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L O W L A N D S - L - 15 December 2010 - Volume 05<br>
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From:
<span class="gd"><span style="color: rgb(200, 137, 0);">Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong</span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span class="go"><<a href="mailto:Dutchmatters@comcast.net">Dutchmatters@comcast.net</a>></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
<span class="gi">LL-L "Grammar" 2010.12.15 (01) [EN]</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Hello, Ron,
Marlou, Pat, Theo and others. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I do not want
to split hairs, but I don’t think the ‘Did you bring an umbrella? I do not wear
a raincoat’. <span style=""> </span>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. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Another idea
would be that English is firmly wedded to the ‘Subject Verb Rest of Sentence’
system. In that case ‘Brought you an umbrella? <span style=""> </span>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.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">One of my
questions was: <b>How did</b> <b>that system get into English?</b>. Could it
have come from the Scandinavian languages? I do not know anything about
Scandinavian syntax.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I am just
curious.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Jacqueline BdJ</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Seattle</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From:
R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
Grammar</p>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Hi, Jacqueline!<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
As for “Have you any wool?”, although quite archaic, is still used in some English
dialects or rather sociolect, especially in England. <br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA</p>
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