Infinitival innovations: A case study on Frisian-Dutch language contact

Is Frisian becoming more like Dutch? This dissertation investigates changes in the Frisian grammar as a result of language contact with Dutch. Three grammatical constructions with verbs are investigated, which are similar but not exactly the same in Frisian and Dutch: (i) endings on infinitival verbs, (ii) nouns that form one word with a verb (e.g. messeslypje, “knife-sharpening”), and (iii) the absentive, a grammatical construction which expresses that someone is absent (e.g. Hy is te fiskjen, “He is off fishing”). It is proposed that the kind of change that is found is not only influenced by... Mehr ...