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Word order and language contact

There is a remarkable increase of constructions with auf (‘on’) as of file 3. Much like other participants in this study, Fuad uses auf not only with verbs that subcategorise for this preposition (cf. (550)), but also with verbs that do not (cf. (551)). In the latter case, the preposition seems to serve the function of an overt marker of the verb complement relation.

Verbless sequences continue to appear in file 3, although less frequently than in file 2. Notice that example (554), if understood against the backdrop of the two propositions preceding it in (552) and (553), seems to involve the type of role shift characteristic of storytelling in a signed language like DGS in that it mimics the thoughts of the story character. The change of perspective is indeed remarkable as it is not observed elsewhere in the corpus covered by the present study.

Further, if we contrast example (548) above and (555) below, we can see that elementary, verbless patterns continue to be produced alongside target-like formats with the copula sein (‘to be’) in file 5. Interestingly, the concatenation of propositions in (555) is reminiscent of expressions used in recounts of the episode in DGS (the frog’s disappearance, the emptiness of the glass). As we can see in example (556), produced in file 5, both options might be used in the context of a complex clause, whereby in (556) the copula is dropped in the main clause but used in combination with da in the weiMntroduced embedded clause.

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Word order variation and language contact
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(Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics)
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