On the inherency priciple in contemporary Dutch

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the phenomenon known as the Inherency Principle in the Dutch language from the perspective of a non-native speaker. The study focuses on research and analysis of how modern journalism incorporates grammatical rules, and specifically the application of the Inherency Principle within journalistic text. The study is based on a review of several newspaper articles from a range of news categories including current affairs; culture; comment; sport etc. The structure of the sentences within these texts is critically analysed and carefully assessed to identify if the practical use of language in journalism corresponds to the rules of the Inherency Principle as defined in The Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst (ANS). The ANS is considered to hold some of the most important and complex grammatical functions by both expert and non-native Dutch speakers. The Inherency Principle in particular is linked to a number of issues that are explored in this paper. The second chapter of the thesis outlines the theoretical basis of the Inherency Principle using two descriptive grammatical handbooks of the Dutch language, namely Algemene Nederlandse zin, by Haeseryn et. al. from 1997, and Grammatica van de Nederlandse zin, by Vandeweghe et. al. from 2004. The subsequent chapters..