Chapter 7
Syntax: complex sentences
The NGT sentence below is ungrammatical. Can you explain why? How should the sentence be constructed in order for it to be grammatical?
* i-n-g-e index3 a poss1 brother house with garden buy want.
‘Inge wishes that my brother buys a house with a garden.’
The sentence is ungrammatical because the verb of the main clause, want, appears in sentence-final position, following the complement clause. While SOV is the basic word order in NGT, this order is ungrammatical if the object is a complement clause. In this case, the complement clause has to be extraposed to sentence-final position, following the main verb. That is, the order should be: i-n-g-e index3 a want [poss1 brother house with garden buy].