Before the hierarchical structure and ordering of verbs in the Afrikaans verbal complex can be discussed, it is first of all necessary to describe its general placement within and interface with the non-verbal section of the clause. This is followed by information about the Hierarchical order of verbs in verb clusters and the linear ordering of the verb cluster. As the Afrikaans verb cluster can be described from more than one angle, it is necessary to delineate briefly some of the points of departure relevant to the present description.

Since the entire verb complex may be collocated clause-finally in dependent clauses, i.e. with no verbs in the verb-second position, the final cluster is taken as a descriptive point of departure. With the verbs in this position, there is a clear border or interface between the verbal and non-verbal elements which constitute the clause. The constraints on moving elements out of the verbal cluster or moving them to a position before the border, will be of special interest in this regard.

It is first of all necessary to distinguish between a verb and a non-verb. Virtually all verbs may occur in verb-second position (V2) in declaratives and WH-interrogatives, or verb-first position (V1) in the case of Yes/No interrogatives or positive imperatives. The set of verbs excluded from V1/2 for formal reasons comprises the bare infinitives hê to have and wees to be, verbs marked as past participles by means of the prefix ge-, such as gedoen do.PST.PTCP, and separable verbs such as uitsaai out.send (lit. sow) to broadcast in their unseparated form. All of these are nevertheless verbs. From a syntactic point of view, V1/2 is often occupied in Afrikaans by a collocation of lexical verbs, e.g. a linking verb plus main verbin that order, as in (8a), in contrast to stranding the main verb clause-finally, as in (8b). It is a moot point whether or not such acomplex initial cluster is an instance of univerbation, i.e. two verbs merged into one lexical item.

The verbs occurring in V1/2 do, however, only constitute part of the full verb complex of a declarative or interrogative clause, while the entire set of verbs which constitute the verb complex is usually collocated in final position (barring prepositional phrases and a negative particle) in dependent clauses. The clause-final ordering will therefore be taken as the basis of description of the verb complex. The clause-final order in an Afrikaans verb complex will be assumed to be MODAL VERB(S) + LEXICAL VERB(S) + AUXILIARY VERB(S). The interface between the verbal and non-verbal section of the clauses is therefore situated before the modal verbs, and as this is also the position of the infinitival particle te to as part of the coordinator set om … te (for) to or deur … te by as in (9), te may be regarded as a border indicator between the non-verbal and verbal sections of the clause, cf.

Past participles, and even clusters of lexical verbs, may move to a position before the final cluster, as in (9). As the function of past participles may range from purely verbal to terminative or qualificatory, in which case they are indistinguishable from adjectivies, we need to take a closer look at the function and formation of past particples.

Past participle formation may be viewed as a prosodically driven process according to which the prefix ge- is obligatorily affixed to a verbal base if it does not comprise a sequence of two syllables with increasing stress. Ge- is therefore obligatorily affixed in gespéél played and geántwòòrd answered, while being optional in contrast to instances such as (ge)pròbéér tried and (ge)vèránder changed, where the syllable with main stress is preceded by a syllable of weaker stress. In Afrikaans, past participle formation the optionality of ge- also extends to a collocation of linking verb plus main verb, in that order, such as (ge-)bly spéél het kept on playing. Ge- is therefore optional for the first verb and excluded for the second. However, when only the main verb is selected as a past participle, as in gespeel (te) bly word (be) played continuously, the prosodic constraint only applies to the main verb, so that ge- is obligatory with the main verb speel and omitted in the case of bly. Compounds consisting of a verbal particle and verb stem, such as uitsaai uit 'out' + saai 'send' broadcast, lit. sow out, with uitgesaai as part participle, would seem to contradict the prosodic constraint as the first syllable, uit, has higher stress than saai, so that *ge-uitsaai would be expected as past participle. Here ge- is, however, inserted before the verbal part of the compound. This implies that from a morphological point of view, the past participle is gesaai, with the non-verbal particle uit remaining preposed to the verb cluster. If the meaning of the compound is to be 'broadcast', which cannot be inferred from a combination of the meanings of particle and stem, the verb and its past participle have to be identified as a unit. The implication is therefore that the morphological and semantic past participle overlap but are not formally identical. For example, in (10a) the verbal particle toe closed in toesluit to close by locking is separated from the verb stem through clause-final stranding, and in (10b) through being preposed as non-verb.

The distinction between verb and non-verb is also relevant in the case of past participles. The past participles of aspectually terminative verbs may function as adjectives when their terminativity is activated and they refer to a state or quality rather than an action. Thus, gemaak made in (11a), which refers to an action in the past, is durative and not exchangeable with an adjective, while gemaak in (11b) refers to a fixed state of affairs, is terminative and is exchangeable with an adjective.

With a semi-auxiliary such as kry to get, the past participle gemaak in (12a) is terminative and therefore in reality an adjective, while geslaap slept in (12b) refers to the process of sleeping but may also have a terminative interpretation, so that it is not unequivocally adjectival.

Just as in the case of single verbs, the passivisation of verb clusters consisting of a linking verb and main verb involves the forming of a past participle.

Note, first of all, that there are clauses with passive characteristics which do not employ past participles, e.g. (13ai) as against (13a). When past tense or passive auxiliaries are added, as in (13b), the linking verb and main verb form a prosodical group, so that the affixation of ge- is optional.

The following examples also illustrate the forming of word to become- and is to be-passives with sequences of direct linking verb plus main verb: