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3.2.2.4.The impersonal middle construction

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The impersonal middle construction, which has not been studied much so far, is illustrated by means of the primed examples in (257). The construction owes its name to the fact that the subject is invariably the non-referential pronoun het'it'; replacing this pronoun by a referential one like the demonstrative dit'this' leads to ungrammaticality. Impersonal middles obligatorily contain an adverbial PP, as a result of which their meaning comes close to adjunct middles; it attributes properties to the instrument, the location or the time referred to by the nominal part of the adverbial phrase.

257

a.		Jan	snijdt	graag	met dat mes.
		Jan	cuts	readily	with that knife

a'.		Het/*Dit	snijdt	lekker	met dat mes.
		it/this	cuts	nicely	with that knife

b.		Peter	zit	vaak	op die stoel.
		Peter	sits	often	on that chair

b'.		Het/*Dit	zit lekker	op die stoel.
		it/this	sits nicely	on that chair

The claim that the adverbial PPs in (257) are obligatory does not mean that their omission results in ungrammaticality, but that the resulting structures in (258) are not impersonal middles; we are dealing with, respectively, an adjunct and a regular middle, as is clear from the fact that the pronoun het is referential and can thus be replaced by the demonstrative dit or a referential noun phrase.

258

a.		Het/Dit/Het krukje	zit	lekker.
		it/this/the stool	sits	nicely

b.		Het/Dit/Het vlees	snijdt	lekker.
		it/this/the meat	cuts	easily

The following subsections discuss the impersonal middle construction in more detail, subsection I shows that impersonal middle formation exhibits the same restriction on the input verb as adjunct middle formation. The fact that the two middle constructions are very close semantically is accounted for in Subsection II by showing that the non-referential subject pronoun het of the impersonal middle functions as an anticipatory pronoun that is coindexed with an adverbial phrase that can also be the counterpart of the subject in an adjunct middle, subsection III continues with a discussion of these adverbial adjuncts, subsection IV concludes with a discussion of the (implicit) experiencer introduced by the evaluative modifier.

I. The input verb is (pseudo-)intransitive
II. The non-referential pronoun het'it'
III. The adverbial phrase
IV. The evaluative modifier

[+] I. The input verb is (pseudo-)intransitive

Impersonal middles are like adjunct middles and unlike regular middles in that they can readily take an intransitive verb as input. This may again be attributed to the fact that the subject of the impersonal middle does not correspond to the direct object of the input verbs.

259

a.	Peter fietst	graag	op het fietspad.
	Peter cycles	readily	on the bikeway
	'Peter likes to cycle on the bikeway.'

a'.	Het	fietst	lekker	op het fietspad.
	it	cycles	nicely	on the bikeway
	'It is nice to cycle on the bikeway.'

b.	Peter fietst	op zijn nieuwe fiets.
	Peter cycles	on his new bicycle
	'Peter is cycling on his new bicycle.'

b'.	Het	fietst	lekker	op deze nieuwe fiets.
	it	cycles	nicely	on this new bicycle
	'It is nice to cycle on this new bicycle.'

The examples in (260) show that adjunct middles behave like regular middles and unlike passives in that the subject of the input verb cannot be expressed by means of an agentive door-phrase. Nevertheless, the notion of agent still seems to be implied; the evaluative modifier provides an assessment of some property of the subject in relation to the activity denoted by the verb, and thus indirectly introduces the notion of agentivity.

260

a.	*	Het	fietst	lekker	op het fietspad	door Peter.
		it	cycles	nicely	on the bikeway	by Peter

b.	*	Het	fietst	lekker	op deze nieuwe fiets	door Peter.
		it	cycles	nicely	on this new bicycle	by Peter

Transitive verbs can only be used as input for impersonal middle formation if they can be used as pseudo-intransitives; overtly realizing the objects in the middle constructions in the primed examples in (261) leads to unacceptability.

261

a.	Jan eet	(zijn lunch)	in een hoog tempo.
	Jan eats	his lunch	at a high speed
	'Jan is eating his lunch at high speed.'

a'.	Het	eet	(*lunch)	niet prettig	in een hoog tempo.
	it	eats	lunch	not pleasantly	at a high speed
	'It isnʼt pleasant to eat at high speed.'

b.	Jan	leest	graag	(romans)	op rustige middagen.
	Jan	reads	readily	novels	on quiet afternoons
	'Jan likes to read (novels) on quiet afternoons.'

b'.	Het	leest	(*romans)	het prettigst	op rustige middagen.
	it	reads	novels	the most pleasant	on quiet afternoons
	'It is the most pleasant to read on quiet afternoons.'

