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    4.4.2.Temporal PPs
    quickinfo

    Temporal adpositional phrases are generally prepositional, but there are also a limited number of temporal postpositional phrases. In (88), we give one example of each. Below we will show that these temporal adpositional phrases behave just like the adverbially used spatial PPs.

    88
    a. Jan heeft Marie in de oorlog ontmoet.
      Jan has  Marie in the war  met
      'Jan met Marie during the war.'
    b. Het heeft de hele dag door geregend.
      it  has the whole day  through  rained
      'It has rained all day.'
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    [+]  I.  Topicalization

    The examples in (89) show that topicalization of temporal PPs is possible.

    89
    a. In de oorlog heeft Jan Marie ontmoet.
      in the war  has  Jan Marie met
    b. De hele dag door heeft het geregend.
      the whole day through  has  it  rained
    [+]  II.  Word order in the middle field of the clause

    As in the case of adverbially used spatial PPs, the term scrambling should be avoided because it might be the case that temporal phrases can be base-generated in different positions. This is supported by example (90a), which shows that, as in the case of the spatial PPs, the clause may contain more than one temporal PP. These temporal PPs are strictly ordered: the more general phrase op vrijdag'on Friday' must precede the more specific phrase om drie uur'at three oʼclock'.

    90
    a. dat ik op vrijdag waarschijnlijk om drie uur langs kom.
      that  I  on Friday  probably  at three o'clock  along  come
      'On Friday Iʼll probably drop by at three o'clock.'
    b. * dat ik om drie uur waarschijnlijk op vrijdag langs kom.
    [+]  III.  PP-over-V

    PP-over-V of temporal prepositional phrases is perfectly acceptable. PP-over-V of postpositional phrases, on the other hand, seems marked. It is not clear what causes this difference.

    91
    a. dat Jan Marie heeft ontmoet in de oorlog.
      that  Jan Marie has  met  in the war
    b. ?? dat het heeft geregend de hele dag door.
      that  it  has  rained  the whole day  through

    If the clause contains more than one (temporal) PP, PP-over-V reverses the order the PPs have in the middle field of the clause. This becomes clear by comparing example (90) with (92). It is difficult to show that the order must be reversed, given that (92b) is also acceptable, but it seems plausible that the acceptability of this example is due to the fact that the PP om drie uur'at three oʼclock' can be used as an attributive modifier of the noun vrijdag'Friday': cf. Vrijdag om drie uur vertrek ik'I leave Friday at three oʼclock'.

    92
    a. dat ik waarschijnlijk langs kom om drie uur op vrijdag.
      that  I  probably  along  come  at three o'clock  on Friday
      'On Friday Iʼll probably drop by at three o'clock.'
    b. # dat ik waarschijnlijk langs kom op vrijdag om drie uur.
    [+]  IV.  R-extraction

    R-extraction from a temporal prepositional phrase is excluded, which is not surprising given that temporal adpositions normally do not even allow the process of R-pronominalization; see Section 5.3.2, sub IIIB, for some exceptions.

    93
    a. dat Jan Marie in de oorlog heeft ontmoet.
      that  Jan Marie in the war  has  met
    b. * dat Jan Marie daar in heeft ontmoet.
      that  Jan Marie there in  has  met
    References:
      About this article
      Author(s): Hans Broekhuis
      Category: Dutch Syntax
      Keywords: Adpositional PhrasePP-over-VR-extractionTemporal Adpositional PhraseTopicalizationWord Order
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Hans Broekhuis December 2015
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