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7.3.The linear order of verbs in verb clusters

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Section 7.2 has discussed the hierarchical order of verbs in verb clusters, and has shown that hierarchical order does not correspond in a one-to-one fashion to linear order. For example, verb clustering may linearize the hierarchical structure in (112a) in various ways, as indicated in the (b)-examples.

Example 112

Jan [moet [hebben [de film gezien]]].

dat Jan die film moet hebben gezien.

b'.

dat Jan die film moet gezien hebben.

b''.

dat Jan die film gezien moet hebben.

In order to be able to discuss in a satisfactory way the linearization of verb clusters, it is important to determine which strings of verbs do (not) constitute instantiations of such clusters; here we assume that the reader is familiar with the discussion of this issue in Section 7.1. That section also suggested that if we put aside those strings of verbs that do not make up verb clusters, the linearization of standard Dutch verb clusters can be described by means of the three generalizations in (113).

Example 113

Generalization I: Past/passive participles either precede or follow their governing auxiliary.

Generalization II: T e-infinitives follow their governing verb.

Generalization III: Bare infinitives follow their governing verb (in clusters consisting of three or more verbs).

The present section investigates the linearization of verb clusters in more detail by taking these generalizations as its point of departure, and shows that they indeed provide a descriptively adequate account of the attested word order patterns found in standard Dutch, although we will also point out a number of complications.
Subsection I starts with a description of clusters of two verbs, subsection II continues with clusters of three (and more) verbs. The literature on verb clusters normally focuses on verb clusters including a finite verb, that is, clusters in finite embedded clauses such as (114a), but we will also look at the counterparts of such clusters in (extraposed) infinitival clauses such as (114b).

Example 114

a.	Marie denkt	[dat	Jan dat boek	probeert	te lezen].
	Marie believes	that	Jan that book	tries	to read
	'Marie thinks that Jan is trying to read that book.'

b.	Marie verzocht	Jani	[om PROi	dat boek	te proberen	te lezen].
	Marie requested	Jan	comp	that book	to try	to read
	'Marie requested Jan to try to read that book.'

Furthermore, we will diverge from general practice by also discussing the word order of verb clusters in main clauses such as (115), that is, clauses in which the finite verb is not part of the cluster but occupies the second position of the clause. Of course, this only makes sense in structures with more than two verbs. Although it might be defensible to claim that (115) involves a clause-final cluster of no more than two verbs, we will discuss such examples in the discussion of verb clusters of three verbs for practical reasons.

Example 115

Jan wil	dat boek	proberen	te lezen.
Jan wants	that book	try	to read
'Jan wants to try to read that book.'

For an introduction to the notational conventions that will be used in the discussion in the following sections, we refer the reader to Section 7.2, sub I.

I. Clusters of two verbs
II. Clusters of three or more verbs
III. Summary and generalizations

[+] I. Clusters of two verbs

This section discusses the linearization of verb clusters of two verbs. In order to be able to evaluate the generalizations in (113), we will divide such clusters on the basis of the morphological form of the embedded main verb, as in (116). The numeral indices express the hierarchical relation between the verbs in question: Vi+1–Vi indicates that Vi+1 is superior to Vi, due to the fact that the former verb selects the projection of the latter verb as its complement.

Example 116

Aux2 + past/passive participle1

V2 + te-infinitive1

V2 + bare infinitive1

[+] A. Aux2 + Participle1:perfect-tense and passive constructions

There are two types of verb clusters of the type Aux2 + Participle1, one with a perfect and one with a passive auxiliary. These will be discussed in separate subsections.

[+] 1. Perfect-tense constructions

The examples in (117) show that past participles may either precede or follow the finite perfect auxiliary. When we consider the regional spread of the two word orders, it seems that the order Aux2–Part1 is only found in a restricted part of the Dutch-speaking area, which happens to include the prestigious varieties of the standard language spoken in the west/middle region of this area; the maps in Pauwels (1953), Gerritsen (1991) and Barbiers et al. (2005) all show that this order is rare in the varieties of Dutch spoken in Flanders and the more northern part of the Netherlands.

