Verb constructions in West and East Flemish dialects

Abstract

The article deals with verb construction in West and East Flemish dialects in the 1960s and 1970s. The research was based on the unique dialect collection of the Ghent University Stemmen uit het Verleden (“Voices from the Past”). The main objective of the paper is to find verb constructions that are specific only for the Flemish dialects and to describe them. Based on a number of criteria, 21 recordings were examined. The article gives a detailed analysis of the use of such verb constructions as weten te + inf. (‘to know where something is located’) and durven te + inf. (‘to dare to do something’), gaan + inf. (‘going to’) and the infinitive constructions om/voor/van te + inf. In some cases, the results of the research correspond to the standard of Belgian Dutch, in other cases the constructions appear to be used in a specific way. We conclude that both weten + inf. and durven + inf. are used in the texts without the particle te. Auxiliary verb gaan can never occur as the only verb and is always doubled or even tripled. Besides, voor te + inf. turned out to be the most commonly used construction to express the aim of an action, although om te + inf. also frequently occurs in the function. Van te + inf., however, is used in other functions and never expresses purpose.