LL-L "Grammar" 2010.12.15 (05) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 15 December 2010 - Volume 05
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From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>

Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2010.12.15 (01) [EN]



Hello, Ron, Marlou, Pat, Theo and others.

I do not want to split hairs, but I don’t think the ‘Did you bring an
umbrella? I do not wear a raincoat’.  system has its roots in an aversion
for splitting infinitives; that is a separate difference between English on
the one hand and German/Dutch on the other. That difference may have entered
the language with French or other Latinate languages.

Another idea would be that English is firmly wedded to the ‘Subject Verb
Rest of Sentence’ system. In that case ‘Brought you an umbrella?  I not wear
a raincoat” is obviously wrong. But then you must explain the ‘Ba. Ba,
Blacksheep, have you any wool ‘ away; and I do not know from which time that
dates.

One of my questions was: *How did* *that system get into English?*. Could it
have come from the Scandinavian languages? I do not know anything about
Scandinavian syntax.

I am just curious.

Jacqueline BdJ

Seattle



And Ron, I did not try to imply that Low Saxon is part of German. My
knowledge of German is slight. My knowledge of Low Saxon non-existent, but I
have taught myself to read it a little



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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Grammar



Hi, Jacqueline!

I won’t try to answer your question fully now, will only suggest that
rigidity of English sentence structure seems to have something to do with
the loss of inflection that began in earnest during or after Norman rule of
England. Loss of inflection ("grammatical word marking") necessitates
syntactic rigidity, in which a set succession of sentence slots is available
for subject, object, etc.

As for “Have you any wool?”, although quite archaic, is still used in some
English dialects or rather sociolect, especially in England.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



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