Example 117

a.	dat	Jan dat boek	<gelezen>	heeft <%gelezen>.
	that	Jan that book	read	has
	'that Jan has read that book.'

b.	dat	Marie naar Utrecht	<gewandeld>	is <%gewandeld>.
	that	Marie to Utrecht	walked	is
	'that Marie has walked to Utrecht.'

Observe that, for ease of parlance, we will follow the general practice of describing the difference in regional distribution of these orders as a north/south or Dutch/Flemish distinction, but the reader should be aware that the varieties spoken in the more northern region of the Netherlands pattern with the southern/Flemish region in this respect.
Speakers who allow the order Aux2–Part1 normally also allow the order Part1– Aux2. There is reason for assuming that the latter order (part1–aux2) is in fact the unmarked one for such speakers given that Barbiers et al. (2005) found that they rarely invert this order in reproduction tasks. It seems generally accepted now that the use of the Aux2–Part1 order is characteristic of written Dutch and the more formal registers of spoken Dutch (despite that it also frequently occurs in the more casual speech of many speakers); see Haeseryn (1990:ch.2) for a good review of the relevant literature on this issue. A corpus analysis by De Sutter (2005/2007) suggests that even in written Dutch the Aux2–Part1 order is a secondary one given that this order is mainly used in relatively simple sentences; there is a negative correlation between the complexity of utterances and the frequency of the Aux2–Part1 order. We refer the reader to Section 6.2.1, sub III, for further discussion of such performance factors, and simply assume that standard Dutch allows the Aux2–Part1 order as a stylistically marked option.
The examples in (118) show that we find basically the same variation in te-infinitivals in extraposed position: both orders are acceptable (and occur frequently on the internet). It seems reasonable to assume that the Part1–Aux2 order is again the unmarked one, but to our knowledge this has not been investigated so far.

Example 118

a.	dat	Jan denkt	het boek	al	<gelezen>	te hebben <%gelezen>.
	that	Jan thinks	the book	already	read	to have
	'that Jan believes to already have read that book.'

b.	dat	Jan denkt	al	van zijn ziekte	<hersteld>	te zijn <%hersteld >.
	that	Jan thinks	already	from his illness	recovered	to be
	'that Jan believes to already have recovered from his illness.'

[+] 2. Passive constructions

Like past participles, passive participles may either precede or follow their auxiliary in the northern varieties of Standard Dutch, but it seems that the relative frequency of the order Aux2–Part1 is lower in passives than in perfect-tense constructions. The southern varieties are reported to allow the Part1–Aux2 order only; we indicated this in (119) by means of a percentage sign. See Haeseryn (1990: Section 2.2) and De Sutter (2005/2007) for detailed discussion.

Example 119

a.	dat	er	buiten	<gevochten>	wordt <%gevochten>.	impersonal passive
	that	there	outside	fought	is
	'that people are fighting outside.'

b.	dat	hij	door de politie	<gevolgd>	wordt <%gevolgd>.	regular passive
	that	he	by the police	followed	is
	'that heʼs followed by the police.'

c.	dat	ze	een baan	<aangeboden>	kreeg <%aangeboden>.	krijgen-passive
	that	she	a job	prt-offered	got
	'that she was offered a job.'

That both orders are possible is confirmed by the infinitival passive constructions in (120), which show that te-infinitivals in extraposed position allow both orders in standard Dutch. We believe that the Part1–Aux2 order is again the preferred one, especially in the case of the krijgen-passive. This seems confirmed by a Google search (6/3/2013): whereas the string [ aangeboden te krijgen] resulted in 374 hits, the string [ te krijgen aangeboden] resulted in no more than 68 hits, several of which did not instantiate the intended passive construction.

Example 120

a.	Jan beweert	door de politie	<gevolgd>	te worden <%gevolgd>
	Jan claims	by the police	followed	to be
	'Jan claims to be followed by the police.'

b.	Jan	denkt	snel	een baan	<aangeboden>	te krijgen <%aangeboden>.
	Jan	thinks	soon	a job	prt-offered	to get
	'Jan believes to be offered a job soon.'

