TNTL 114

A.M. Duinhoven

Aard en plaats van de persoonsvorm

Abstract -- In Middle Dutch and in Early Modern Dutch archaic sentences were being used with the finite verb in last position, such as: mijn oghen nie liever wijf en saghen ('my eyes never dearer woman saw') and orlof hi den coninc bat ('for his permission he the king asked'). In these cases the finite verb was an independent constituent, a compound of verbal adjunct and pronoun. As the connection with the explicit subject was still loose, the verb-second constraint did not apply.
Sentences with independent finite verb only mention the event, while in the combination of subject and verb the speaker explains what is happening.