De en-constructie in het Gronings. Een Nedersaksische constructie met verwanten in het Fries en het Engels

Abstract

This article contains some observations on the syntactic construction in the
Groningen dialect that is akin to the Frisian "imperative pro infinitive"-
construction. An indication of the geographical distribution is given. A collection
of more than 100 examples of the construction, mainly taken from Groningen
dialect literature, is presented. On the basis of these examples some common
features are distilled, such as the use of verbs of modality in the main part of the
sentence. Two possible alternatives are given for the origin of the construction:
firstly as a replacement for the vanishing conjunctive/optative mood in modern
West-Germanic dialects or, secondly, as a substitute for a gerund construction. In
this context attention is drawn to the similarity to English constructions as: "ahunting we will go".