Observe in passing that infinitival impersonal passive constructions do not occur. The reason for this is not immediately clear but may be related to the fact that propositional verbs like beweren'to claim' and denken'to think' trigger subject control, that is, require there to be an overt PRO-subject in the infinitival clause.

[+] 3. Conclusion

The findings in this section are entirely in line with generalization I in (113a): past/passive participles either precede of follow their governing auxiliary. It should be noted, however, that the Aux2–Part1 order is a stylistically marked one, which may not be part of Dutch core grammar but of the periphery (consciously learned part) of the grammar; taking this position seems consistent with the fact that this order has been promoted for a long time by normative grammarians; see Section 6.2.1, sub III, for discussion. If so, we may simplify (113a) by saying that the participle must precede the auxiliary; although we will not take this step here for the northern varieties of Standard Dutch, this indeed seems necessary in order to provide a descriptively adequate account of the variety of Standard Dutch spoken in Flanders.

[+] B. V2 + te-infinitive1

In clusters of the type V2 + te-infinitive1, the superior verb V2 can be a main verb like the control verb proberen'to try' or the subject raising verb schijnen'appear', or a semi-aspectual main verb like zitten'to sit'. Given that these clusters all behave in the same way when it comes to linearization, it does not seem useful to discuss these cases in separate subsections. The clusters always behave in conformity with generalization II in (113b): te-infinitives follow their governing verb.

Example 121

a.	dat	Jan dat boek	<*te lezen>	probeert <te lezen>.	Control
	that	Jan that book	to read	tries
	'that Jan is trying to read that book.'

b.	dat	Jan dat boek	<*te lezen>	lijkt <te lezen>.	Subject Raising
	that	Jan that book	to read	appears
	'that Jan appears to be reading that book.'

c.	dat	Jan dat boek	<*te lezen>	zit <te lezen>.	Semi-aspectual
	that	Jan that book	to read	sits
	'that Jan is reading that book.'

Given this finding, it does not come as a surprise that we find the same ordering restriction in the extraposed te-infinitivals in (122). We did not include cases with schijnen: infinitival clauses with evidential modal verbs normally give rise to a semantically infelicitous result. The rare examples with schijnen'appear', lijken'seem' and blijken'turn out' that we encountered on the internet do, however, behave in conformity with generalization II.

Example 122

a.	dat	Jan ontkent	dat boek	<*te lezen> te proberen <te lezen>.
	that	Jan denies	that book to read	to try
	'that Jan denies to be trying to read that book.'

b.	dat	Jan ontkent	dat boek	<*te lezen> te zitten <te lezen>.
	that	Jan denies	that book to read	to sit
	'that Jan denies to be reading that book.'

[+] C. V2 + bare infinitive1

Although bare infinitives normally follow their governing verb, it has been observed that this is not always the case in clusters of two verbs. This has been observed for modal verbs in Reuland (1983), Den Besten & Broekhuis (1989), Koopman (1994) and Haeseryn et al. (1997:1072-3).

Example 123

a.	dat	hij	het vliegtuig	niet	<zien>	kan <zien>.
	that	he	the airplane	not	see	is.able
	'that he canʼt see the airplane.'

b.	dat	hij	haar	<spreken>	moet <spreken>.
	that	he	her	speak	must
	'that he must speak to her.'

The stylistically marked Main1-Modal2 order is pervasive in especially somewhat older literary prose and poetry, but can also be found in the literary work of the last century. For example, a manual search in Vestdijk's (600 page) novel Kind tussen vier vrouwen, which was written in 1933, resulted in 24 cases for the verb kunnen'may/be able', 6 cases for moeten'must/be obliged', 3 cases for mogen'be allowed', 8 cases for willen'want', and 31 cases for zullen'will'. The same novel also provided 8 cases with the aspectual verb gaan'to go'; examples are given in (124).

