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Introduction

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This chapter provides an exhaustive discussion of dependent clauses functioning as arguments or complementives. Section 5.1 starts with finite argument clauses; we will consider in detail subject, direct object, and prepositional clauses.

a.	dat	duidelijk	is	[dat	Marie de nieuwe voorzitter	wordt].	subject
	that	clear	is	that	Marie the new chairman	becomes
	'that it is clear that Marie will be the new Chair.'

b.	dat	Jan niet	gemeld	heeft	[dat	hij	weg	zou	zijn].	direct object
	that	Jan not	reported	has	that	he	away	would	be
	'that Jan hasnʼt reported that heʼd be away.'

c.	dat	Peter erover	klaagt	[dat het regent].	prepositional object
	that	Peter about.it	complains	that it rains
	'that Peter is complaining about that it is raining.'

Section 5.1 also includes a discussion of fragment clauses and wh-extraction. A typical example of fragment clauses is given in (2a), in which the wh-word who is interpreted in the same way as the embedded clause in Ik weet niet wie Jan gisteren heeft bezocht'I do not know who Jan has visited yesterday.' Wh-extraction is illustrated in (2b) by means of wh-movement of the direct object of the complement clause; the traceti indicates the normal position of the direct object.

a.	Jan heeft	gisteren	iemand	bezocht,	maar	ik	weet	niet	wie.
	Jan has	yesterday	someone	visited	but	I	know	not	who
	'Jan visited someone yesterday but I donʼt know who.'

b.	Wati	denk	je [Clause	dat	Marie ti	morgen	zal	kopen]?
	what	think	you	that	Marie	tomorrow	will	buy
	'What do you think that Marie will buy tomorrow?'

Section 5.2 discusses three types of formally different types of infinitival clauses: Om + te-infinitivals, te-infinitivals and bare infinitivals. Some typical examples are given in (3), which typically have an implicit (phonetically empty) subject pronoun, normally represented as PRO; an important issue will be what the conditions on the interpretation of PRO are (control theory).

a.	Jan beloofde	[om PRO	het boek naar Els	te sturen].	om + te-infinitival
	Jan promised	comp	the book to Els	to send
	'Jan promised to send the book to Els.'

b.	Jan beweerde [PRO	het boek	naar Els	te sturen].	te-infinitival
	Jan claimed	the book	to Els	to send
	'Jan claimed to send the book to Els.'

c.	Jan wilde [PRO	het boek	naar Els	sturen].	bare infinitival
	Jan wanted	the book	to Els	send
	'Jan wanted to send the book to Els.'

Section 5.2 also discusses subject raising and accusativus-cum-infinitivo infinitivals such as (4). We will give reasons for assuming that the nominative subject in (4a) is extracted from the infinitival clause and that the subject of the infinitival clause in (4b) functions as the subject of the infinitival clause but is assigned accusative case by the matrix verb horen'to hear'.

a.	Jani	schijnt [ti	een nieuwe auto	te kopen].	subject raising
	Jan	seems	a new car	to buy
	'Jan seems to buy a new car.'

b.	Els hoorde	[henacc	een liedje	zingen].	accusativus-cum-infinitivo
	Els heard	them	a song	sing
	'Els heard them sing a song.'

Section 5.3 concludes with a discussion of complementives, that is, clauses that function as secondary predicates; examples that are sometimes (perhaps incorrectly) analyzed as involving complementive clauses are the copular constructions in (5).

a.	Een feit	is	[dat	hij	te lui	is].
	a fact	is	that	he	too lazy	is
	'Itʼs a fact is that heʼs too lazy.'

b.	dat boek	is moeilijk	[(om)	te lezen].
	that book	is hard	comp	to read
	'that book is hard to read.'

References:

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

Category: Dutch Syntax

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

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

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