For the same reason, ditransitive verbs normally cannot be the input verb for impersonal middle formation; this is only (at best marginally) possible if the direct object can be omitted, as in the (b)-examples of (262).

262

a.		Marie geeft	het Rode Kruis	*(geld).
		Marie gives	the Red Cross	money

a'.	*	Het	geeft	het Rode Kruis	gemakkelijk	geld.
		it	gives	the Red Cross	easily	money

b.		Marie geeft	(geld)	aan het Rode Kruis.
		Marie gives	money	to the Red Cross

b'.		Het	geeft	gemakkelijk	?(*geld)	aan het Rode Kruis.
		it	gives	easily	money	to the Red Cross

Impersonal middle formation is normally not possible on the basis of unaccusative verbs, although we may need to make an exception for unaccusative verbs allowing a stage context reading.

263

a.		Jan	valt	prettiger	op een judomat	dan	op de vloer.
		Jan	falls	more.pleasantly	on a judo.mat	than	on the floor

a'.	?	Het	valt	prettiger	op een judomat	dan	op de vloer.
		it	falls	more.pleasantly	on a judo.mat	than	on the floor
		'It is more pleasant to fall on a judo mat than on the floor.'

b.		Oude officieren	sterven	in het bejaardenhuis.
		old officers	die	in an old.peopleʼs.home

b'.	??	Het	sterft	prettiger	in een bejaardenhuis	dan	op het slagveld.
		it	dies	more.pleasantly	in an old.peopleʼs.home	than	on the battlefield
		'It is more pleasant to die in an old peopleʼs home than on the battlefield.'

The examples in (264) show that impersonal middles take the auxiliary hebben'to have' in the perfect tense; this also holds for middle verbs derived from unaccusative verbs like vallen, which normally take zijn.

264

a.	Het	heeft	altijd al	lekker	gefietst	op dit fietspad.
	it	has	all along	nicely	cycled	on this bikeway
	'It has always been nice to cycle on this bikeway.'

b.	Het	heeft	nog	nooit	prettig	gegeten	in een snel tempo.
	it	has	prt	never	pleasantly	eaten	at a high speed
	'It has never been pleasant to eat at high speed.'

c.	Het	??heeft/*is	altijd al	beter	gevallen	op een judomat	dan op de vloer.
	it	has/is	all along	better	fallen	on a judo.mat	than on the floor
	'It has always been more pleasant to fall on a judo mat than on the floor.'

[+] II. The non-referential pronoun het'it'

The discussion in the previous subsection has shown that impersonal and adjunct middles are similar in that they both take (pseudo-)intransitive verbs as input; cf. Section 3.2.2.3, sub I. Furthermore, we have seen that the two constructions are also very similar semantically. Let us therefore provisionally assume that impersonal middles are impersonal counterparts of adjunct middles; the non-referential pronoun het is an anticipatory pronoun that is associated with the adverbial PP which acts as the logical subject of the clause. The impersonal middles in (259) and (261) would then have the structures in (265), in which coindexing is used to express the proposed relation between the anticipatory pronoun het and the adverbial phrase; we refer the reader to Section A6.6 for a discussion of comparable copular constructions: Heti is warm [in de tropen]i'It is hot in the tropics'.

265

a.		Heti	fietst	lekker	[op het fietspad]i.
		it	cycles	nicely	on the bikeway

b.		Heti	fietst	lekker	[op deze nieuwe fiets]i.
		it	cycles	nicely	on this new bicycle

c.	Heti	eet	niet prettig	[in een hoog tempo]i.
	it	eats	not pleasantly	at a high speed
	'It isnʼt pleasant to eat at high speed.'

d.		Heti	leest	het prettigst	[op rustige middagen]i.
		it	read	the most pleasant	on quiet afternoons

The syntactic and semantic similarities between adjunct and impersonal middles can now be accounted for by assuming that subjects of adjunct middles correspond to adjuncts that can be coindexed with the anticipatory subject pronoun het in impersonal middle constructions. If this is on the right track, we correctly predict that impersonal middles are subject to restrictions similar to those on adjunct middles. Section 3.2.2.3, sub VC, has demonstrated, for example, that the unacceptability of examples such as (266b) shows that subjects of adjunct middles cannot correspond to the nominal part of a PP-complement. We therefore correctly predict that the same thing holds for the impersonal middle in (266c). Observe that the latter example improves considerably if we add a locational adverbial phrase, as in (266c'), but this is due to the fact that the anticipatory pronoun can then be construed with the adverbial phrase.

