Introduction to the Dutch Language Week 7 Dutch

Introduction to the Dutch Language Week 7: Dutch word order

Today 1. Presentation 2. Word order in Dutch 3. Dutch practice

Word order in Dutch • Preliminary remark: Word order is very important and quite fixed in Dutch due to its lack of flexion. • Some basic terms. • Dutch is a V 2 / SOV language. • Dutch is generally a head-final language. • Basic word order rules (that aren’t actually rules): adverbial phrases; direct and indirect objects. • The importance of theme/comment structure for word order. • Why the Dutch language is bipolar. • Behold the wonder that is the syntax tree.

Word order: some basic terms • Subject, Object, Verb: a typology of languages. • Head-initial vs. Head-final: an alternative typology of languages: is the main constituent of a phrase at its end or at its start? • Main clauses and sub-clauses: sub-clauses fulfil a grammatical function in another (main) clause; main clauses don’t. Sentences that contain sub-clauses are ‘complex’ sentences. • Sentence, clause, phrase. • Phrases: categorical phrases (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Preposition, Determiner) and functional phrases (Inflection).

Dutch is a V 2 / SOV language • Dutch basic word order is SOV: the subject comes first, then the object(s), and the verb is final. • However, in main clauses, the conjugated verb MUST be in the second (grammatical, functional) position. (Apparent) exceptions: yes/no questions and imperative phrases and certain (archaic) conjunctive phrases. • *Ik koekjes eten ga, but: Ik ga koekjes eten, Ik zeg dat ik koekjes eten ga (/ga eten).

Dutch is generally a headfinal language • In Dutch, the main constituent of a phrase tends to come last: ‘de mooie man’, a noun phrase, has ‘man’, the noun, at the end. (Although some linguists would call this a ‘determiner’ phrase, which would of course ruin this typology. Linguistics often looks more science-y than it actually is. But I digress. ) Also: ‘koekie eten’ (eat cookie) is a verb phrase, again with the verb at the end. (Note the different order in English; also, note that phrases stack: this verb phrase contains a noun phrase (‘koekie’)).

Basic word order rules (that aren’t actually rules) • For adverbial phrases: time, manner, place: ‘Ik ging gisteren met mijn moeder op de fiets naar Amsterdam. ’ • For objects: indirect objects first, direct objects second: ik gaf de man het boek. Or: toen de man aangewezen had, was alles de man duidelijk geworden. • An interesting quirk: ambiguous preposition of place/direction (‘in’) + [place] == place (‘in het huis’), [place] + ambiguous preposition of place/direction == direction (‘het huis in’). • BUT

The importance of theme/comment structure for word order (and Dutch grammar in general) • (The theme/rheme distinction is, I am obliged to remark, a Prague invention. ) • Dutch (and Czech, if I’m not mistaken) sentences tend to start with known information and then ‘comment’ upon that known information with new information. • Short deictic words therefore tend to congregate at the start of the sentence, while longer, more specific words/phrases go at the end. • So: ‘Ik wil twee boeken’ BUT ‘Ik wil ER twee’; • Also: free placement of adverbial phrases including propositions at the end of the sentence (for emphasis): ‘Ik ben gisteren met mijn moeder op de fiets naar Amsterdam gegaan’ vs. ‘Ik ben gisteren op de fiets naar Amsterdam gegaan met mijn moeder’). • Also: ‘Ik heb hem het boek gegeven’ BUT ‘Ik heb HET hem gisteren gegeven’. • (Compare Czech, which regularly puts the reflexive pronoun in the second position in the sentence for, I imagine – but don’t actually know – similar reasons. )

Why the Dutch language is bipolar • The two-pole theory of Dutch sentence structure: [Run-up] 1 st position, first Verbal Pole, middle, second verbal pole, last position. • Anything can be in first position (usually (part of) theme, but (confusingly) in cases of ‘paradoxical emphasis’ (part of) the comment, too, can be found here). • First verbal pole: reserved for conjugated verbs and subordinate conjunctions. • Middle: anything can go here, except of course for the above-mentioned verbs and subordinate conjunctions, and, as we’ll see, the so-called ‘verbal rest’. • The second verbal pole: this is where the verbal rest goes, including past or passive participles, infinite verbs and the separable parts of separable verbs. (order: 1) separable parts of separable verbs, 2)[participle], 3) auxiliary verb of time, 4) modal verbs, 5) main verb, 6)[participle]. • The last position: reserved for adverbial phrases with prepositions. You can fit a couple here.

Behold the wonder that is the syntax tree • Source: https: //www. ucl. ac. uk/dutchstudies/an/SP_LINKS_UCL_P OPUP/SPs_english/linguistics/syntax_verb. html