Example 124

a.	...	alsof	Jan Breedevoort hem	knijpen	ging.	Verzamelde Romans 1, 378
	...	as.if	Jan Breedevoort him	pinch	went
	'... as if Jan Breedevoort was going to pinch him.'

b.	...	alsof	hij	hen [...]	de keel	afsnijden	ging.	Verzamelde Romans 1, 473
	...	as.if	he	them	the throat	prt.-cut	went
	'... as if he was going to cut their throats.'

There seems to be some disagreement in the literature on the question as to whether perception verbs allow the deviant order in AcI-constructions: Reuland (1983) claims that such orders are unacceptable, Haeseryn et al. consider them archaic, and Den Besten & Broekhuis (1989) and Koopman (1994) regard them as acceptable. For this reason we marked the examples in (125), adapted from Reuland and Den Besten & Broekhuis, with a percentage sign.

Example 125

a.	dat	Marie Peter de ratten	<%vangen>	zag <vangen>.
	that	Marie Peter the rats	catch	saw
	'that Marie saw Peter catch the rats.'

b.	dat	Marie hem	<%lopen>	zag <%lopen>.
	that	Marie him	walk	saw
	'that Marie saw him walk.'

Examples with perception verbs were not found in Vestdijk's novel (although they can be encountered elsewhere), but it does have cases of AcI-constructions with laten'to make/let': example (126a) involves permissive and (126b) causative laten. Examples of this sort are also accepted by Den Besten & Broekhuis, but Koopman (1994) claims that examples like these are acceptable with a permissive reading only; examples like these are not discussed by Reuland and Haeseryn et al.

Example 126

a.	...	zoals	een poes	een gewond muisje	nog [...]	trippelen	laat.	VR 1, 226
	...	like	a cat	an injured mouse	still	trip	let
	'... like a cat lets an injured mouse trip for a while.'

b.	Ik	wil	dat	je	het	vandaag	lezen	laat.	VR 1, 387
	I	want	that	you	it	today	read	make
	'I want that you make [someone] read it today.'

That the order Main1-Modal2 is fairly special is clear from the fact that it can only occur if certain special conditions are met. Den Besten & Broekhuis note, for example, that this order is less acceptable if the object of the embedded main verb is indefinite and in a position adjacent to the verb cluster; this is illustrated in (127). They further suggest that this restriction is prosodic in nature, but since this suggestion has not been tested so far, we leave it to future research to investigate whether it is on the right track.

Example 127

a.	dat	Marie dat boek	waarschijnlijk	lezen	wil.
	that	Marie that book	probably	read	wants
	'that Marie probably wants to read that book.'

b.	?	dat	Marie waarschijnlijk	een boek	lezen	wil.
		that	Marie probably	a book	read	wants
		Intended: 'that Marie probably wants to read a book.'

That the order Main1-Modal2 is special is also clear from the fact that it cannot occur in infinitival clauses. We illustrate this in (128) for clusters with a superior modal verb only.

Example 128

a.	Jan	beweerde	het vliegtuig	niet	<*zien>	te kunnen <zien>.
	Jan	claimed	the airplane	not	see	to be.able
	'Jan claimed not to be able to see the airplane.'

b.	Jan hield	vol	haar	<*spreken>	te moeten <spreken>.
	Jan insisted	prt.	her	speak	to had.to
	'Jan insisted on having to speak to her.'

As far as we know, it has not been investigated to what extent the stylistically marked order Main1-Modal2 occurs in spontaneous speech of speakers of Standard Dutch, and consequently it is not clear whether it should be considered part of Dutch core grammar or of its periphery. This issue is important given that it may affect our evaluation of the various theoretical accounts of verb clustering. We have to leave the issue to future research for want of relevant information. We refer the reader to Barbiers (2008: Section 1.3.1) for a discussion of the dialectal distribution of the two word orders.

[+] D. Summary and generalizations

The subsections above investigated the generalizations in (113), repeated here in a slightly different form as (129). The generalizations as formulated here can account for the unmarked word orders in verb clusters of two verbs.

Example 129

Generalization I: Past/passive participles either precede or follow their governing auxiliary.

Generalization II: T e-infinitives follow their governing verb.

Generalization III: Bare infinitives follow their governing verb.

