Dutch/Lesson 14

les 14 Naamwoorden van handeling ~ Verbal nouns De vloedgolf van Atjeh. Text 14-1 - De vloedgolf noicon|40px Na de zware aardbeving earthquake in de Indische Oceaan en de erdoor veroorzaakte vloedgolf flood wave, tsunami op de kust coast van Atjeh is zoals gevreesd het dodental death toll nog steeds stijgend. De verwoesting destruction en het verlies loss aan mensenlevens is uitzonderlijk groot, vooral de sterfte onder kinderen. De behoefte aan hulp van allerlei aard is enorm maar het uitvallen van vrijwel alle verbindingen is een grote hindernis impediment voor een toereikende adequate hulpverlening. Vocabularyde aardbevingfile:nl-aardbeving.oggearthquakede vloedgolffile:nl-vloedgolf.oggflood wave (any cause)veroorzakenfile:nl-veroorzaken.oggcausede kustfile:nl-kust.oggcoasthet dodentalfile:nl-dodental.oggdeath tollde verwoestingfile:nl-verwoesting.oggdestructionhet verliesfile:nl-verlies.ogglossstijgenfile:nl-stijgen.oggrisede behoeftefile:nl-behoefte.oggneedde hulpfile:nl-hulp.ogghelp, aidde aardfile:nl-aard.oggnaturede verbindingfile:nl-verbinding.oggtie, link, (chem.) compoundde hindernisfile:nl-hindernis.oggobstacle dialogue 14 As feared, the death toll is still on the rise after the severe earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the tsunami that was caused by it on the coast of Aceh. The destruction and the loss of human life is exceptionally large, especially the casualties amongst children. The demand for aid of all sorts is enormous but the interruption of practically all communication is a great obstacle to an adequate relief effort. waar of niet waar * De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm Er stierven veel kinderen De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd De aardbeving gebeurde in India De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm - niet waar: door een aardbeving Er stierven veel kinderen: waar: de sterfte was erg groot De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd - waar, door het uitvallen van de verbindingen De aardbeving gebeurde in India - niet waar: in de Indische Oceaan De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend - niet waar: het dodental was stijgend De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm - niet waar: de behoefte aan hulp, niet de hulp Verbal nouns The -ing problem In English the -ing form is used extensively for a number of rather different functions. Although Dutch also has an ending -ing it does not correspond to the English one in most situations: he is singing hij is aan het zingen he walked out of the room singing hij liep zingend de kamer uit singing is her profession zang is haar beroep In the above examples singing is used as: part of the present continuous tense as a participle as a verbal noun (gerund). In Dutch different nouns are used in these three cases none of which ends in -ing Properly rendering -ing forms in Dutch may therefore present a bit of a problem for an English speaker. Continuous tenses In the strict sense Dutch does not have continuous times and in many cases where English uses them Dutch will use a simple present or past. he was walking to school when he saw the UFO hij liep naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag hij was onderweg naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag To emphasize continuity Dutch can use the infinitive as a neutral noun preceded by the preposition aan: hij was aan het wandelen he was going for a walk zij waren aan het verhuizen they were busy moving Another common construction is to use an auxiliary verb like zitten,staan,liggen, lopen de voetballer liep op de scheidsrechter te schelden. the soccer player walked around fuming at the umpire. ik zat te denken I was just thinking (on my chair) The "on my chair" or "on my feet" distinction is often of negligible importance and the verbs zitten, liggen etc. are used more or less interchangeably as auxiliaries of the continuous aspect. Present participles The present participle in Dutch is formed by adding -d(e) (not: -ing) to the infinitive: lopen – lopend(e) staan – staand As in English it can be used as adjective: flying saucer vliegende schotel But it is rarely used as a (static) predicate: kinine is koortswerend quinine has the property of abating fever Using it in a continuous tense construction as in English sounds odd and rather ironic. ach, was jij schrijvende? roughly: Wow, did I catch you in writing mode? Present participles are seldom used