The Loom Of Language

156 The Loom of Language
Danish) No such stiaightforward rule applies to all statements in
German and Dutch. Usually the direct object comes first This is the
general rule in Dutch when both objects are nouns, but if both are
pronouns, the shorter comes first, as in the English sentence * / told him
everything Geiman custom is less simple It can be summed up in
three rules.
(a) If one object js a pronoun and the other a noun> the pronoun
object comes fu st
(b) If both aie nouns> the indirect object pitccdes the direct
(r) If both arc pronouns, the direct object comes first
The relative position of two pronoun objects is not the same m all
die Romance languages In Italian and Spanish, the indirect pmedw
the dnect object. The French rule is that the jirst penon or the second
person precedes the third person, II both objects axe pronouns of the
third person, the direct object comes Jint The necessary change is
indicated by the following models
(a) She has sent me it hllc me Va envoy c
She me it has sent,
(6) She has sent you n Hllc vous Va envoy<
She you it has sent
(c) She has sent him it Elk k lui a envoy $
She it him has sent
In addition to the verb, its subject and one or both objects, a simple
statement may also contain one or more qualifying expressions* These
are of two kinds, adjectival if they refer to a noun, and adverbial if they
limit or extend the meaning of some other word. Adjectives and adjec-
tival expressions can be used in two ways One is the predicative use
after the verb "to be,'* as in the baboon was carefree. The other is the
attributive use, as in the perplexed and celibate bishop* In some languages,
e,g. German or Russian, adjectives have different predicative and attri-
butive forms The position of the predicative adjectival expression
calls for no special comment. We recognize whether an attributive
adjective or adjectival expression refers to one or other of several nouns
by keeping it next to the noun which it qualifies.* The position of old
and silk is sufficient to leave no doubt about whether an American or
* This applies to speech whether a language is synthetic or analytical Xn
, synthetic languages, wnteis may take liberties by relying on concord (p 323)
to label the adjective