It should be noted that generalization I is too permissive for the southern varieties of Standard Dutch, which seem to require the participle to precede the auxiliary. The formulation of generalization III in (129c) differs from the one in (113c) in that we omitted the supplementary clause that the generalization is restricted to clusters with more than two verbs. The reason for doing this is that it is not a priori clear at this point whether the order Main1-Modal2 should be considered part of Dutch core grammar: it may be restricted to the written/formal register and thus be part of the periphery of the grammar.

[+] II. Clusters of three or more verbs

This section discusses the linearization of verb clusters of three (or more) verbs. In order to be able to evaluate the generalizations in (129), we will classify such clusters on the basis of the morphological form of the most deeply embedded main verb, as in (130). The numeral indices express the hierarchical relation between the verbs in question: Vi+1–Vi indicates that Vi+1 is superior to Vi since the former verb selects the projection of the latter verb as its complement.

Example 130

V3 + Aux2 + past/passive participle1

V3 + V2 + te-infinitive1

V3 + V2 + bare infinitive1

It is easily possible to form verb clusters of four or more verbs, but these are relatively rare in everyday use; a more or less natural example is dat Jan dat boek zou moeten hebben kunnen lezen'that Jan should have been able to read that book'. The principles that underlie the word order of such clusters do not differ from those that underlie the order of clusters of three verbs. We will therefore not systematically discuss such larger clusters, but simply discuss some cases if expedient. The following subsections will discuss the clusters in (130) in the order given there.

[+] A. V3 + Aux2 + Participle1: perfect-tense and passive constructions

Past participles arise if a perfect auxiliary immediately governs the most deeply embedded main verb Main1; if a perfect auxiliary governs some higher verb Vn, where n > 1, we normally get the infinitivus-pro-participio (IPP) effect. This is illustrated in (131).

Example 131

a.	dat	Jan	dat boek	morgen	moet	hebben	gelezen.	Modal3-Aux2-Main1
	that	Jan	that book	tomorrow	must	have	readpart
	'that Jan has to have read that book by tomorrow.'

b.	dat	Jan dit boek	heeft	moeten/*gemoeten	lezen.	Aux3-Modal2-Main1
	that	Jan this book	has	must/mustpart	read
	'that Jan has had to read that book.'

Passive participles are also found as the as the single most deeply embedded main verb (= Main1) only, for the simple reason that passivization of some higher verb Vn, where n >1, is normally not possible.

Example 132

dat	de radio	moet	worden	gerepareerd.	Modal3-Aux2-Main1
that	the radio	must	be	repaired
'that the radio must be repaired.'

Consequently, when discussing the linear order of verb clusters with a past/passive participle, we can focus on strings of the form V3 + Aux2 + Participle1. We will show that generalization I, according to which past/passive participles either precede of follow their governing auxiliary is correct for the variety of Standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, but not for that spoken in Belgium. We will further show that the participles need not be adjacent to their auxiliary but can actually occur in several positions in the cluster. We conclude with a discussion of one notable exception to the otherwise robust generalization that participles are the most deeply embedded verb in verb clusters, viz., cases in which a passive auxiliary is governed by a perfect auxiliary.

[+] 1. Perfect-tense constructions

We start our discussion of perfect-tense constructions with main clauses, that is, structures in which the finite verb is in second position. Structures of this type do not seem to show an exceptional behavior: the examples in (133) show that the past participle may either precede or follow the auxiliary. We should, however, make the same proviso as in Subsection IA, that the Aux2–Part1 order is only found in a restricted part of the Dutch-speaking area, which happens to include the prestigious varieties of the standard language spoken in the west/middle region of this area. More generally, the Part1–Aux2 order seems to be the more common one in speech.

Example 133

a.	Jan moet	dat boek	morgen	<gelezen>	hebben <%gelezen>.
	Jan must	that book	tomorrow	readpart	have
	'Jan must have read that book by tomorrow.'

b.	Els zal	vanmorgen	<vertrokken>	zijn <%vertrokken>.
	Els will	this.morning	leftpart	be
	'Els will have left this morning.'

