Re: Danish enigma

From: willemvermeer
Message: 36186
Date: 2005-02-09

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:


[in the context of progressive constructions]


> I have a question about Swedish.
> Danish has a progressive tense construction 'Jeg er ved at skrive'
> literally "I am at to write". Apart from the infinitive taking the
> place of the verbal noun or gerund this is identical to the
English,
> Dutch and Northwest German 'I am writing', 'Ik ben aan het
> schrijven', 'Ich bin am Schreiben'. As far as I know Swedish does
not
> have such a 'locativic' progressive construction; am I right?
>


The Dutch construction, which is used very often, appears to suggest
some kind of active involvement. If you say "Hij is aan het slapen"
('Han er ved at sove') you convey the suggestion that the person
involved is not just sleeping, but has gone to bed with the specific
purpose of sleeping. You get a somewhat jarring effect if you combine
it with verbs denoting involuntary actions, for instance, although it
is possible. Is that the case with the Danish construction too?


(It is my impression that Dutch and Danish are extremely close as far
as the system of verbal tenses is concerned, much closer than Dutch
and English, not to mention Dutch and German. To give an example, my
wife Trille, who grew up bilingual French/Danish, always gets the
difference between the simple preterite and the perfect exactly
right, which must come from her Danish because French is
fundamentally different.)


Alongside this 'locativistic' construction there is a construction
(equally frequent) which adds information about position (zitten,
liggen, staan, hangen, and one verb of movement: lopen 'walk'),
e.g. "hij ligt/zit te slapen", or, if you want to, "hij
staat/hangt/loopt te slapen" ("hij staat te slapen" is a frequent way
of saying that somebody is not paying attention in a situation where
standing is the default position, e.g. while playing soccer). Does
anybody know anything like this anywhere else in Germanic? (Although
generally speaking Dutch is a language with very few frills, the
constant preoccupation with position is difficult for foreigners to
get a hang of.)


The big disappointment connected with this profusion of progressive
constructions is that it is of no help whatever for learning English,
as one can easily notice by listening to speakers of Dutch trying to
speak English. The standard solution is, I think, always to use a
progressive construction, which, unfortunately, does not get one
anywhere and often gives rise to misunderstandings.


Willem