grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...
grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...
grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...
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*I know that he <strong>the</strong> students sees.<br />
I know that he sees <strong>the</strong> students.<br />
Here <strong>the</strong> verb appears in final position in Afrikaans, while in English <strong>the</strong> object is<br />
in final position.<br />
In terms <strong>of</strong> yes-no questions, English relies on do-insertion to <strong>for</strong>m a question,<br />
while Afrikaans constructs a question by placing <strong>the</strong> verb at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
question. A typical example would be:<br />
7. Do you have a dog?<br />
8. Het jy ‘n hond?<br />
While English relies on <strong>the</strong> insertion <strong>of</strong> ‘do’ to <strong>for</strong>m a yes-no question, Afrikaans<br />
does not rely on <strong>the</strong> addition <strong>of</strong> any words, but ra<strong>the</strong>r adjusts <strong>the</strong> structure by<br />
placing <strong>the</strong> verb at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> utterance.<br />
In English, <strong>the</strong> verb is placed be<strong>for</strong>e its complement, while in Afrikaans <strong>the</strong><br />
complement is preceded by its verb.<br />
The last important structural difference is that <strong>of</strong> negation. Afrikaans differs from<br />
English in that it uses a double negation, while English does not. The following is<br />
an example:<br />
9. Ek kan nie sing nie.<br />
* I can not sing not.<br />
I cannot sing.<br />
Thus, while Afrikaans places <strong>the</strong> negation element ‘nie’ on ei<strong>the</strong>r side <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> verb,<br />
English only uses its negation element ‘not’, placing it after <strong>the</strong> verb. There<strong>for</strong>e,<br />
while English <strong>and</strong> Afrikaans do share <strong>grammatical</strong> structures at times, <strong>the</strong>re are<br />
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