The examples in (134) show that the placement options of past participles in embedded clauses are a little surprising. As the participle is governed by the auxiliary, we would expect these verbs to be adjacent, but as a matter of fact they can easily be separated by the finite modal verb.

Example 134

a.	dat	Jan dat boek	<gelezen>	moet <gelezen>	hebben <%gelezen>.
	that	Jan that book	readpart	must	have
	'that Jan must have read that book.'

b.	dat	Els vanmorgen	<vertrokken>	zal <vertrokken>	zijn <%vertrokken>.
	that	Els this.morning	leftpart	will	be
	'that Els will have left this morning.'

For many speakers, the three word orders are simply more or less free alternatives, with the modal3–Aux2–Part1 order moet hebben gelezen again being the stylistically most marked one. The varieties of standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium also seem to differ in that they exhibit different order preferences: several types of research reveal that speakers from the Netherlands prefer the part1–modal3–aux2 order gelezen moet hebben, whereas speakers from Belgium prefer the modal3–part1–aux2 order moet gelezen hebben. Other orders can be attested in some varieties of Dutch, but these are normally considered to be dialectal in nature; see Section 6.2.1, sub IV, for a more detailed discussion.
That speakers from the Netherlands have a preference to put the participle first in the verb cluster is also clear from the extraposed te-infinitivals in (135); placement of the participle in position <2> gives rise to a degraded result for these speakers, whereas some of our Flemish informants readily accept this placement. Placement of the participle in position <1> is again restricted to the variety of Standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. Note that there is not much information about the regional spread of the verb orders in (135), so more careful research would be welcome.

Example 135

a.	Jan beweert	dat boek	morgen	<gelezen>	te moeten <2>	hebben <1>.
	Jan claims	that book	tomorrow	readpart	to must	have
	'Jan claims to have to have read that book by tomorrow.'

b.	Els zegt	morgen	al	<vertrokken>	te zullen <2>	zijn <1>.
	Els says	tomorrow	already	left	to will	be
	'Els says that she will already have left tomorrow.'

The examples in (136) provide similar instances with a subject raising verb such as schijnen, which does not trigger extraposition of its infinitival complement but instead requires verb clustering; note that while (136a) is quite natural, some speakers may consider (136b) somewhat artificial due to the fact that more or less the same message can be expressed without the modal zullen. Placement of the participle in position <2> again gives rise to a degraded result for speakers from the Netherlands, whereas some of our Flemish informants have no qualms about accepting it. Placement of the participle in position <1> is again restricted to the Dutch variety of standard Dutch. Again, it should be mentioned that more careful research on the regional spread of the orders in (136) would be welcome.

Example 136

a.	Jan schijnt	dat boek	morgen	<gelezen>	te moeten <2>	hebben <1>.
	Jan seems	that book	tomorrow	readpart	to must	have
	'Jan seems to have to have read that book by tomorrow.'

b.	Els schijnt	morgen	al	<vertrokken>	te zullen <2>	zijn <1>.
	Els seems	tomorrow	already	left	to will	be
	'It seems that Els will already have left tomorrow.'

Clusters with more than three verbs are possible but not very common in colloquial speech. It seems that participles can appear in all positions in the cluster, as is illustrated in (137) by means of the embedded counterparts of (136a). Example (137a) and (137b) seem again restricted to the varieties of standard Dutch spoken in, respectively, the Netherlands and Flanders. The orders in (137c) and, especially, (137d) seem to be the more generally accepted ones. It goes without saying that more careful research on the regional spread of these orders would be welcome.

Example 137

a.	%	dat	Jan dat boek	morgen	schijnt	te moeten	hebben	gelezen.
		that	Jan that book	tomorrow	seems	to must	have	readpart
		'Jan seems to have to have read that book by tomorrow.'

dat Jan dat boek morgen schijnt te moeten gelezen hebben.

dat Jan dat boek morgen schijnt gelezen te moeten hebben.

dat Jan dat boek morgen gelezen schijnt te moeten hebben.