to initiate a clause as is common in English: The second car moving at greater speed could not stop De tweede auto die sneller reed kon niet stoppen De tweede, sneller rijdende auto kon niet stoppen Either the participle rijdend is used as a preceding adjective or it is avoided by paraphrase. Gerunds The term gerund is seldom used in Dutch grammar. One could argue that Dutch does not have one in the English sense of the word, despite the presence of a rich variety of verbal nouns. First of all, in many cases Dutch uses the infinitive as a neutral noun where English uses a gerund in -ing and one could argue that this is the Dutch gerund: addition and subtraction are the basis of arithmetic optellen en aftrekken vormen de grondslag van het rekenen There are subtle differences associated with the use or omission of the neutral article het, but the same holds in English: singing is healthy – zingen is gezond the singing finally ended – het zingen hield eindelijk op There is typically no plural. In times past the word did get inflected -as Latin gerunds do-, e.g.: Tot ziens! - See you! Willens en wetens - Deliberately. Een uur gaans - an hour on foot This -s ending is an old genitive. The genitive of the gerund actually enjoys a modicum of productivity is expressions with tot ... toe: tot vervelens toe - until boredom resulted, ad nauseam tot bloedens toe - until bleeding resulted Mijn ziel is zeer bedroefd, tot stervens toe (Matthew 26:38) - until death. Suffix -ing Many Dutch verbs do form a (feminine) verbal noun in -ing, but it usually corresponds more to an English noun with (latinate) ending -ion than to a gerund with -ing: deze aftrekking is niet juist this subtraction is incorrect Note that de aftrekking denotes a particular case of subtraction, where het aftrekken denotes the general process of subtracting The formation of a verbal noun is -ing is quite common, particularly for verbs with prefixes like ver-, be-, af- etc. It is also a productive suffix, which means that newly formed verbs tend to form their verbal noun this way. It has a plural in -en: zegening – zegeningen blessing – blessings However, the -ing form is certainly not as ubiquitous as in English where only a few verbs like can or must do not possess one. Not all Dutch verbs have an -ing form as there is a number of older ways to form verbal nouns, although most of them are no longer productive. The -ing verbal noun is feminine and occurs frequently with "ter" (te + the old feminine dative der), which translates roughly into "in order to". Hij besprak maatregelen ter verbetering daarvan - He discussed methods that could be used to improve that. This process is still productive: ter wikifiëring -- to be wikified Interestingly, this means that even north of the Great Rivers feminine gender is not quite dead yet... Verbal stems Many strong verbs have a verbal noun based on the stem of the verb with ablaut (vowel change) and lack an -ing form: helpen – de hulp na drie dagen kwam er eindelijk hulp after three days help finally arrived wreken – de wraak: wraak is zoet revenge is sweet zingen – de zang hij studeert zang he is studying voice Notice that in these cases forms in -ing like *helping, *zinging do not exist in Dutch. Sometimes the vowel does not change: lopen – de loop in de loop van het proces in the course of the process These nouns are typically common gender and often lack a plural, but this does not always hold. For example a weak verb like werken has het werk and a plural de werken Other endings Some verbs add -t or -st to the stem, a process not entirely unfamiliar in English: vliegen – de vlucht – plural: de vluchten to fly – the flight telen – teelt (no plural) cultivate – cultivation At times, there is more than one verbal noun: graven – graf – gracht (<graft 1600s) to dig – grave – canal Plurals: graf – graven gracht – grachten After nasals -st is more common: dienen – de dienst – plural: de diensten to serve – service komen – de komst – no plural come – advent, arrival vangen – de vangst catch – catch de vangst van kabeljauw bij de Canadese kust is gestaakt cod fishing has been suspended off the coast of Canada A few verbs have -te: behoeven – de behoefte need – need baren – geboorte give birth – birth Plurals have -s: behoeftes, geboortes, sometimes also -n: denken – gedachten, gedachtes think – thought(s) Other verbs have -nis, -enis or -tenis kennen – kennis to know – knowledge / acquaintance gebeuren – gebeurtenis to happen – event bekennen – bekentenis to confess – confession hinderen – hindernis to obstruct / bother – hindrance Plurals get -sen: kennissen (acquaintances), bekentenissen In English this ending is more common after adjectives like bald(ness), good(ness). In Dutch this is rare: sad – sadness droef – droefenis Usually Dutch has -heid in such cases: droefheid Dutch also has latinate endings—as English does—that sometimes compete with the Germanic ones: The Latin -tio(n) ending is -tie in Dutch and usually pronounced as [tsi] or [si] ('see') communiceren – communicatie communicate – communication but: archiveren – archivering to archive – archiving Prefix ge- Another way to form a verbal noun is to add ge- to a stem. It forms a neuter noun from verbs without prefixes. vallen – het geval – de gevallen to fall – the case missen – het gemis - (no plural) to miss – the lack, missing spreken – het gesprek – de gesprekken to speak – the conversation voelen – het gevoel – de gevoelens to feel – the feeling This type is still productive, at least for verbs that do not carry prefixes. Newly formed nouns carry the connotation of annoying repetition and they usually have no plural: dat onophoudelijk geblaf moet afgelopen zijn! enough of that incessant barking! hij viel op het toneel: gelach en boegeroep in het publiek... he fell on stage: laughter and boos in the audience... wat een gedoe! what a hassle! Notice the difference with the past participle: gelach – gelachen laughing,laughter – laughed Verbal nouns with ge- tend to have a dysphemic connotation and some are better avoided by a non-native speaker: gezeur, geëtter, gezeik, gezwam (all ~ bull s#$t) zeuren – to nag etter – puss zeik – urine (four letters..) zwam – fungus Subjects and objects As in English the -er suffix denotes the subject of the verb: geven – gever to give – giver As in English the plural is in -s: gevers. There usually is a feminine version in -ster as well, although under feminist influence it is under considerable pressure especially for functions in society: voorzitten – voorzitter – voorzitster to chair a meeting – chairman – chairwoman Voorzitter is increasingly used, regardless the gender of the chairperson. There are other feminine endings, e.g. -eres: (plural -eressen) zingen – zanger – zangeres to sing – singer (m) – singer (f) There is also an infrequent -sel suffix indicating an object, e.g.: scheppen – schepping - schepper - schepsel to create – creation - creator – creature Note that in this case English has completely shifted to Latin roots and endings where Dutch has remained faithful to its Germanic roots altogether, at least in religious context. Otherwise creation is often creatie. The number and type of available verbal nouns differs from verb to verb. Verbal adjectives Apart from the two participles the verb can form various adjectives as it can in English. One suffix that corresponds to the English latinate ending -able is -baar: verstaan – verstaanbaar understand – understandable Another suffix -heid (cf. English -hood) can be added to turn the adjective into a (feminine) noun: danken – dankbaar – dankbaarheid to thank – grateful – gratitude The -heid suffix (plural -heden) can also be used behind participles. bergen - geborgen – geborgenheid to secure – secured, safe – feeling at ease opletten – oplettend – oplettendheid to wacht out – attentive – attention There is also a suffix -elijk , cognate with -ly. (The 'ij' is usually pronounced as a schwa.) bewerken – bewerkelijk to process -requiring much work sterven – sterfelijk - sterfelijkheid to die – mortal - mortality Exercise 14 Verbal nouns In the above text identify all verbal nouns and adjectives and the verbs they derive from. aardbeving aard (earth)+ beven (quiver, shake) + -ing veroorzaakte veroorzaken (to cause) past participle vloedgolf vloed-: (flood) verbal noun of vlieden (to flow) gevreesd vrezen (to fear) past participle stijgend. stijgen (to rise) present participle exceptionally used as predicate. verwoesting verwoesten (devastate) + -ing verlies verliezen stem-noun (to lose) uitzonderlijk uitzonderen (to except) + -lijk sterfte sterven (to die) +te, death toll behoefte behoeven (to need) + -te hulp helpen (to help) stem + ablaut uitvallen infinitive (drop out, stop functioning) verbindingen verbinden (to connect) + -ing plural hindernis hinderen (to impede) +-nis toereikende toereiken (to reach, to be sufficient) present participle hulpverlening hulp (see above) + verlenen (to lend) + -ing