Typology meets usage: The case of the prohibitive infinitive in Dutch
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Daniël Van Olmen
The article examines the striking correlation of the directive infinitive with negation in Dutch. This correlation is interpreted in the light of recent findings on the form of the prohibitive in the languages of the world and is explained in terms of the negative-first principle and politeness. The validity of the two explanations is further investigated from a cross-linguistic perspective. The preference for preverbal negation is shown to be even stronger in prohibitive than in declarative sentences. The difference in politeness between positive imperative and prohibitive speech acts is argued to be reflected in a wide range of languages. On the whole, the article illustrates the fruitful, two-way interaction between the study of language usage and typology.
© Mouton de Gruyter – Societas Linguistica Europaea
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Compositional and constructional reduplication in Kam-Tai languages
- Metaphorical projection, subjectification and English speech act verbs
- The possessive perfect construction in Estonian
- The semantic field of continuation: Periphrastic blijven and continuer à
- The role of age in Austrians' perceptions of the frequency of use and likeability of lexical Teutonisms and Austriacisms
- Typology meets usage: The case of the prohibitive infinitive in Dutch
- A comprehensive account of full-verb inversion in English
- Book reviews
- Acknowledgements
- Conference announcement
- Publications received
- Index to Volume 44
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Compositional and constructional reduplication in Kam-Tai languages
- Metaphorical projection, subjectification and English speech act verbs
- The possessive perfect construction in Estonian
- The semantic field of continuation: Periphrastic blijven and continuer à
- The role of age in Austrians' perceptions of the frequency of use and likeability of lexical Teutonisms and Austriacisms
- Typology meets usage: The case of the prohibitive infinitive in Dutch
- A comprehensive account of full-verb inversion in English
- Book reviews
- Acknowledgements
- Conference announcement
- Publications received
- Index to Volume 44