266

a.	Jan kijkt	graag	naar schilderijen.
	Jan looks	readily	to paintings
	'Jan likes to look at paintings.'

b.	*	Schilderijen	kijken	prettig.
		paintings	look	pleasantly

c.	*	Heti	kijkt	prettig	[naar schilderijen]i.
		it	looks	pleasantly	at paintings

c'.	?	Heti	kijkt	[in dat museum]i	prettig	naar schilderijen.
		it	looks	in that museum	pleasantly	at paintings

Section 3.2.2.3, sub VC, also argued that the subject of an adjunct middle cannot correspond to the nominal part of a predicative PP. This was illustrated by means of the examples in (255), repeated here as (267), which show that the adverbial and predicative PPs can be distinguished by their meaning: an adverbial PP simply indicates where the activity denoted by the verb takes place, whereas the predicative PP refers to the new location that the subject of the clause obtains by performing the action denoted by the verb.

267

a.	Jan heeft	op de trampoline	gesprongen.	adverbial PP
	Jan has	on the trampoline	jumped
	'Jan has jumped on the trampoline.'

b.	Jan is op de trampoline	gesprongen.	predicative PP
	Jan is onto the trampoline	jumped
	'Jan has jumped onto the trampoline.'

The subject in the adjunct middle construction in (256), repeated here as (268a), clearly corresponds to the adverbial PP: it is the jumping on the trampoline that is claimed to be nice, not the jumping onto the trampoline. Example (268b) shows that the same thing holds for the corresponding impersonal middle.

268

a.	De trampoline springt	lekker.
	the trampoline jumps	nicely
	Available reading: 'It is nice to jump on the trampoline.'
	Impossible reading: 'It is nice to jump onto the trampoline.'

b.	Heti	springt	lekker	[op de trampoline]i.
	it	jumps	nicely	on the trampoline
	Available reading: 'It is nice to jump on the trampoline.'
	Impossible reading: 'It is nice to jump onto the trampoline.'

We conclude from the discussion above that anticipatory pronouns in impersonal middles can only be coindexed with adverbial phrases. This may have interesting results for cases in which the status of a certain PP is unclear, like the locational PP that co-occurs with the verb wonen'to live' in example (269a). Given that this PP is obligatory, it has been suggested that it is a PP-complement or a complementive selected by the verb. The fact that this example has an impersonal middle counterpart strongly suggests, however, that the PP is a regular adverbial phrase.

269

a.		Jan	woont	*(in Amsterdam).
		Jan	lives	in Amsterdam

b.		Heti	woont	prettig	[in Amsterdam]i.
		it	lives	pleasantly	in Amsterdam

In relation to the hypothesis that the non-referential pronoun het in the impersonal middle functions as an anticipatory pronoun associated with an adverbial PP that acts as the logical subject of the clause, it may be useful to note that impersonal middles are special in that their nominalizations can be readily used as nominal predicates. The resulting copular constructions in (270) are likewise impersonal in nature; the subject pronoun het cannot be replaced by, e.g., a deictic pronoun and seems to function as an anticipatory pronoun co-indexed with the adverbial PP; we refer the reader again to Section A6.6 for a discussion of comparable constructions.

270

a.	dat	heti	lekker	fietsen	is	[op het fietspad]i.
	that	it	nicely	cycling	is	on the bikeway
	'that cycling is nice on the bikeway.'

b.	dat	heti	lekker	fietsen is	[op deze nieuwe fiets]i.
	that	it	nicely	cycling is	on this new bicycle
	'that cycling is nice on this new bicycle.'

To conclude this discussion on the anticipatory subject pronoun het of the impersonal middle construction, we want to note that impersonal middles do not have corresponding constructions in which participles are used as attributive modifiers or secondary predicates. This is, of course, not due to the verb but to the fact that the subject pronoun het is non-referential and can therefore not be modified or function as an argument of a predicate.

[+] III. The adverbial phrase

The previous subsection suggested that adjunct middles always have an impersonal middle counterpart. It does not seem to be the case, however, that the inverse holds as well; impersonal middles seem possible with a somewhat wider range of adjunct types than adjunct middles. This will become clear by comparing the examples in (271); the non-middle construction in (271a) has an impersonal but not an adjunct middle counterpart.

271

a.		Peter	eet	prettig	aan die tafel.
		Peter	eats	pleasantly	at that table

b.		Heti	eet	prettig	[aan die tafel]i.
		it	eats	pleasantly	at that table

b'.	*?	Die tafel eet	prettig.
		that table eats	pleasantly

The examples in (272) suggest that the contrast in acceptability between impersonal and adjunct middles can at least sometimes be related to meaning. The nominal part of the adverbial met-PP in (272a) can readily be used as the subject of an adjunct middle, whereas the nominal part of the zonder-PP in (272b) cannot. This is clearly related to the fact that the implicit negation expressed by zonder is irrecoverably lost in the adjunct middle in (272b''). Note that Zonder helm rijdt lekker is more or less acceptable; this is, however, not a middle construction, but a construction with a PP subject.

