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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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