Clusters with four verbs in which the superior non-finite verbs are all bare infinitives have been researched in more detail. The literature reviewed in Haeseryn (1990:70ff.) suggests that the orders in (138a&d) are the ones commonly found in the northern varieties of Standard Dutch, and that the order in (138c) is more favored than the one in (138b). In the varieties of Standard Dutch spoken in Belgium, on the other hand, the order in (138b) seems to be a common one.

Example 138

a.	%	dat	Jan die film	zou	kunnen	hebben	gezien.
		that	Jan that movie	wouldmodal	maymodal	haveaux	seenmain
		'that Jan could have seen that movie.'

dat Jan die film zou kunnen gezien hebben.

dat Jan die film zou gezien kunnen hebben.

dat Jan die film gezien zou kunnen hebben.

These acceptability judgments on the examples in (138) seem to be in line with what we found for the examples in (137), but an important difference is that all orders in (138) seem acceptable in the variety of Standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands: while speakers of this variety consider examples such as (137b) to be degraded, examples such as (138b) are merely considered to be stylistically marked.

[+] 2. Passive constructions

We start our discussion of passive constructions with main clauses, that is, structures in which the finite verb is in second position. Structures of this type again seem to be quite ordinary in that the examples in (139) show that the passive participle may either precede or follow the auxiliary, with the proviso that the aux-part order is only found in a restricted part of the Dutch-speaking area which happens to include the prestigious varieties of the standard language spoken in the west/middle region of this area. More generally, it seems that the part-aux order is the more common one in speech.

Example 139

a.	Er	zal	buiten	<gevochten>	worden <%gevochten>.	impersonal passive
	there	will	outside	fought	be
	'People will be fighting outside.'

b.	Hij	moet	door Marie	<geholpen>	worden <%geholpen>.	regular passive
	he	must	by Marie	helped	be
	'He needs to be helped by Marie.'

c.	Zij	zal	de baan	<aangeboden>	krijgen <%aangeboden>.	krijgen-passive
	she	will	the job	prt-offered	get
	'Sheʼll be offered the job.'

The examples in (140) show that in embedded clauses, the passive participle may occupy any position in the clause-final verb cluster in the northern varieties of Dutch, although placement of the participle in final position seems less frequent than in the perfect-tense construction, and that intermediate placement is relatively rare. The southern varieties do not allow the participle in final position and further seem to differ from the northern varieties in exhibiting a preference for placing the participle in the intermediate position of the verb cluster. We refer the reader to Haeseryn (1990: Section 2.3.2) for a more detailed discussion of these regional differences in frequency.

Example 140

a.	dat	er	buiten	<gespeeld>	mag < gespeeld >	worden <%gespeeld >.
	that	there	outside	played	be.allowed	be
	'It will be allowed to play outside.'

b.	dat	hij	door Marie	<geholpen>	moet <geholpen>	worden <%geholpen>.
	that	he	by Marie	helped	must.	be
	'that he needs to be helped by Marie.'

c.	dat	ze	de baan	<aangeboden>	zal <aangeboden>	krijgen <%aangeboden>.
	that	she	the job	prt-offered	will	get
	'that sheʼll be offered the job.'

That speakers from the Netherlands prefer to place the participle first in the verb cluster is also clear from the extraposed te-infinitivals in (141), in which placement of the participle in position <2> gives rise to a degraded result; cf. Smits (1987). Some of our Flemish informants, on the other hand, do allow placement of the participle in position <2>. Placement of the participle in position <1> is again restricted to variety of standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. Note that we do not provide examples of the impersonal passive as these cannot occur in infinitival clauses of this type for independent reasons; cf, subsection IA.

Example 141

a.	Jan beweert	door Marie	<geholpen>	te moeten <2>	worden <1>.
	Jan claims	by Marie	helped	to must	be
	'Jan claims that he needs to be helped by Marie.'

b.	Zij	denkt	een baan	<aangeboden>	te zullen <2>	krijgen <1>.
	she	thinks	a job	prt.-offered	to will	get
	'She thinks that sheʼll get offered a job.'

