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2.1 Nouns typically having complements
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Four subclasses of nouns can be distinguished, that typically have complements:

  1. Relational nouns
  2. Deverbal nouns
  3. Deadjectival nouns
  4. Picture nouns and story nouns

An example of a noun which typically has a complement is, for example, the noun suster ‘sister’. This Noun may easily be accompanied by a complement representing the person who the sister is a sister of, as in the following example:

1
Ju Suster fon dän Boas.
the sister of the boss
The sister of the boss.

More details about the different noun types can be found below.

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[+]1. Relational nouns

Relational nouns do not involve an event but an inherent and permanent relation. The relation usually involves two animate entities. In the example below, the noun suster ‘sister’ designates the person who is in the relation of 'being a sister of':

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Ju Suster fon dän Boas.
the sister of the boss
The sister of the boss.

The same remarks apply to the noun boas ‘boss’. A boss is a boss of somebody. Hence we find an example like the following, with a complement inside the complement:

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Ju Suster fon dän Boas fon 't Seelterlound.
the sister of the boss of.the Saterland
The sister of the boss of Saterland.

Complements to relational nouns can also be expressed in the possessor position of the noun. Thus alongside (1) we have the following:

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Dän Boas sien Suster.
the boss his sister
The boss’s sister.

In this construction, the possessor is doubled by a possessive pronoun. The stem of the pronoun depends on the sex of the person it refers to, male or female. The conjugation of the pronoun depends on the gender of the following noun, which is feminine, hence the form sien is chosen, and not the masculine form sin. Furthermore, a possessor may be syntactically complex in case it is doubled by a possessive pronoun. A case in point is the following, in which a complex NP is embedded in the possessor position:

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Ju Suster fon [dän Boas fon 't Seelterlound] sien Mäme.
the sister of the boss of.the Saterland his mother
The sister of the boss of Saterland’s mother.

A relational noun like suster ‘sister’ differs from an ordinary noun like bouk ‘book’, which does not involve inherent and permanent (inalienable) possession. Other examples of relational nouns may involve a thing and a unique sub-part, as in the examples below:

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Dät Täk fon ‘n Huus.
the roof of a house
The roof of a house.
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Sien Skullere.
his shoulders
His shoulders.

Another relational noun is Foar ‘father’ or Babe ‘dad’. The latter tends to be specific, to be used for the specific father of a specific person, whereas Foar ‘father’ is more generally used, as in the following:

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Fon Foar ap Suun.
of father on son
From father to son.

Thus relational nouns include part-whole relations, including body part relations, family relations, hierarchical relations and so on.

[+]2. Deverbal nouns

See: the morphology of Saterland Frisian.

[+]3. De-adjectival nouns

See: the morphology of Saterland Frisian.

[+]4. Picture nouns and story nouns

Picture and story nouns form a subclass of nouns. They do not involve an event or a relation but a created object that may involve a possessor, an agent and a theme. They may be deverbal or de-adjectival, but they need not be so. Picture nouns may have three Adposition Phrases (PPs), a theme, an agent and a possessor, as in the example below:

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‘n Bielde fon Seelterloun fon Heinrich Kröger fon Tiffany’s.
an image of Saterland of Heinrich Kröger of Tiffany’s
A painting of Saterland of Heinrich Kröger of Tiffany’s.

Each PP is introduced by the preposition fon ‘of’, though the maker of the painting could also have been introduced by the preposition truch ‘by’. Both the agent and the possessor could also have been realised as a NP in the prenominal possessor position. The same remarks apply to story nouns. The following example illustrates that the theme of a story noun can be realised in a PP headed by the preposition fon ‘of’.

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Dät Fertälster fon dän Toudenbusk.
the story of the thorn.bush
The story of the thorn.bush.

It is possible to add PPs to this type of noun as well:

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Dät Fertälster fon dän Toudenbusk fon Mose fon Luther fon ju Biebel.
the story of the thorn.bush fon Moses of Luther of the Bible
The story of the thorn bush of Moses of Luther of the Bible.

Here the PPs respectively denote the theme, the author, the translator and the possessor of a part-whole relation.

References
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