272

a.		Jan rijdt	altijd	met autohandschoenen.
		Jan drives	always	with car.gloves

a'.		Het	rijdt	prettig	met autohandschoenen.
		it	drives	pleasantly	with car.gloves

a''.		Autohandschoenen	rijden	prettig.
		car.gloves	drive	pleasantly

b.		Jan	rijdt	altijd	zonder	helm.
		Jan	drives	always	without	a.helmet

b'.		Het	rijdt	prettiger	zonder	helm.
		it	drives	more.pleasantly	without	a.helmet

b''.	#	Een helm	rijdt	prettiger.
		a helmet	drive	more.pleasantly

In other cases, it is less clear what determines the contrast, although the examples in (273) suggest that the nominal part of the adjunct must refer to an entity/entities that is/are in some conventional relation to the activity denoted by the verb in order to be able to appear as the subject of an adjunct middle.

273

a.		Het	schrijft	lekker	op dit papier/bij deze lamp.
		it	writes	nicely	on this paper/near this lamp

a'.		Dit papier/??Deze lamp	schrijft	lekker.
		this paper/this lamp	writes	nicely

b.		Het breit	lekker	met deze naalden/deze regen.
		it knits	pleasantly	with these needles/this rain

b'.		Deze naalden/??Deze regen	breit	lekker.
		these needles/this rain	knits	pleasantly

Ackema & Schoorlemmer (1994/2006:169-171) suggest that the contrast may also be related to the adjunct's ability to undergo preposition stranding; see the examples in (274).

274

a.	het papier	waar	Jan op	schrijft
	the paper	that	Jan on	writes
	'the paper Jan is writing on'

a'.	?	de lamp	waar	Jan bij	schrijft
		the lamp	that	Jan near	writes
		'the lamp near which Jan is writing'

b.	de naalden	waar	ik	mee	brei
	the needles	that	I	with	knit
	'the needles Iʼm knitting with'

b'.	*	de regen	waar	ik	mee	brei
		the rain	that	I	during	knits
		'the rain during which Iʼm knitting'

They further suggest that the subject of adjunct middles corresponds to argument-PPs, not adjuncts, which would make the adjunct middle into a kind of regular middle. However, this runs afoul of the observation from Section 3.2.2.2, sub IA, that subjects of regular middles never correspond to the nominal part of a run-of-the mill PP-complement of the input verb.

[+] IV. The evaluative modifier

Impersonal middles normally require the presence of an evaluative modifier like gemakkelijk'easily' or others listed in (170), although, just as in the case of adjunct middles, impersonal middles sometimes also occur with adjectives like snel'fast' and vlot'smoothly' that do not select an experiencer voor-phrase; compare the impersonal construction in (275b) with example (248b), repeated here as (275a).

275

a.		Deze weg	rijdt	snel/vlot.
		this road	drives	fast/smoothly

b.		Het	rijdt	snel/vlot	op deze weg.
		it	drives	fast/smoothly	on this road

The examples in (276) show that the experiencer selected by adjectives like gemakkelijk'easily' normally cannot be overtly realized (with the same proviso made in Section 3.2.2.2, sub IC, for the regular middle).

276

a.	??	Het	zit	voor iedereen	lekker	op die stoel.
		it	sits	for everybody	nicely	in that chair

b.	??	Het	snijdt	voor iedereen	prettig	met dat mes.
		it	cuts	for everybody	pleasantly	with that knife

c.	??	Het	werkt	voor iedereen	prettig	in dat tempo.
		it	works	for everybody	pleasantly	in that tempo

The examples in (277) show that, as in the case of adjunct middles, the evaluative modifier can at least marginally be left out if the negative adverb niet'not' is present, if the verb is emphatically accented, or if the evaluation is expressed by some other means.

277

a.	?	Het	schrijft	niet	op dit papier.
		it	writes	not	on this paper

b.	?	Het	breit	met deze wol.	Pfff!
		it	needles	with this wool	Pfff

c.	?	Het	werkt	als	een trein	in de vakantie.
		it	works	like	a train	in the vacation

References:

Ackema, Peter & Schoorlemmer, Maaike1994The middle construction and the syntax-semantics interfaceLingua9359-90
Ackema, Peter & Schoorlemmer, Maaike2006MiddlesEveraert, Martin & Riemsdijk, Henk van (eds.)The Blackwell companion to syntax3Malden, MA/OxfordBlackwell Publishing131-203

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: AccentContrastive AccentImpersonal Middle Construction

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos	January 2016

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