• Dutch1
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
Correlative construction
quickinfo

Correlatives present a correlation between two comparative adjectives, as in the following example, in which the adjectives swaar heavy and groot big are used:

1
Hoe swaar·der 'n voorwerp is, hoe groter (groot·er) is die aarde se aantrekkingskrag daarop.
how heavy.·CMPR an object be.PRS, how big·CMPR is the earth's attractive force thereupon
The heavier an object, the stronger the terrestrial magnetism on it.
readmore

Correlatives present a correlation between two comparative adjectives, which might be different, as in example (1), but also identical, as in the following example, utilising the adjective naby close in its comparative form nader closer:

2
Hoe nader die wysers aan middernag beweeg, hoe nader beweeg die mensdom aan kernuitwissing.
how close·CMPR the hands to midnight move, how close·CMPR moves the humanity to nuclear.extinction
The closer the hands of the watch move to midnight, the closer humanity is moving to nuclear annihilation.

In this example, the repeated construction with hoe how (which could be translated by the, as in the example translation of (1) and (2)) represents a shortening of the two-clause construction as in (2), in that the verb of the second clause is deleted, and there is no matrix clause with verb-second. It this way, two correlative adjectives (here lank long and sleg bad) are combined in a single clause:

3
Dit het hoe lang·er hoe slegter (sleg(t)·er) gegaan.
it have.AUX how long·CMPR how bad·CMPR gone
It went from bad to worse.

Semantically, the correlative pair of adjective phrases can be be replaced by the determiner al hoe increasingly, as in this example:

4
Dit het al hoe slegter (sleg(t)·er) gegaan.
it have.AUX all how bad·CMPR gone
It went increasingly worse.
References
    printreport errorcite