The examples in (141) involve the propositional verb beweren, which triggers extraposition of its infinitival complement. In (142), we find similar examples with the subject raising verb schijnen; note that whereas the (a)- and (b)-examples are quite natural, some speakers may consider the (c)-example artificial as more or less the same message can be expressed without the modal zullen. Placement of the participle in position <2> again gives rise to a degraded result for speakers from the Netherlands, whereas some of our Flemish informants are quite comfortable with this placement. Placement of the participle in position <1> is again restricted to the variety of standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands.

Example 142

a.	Er	schijnt	buiten	gespeeld	te mogen <2>	worden <1>.
	there	seems	outside	played	to be.allowed	be
	'It seems to be allowed to play outside.'

b.	Jan schijnt	door Marie	<geholpen>	te moeten <2>	worden <1>.
	Jan seems	by Marie	helped	to must	be
	'It seems that Jan needs to be helped by Marie.'

c.	Zij	schijnt	een baan	<aangeboden>	te zullen <2>	krijgen <1>.
	she	seems	a job	prt.-offered	to will	get
	'It seems that sheʼll get offered a job.'

The embedded counterparts of (142) exhibit more or less the same pattern; we demonstrate this in (143) for the regular passive in (142b) only. The percentage signs in (143a) and (143b) again express that the marked orders are restricted to the variety of standard Dutch spoken in, respectively, the Netherlands and Flanders. The orders in (137c) and, especially, in (137d) seem to be the more generally accepted ones.

Example 143

a.	%	dat	Jan door Marie	schijnt	te moeten	worden	geholpen.
		that	Jan by Marie	seems	to must	be	helped
		'that Jan seems to need to be helped by Marie.'

dat Jan door Marie schijnt te moeten geholpen worden.

dat Jan door Marie schijnt geholpen te moeten worden.

dat Jan door Marie geholpen schijnt te moeten worden.

The clusters in (143) contain a te-infinitive as a non-finite superior verb. Clusters with four verbs in which the superior non-finite verbs are all bare infinitives have been researched in greater detail. The literature reviewed in Haeseryn (1990:70ff.) suggests that the orders in (144a&d) are the ones commonly found in the northern varieties of Standard Dutch, and that the order in (144c) is more favored than the one in (144b). In the varieties of Standard Dutch spoken in Belgium, on the other hand, the order in (144b) seems to be a common one. This is in keeping with what we found for the examples in (143), but an important difference is that all orders in (144) seem acceptable for speakers of the variety of Standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands: whereas such speakers consider examples such as (143b) as degraded, example (144b) is merely considered as stylistically marked.

Example 144

a.	%	dat	hij	door Marie	zou	moeten	worden	geholpen.
		that	he	by Marie	would	must	be	helped
		'that he should be helped by Marie.'

dat

hij door Marie zou moeten geholpen worden.

dat

hij door Marie zou geholpen moeten worden.

dat

hij door Marie geholpen zou moeten worden.

For completeness' sake, example (145) provides similar examples for the krijgen-passive, for which the same observations can be made as for (144).

Example 145

a.	%	dat	ze	de baan	zou	moeten	krijgen	aangeboden.
		that	she	the job	would	must	get	prt-offered
		'that she should be offered the job.'

dat

ze de baan zou moeten aangeboden krijgen.

dat

ze de baan zou aangeboden moeten krijgen.

dat

ze de baan aangeboden zou moeten krijgen.

[+] 3. Summary

The subsections above have shown that perfect-tense and passive constructions behave in full accordance with generalization I in (129a): past participles may follow or precede the perfect auxiliary. In fact, participles seem to be able to occur in any position in the verb cluster. This is illustrated in (146), in which Vn stands for zero or more verbs in the verb cluster besides the auxiliary and the main verb.

Example 146

dat ..... <Part> Auxfinite <Part>

dat .....

<Part> Vfinite <Part> Aux <Part>

dat .....

<Part> Vfinite <Part> Vinf <Part> Aux <Part>

dat .....

<Part> Vfinite <Part> Vinf <Part> Vinf <Part> Aux <Part>

etc.

The order Aux2