agree with? The "eerbewijzen?" Then how can they receive rather than being received? Is "dan" "then" or "than" here, and if it *is* "than," then who got more honors than he? There is no antecedent, even from a preceding sentence. I'm so confuuuused. 2) Daarna aanvaarde hij een tijdelijke aanstelling bij het

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Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>