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    1.4 R-adpositions
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    R-adpositions are adpositions which take as their argument a so-called R-pronoun. An example is given below:

    1
    Janhinnerk koant do Kondietsjen, un Jie mouten jou deer-ätter gjuchte.
    Janhinnerk knows the conditions and you must you R-after direct
    Janhinnerk knows the rules of the game and you have to stick to them.

    The adposition ätter ‘after, to’ has a argument. Normally this argument would be realised as a following NP, and the adposition would be realised as a preposition. However, the preposition is incompatible with the following neuter pronouns: the ordinary pronoun dät ‘that’ and the interrogative pronoun wät ‘what’. Instead of these pronouns, locative pronouns must be used: deer ‘there’ and wier ‘where’. These locative pronouns don’t receive a locative interpretation but the interpretation of an ordinary argument.

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    For the mentioned pronouns, this process occurs quite generally. For the other R-pronouns, the process seems to have an optional and infrequent character. It is unclear to what extent hier ‘here’ is fully used as an R-pronoun. See below the full table of R-pronouns, for more information, see: NP > R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive.

    Table 1
    R-pronoun Meaning as adverb Meaning as object of adposition Pronominal equivalent
    deer ‘there’ ‘it, that’ dät
    wier ‘where’ ‘what’ wät
    hier ‘here’ ‘this’ dit
    allerwegense ‘everywhere’ ‘everything’ alles, aal
    nargends ‘nowhere’ ‘nothing’ niks
    ainewainde ‘somewhere’ ‘something’ wät

    The first two members of the table are frequent. It must also be noted that nargends ‘nowhere, nothing’ is a loan from Low German.

    Linear order is an important aspect. In case an adposition has a complement (a NP) that is not an R-pronoun, then the NP occurs to the right of the adposition and adjacent to it. Thus the adposition must be termed a preposition, since it precedes its complement. However, if an adposition has a complement that is an R-pronoun, then the R-pronoun must occur to the left of the adposition. Thus the adposition must be termed a postposition in the presence of an R-pronoun. So we have a complementary distribution between R-pronouns and NPs which are not R-pronouns:

    Table 2
    R-pronoun Other NPs
    Adposition on the left - +
    Adposition on the right + -
    Discontinuity adposition-argument + -

    Furthermore, although a prepositional complement must be adjacent to its preposition, an R-pronoun need not be adjacent to its postposition. An example of the latter is given below:

    2
    Iek häbe deer niks an heeuwed.
    I have R nothing to had
    I didn’t have the smallest advantage from it.

    Here the R-pronoun is separated from its postposition by the direct object, which represents a degree, and which is realised as a negative quantifier. We will occasionally refer to an adposition accompanied by an R-pronoun as an R-adposition (or R-postposition). It is of theoretical interest that the whole phenomenon is connected to neuter gender and to locativity. In spite of this, the R-pronouns deer and wier are loosely used in spoken language in case they are used as relative pronouns. In addition, deer is used to refer to persons. For wier, it is rare to refer to persons when functioning as an interrogative. Perhaps what happens is that persons are connected to locations, and hence locations can be used to refer to persons.

    On the whole, there is an extensive overlap between the lexemes which are respectively classified as prepositions, postpositions, bare adpositions and R-adpositions. This is the reason why they are treated as one class, consisting of several subclasses. The precise overlap between the classes remains to be determined. In Saterland Frisian, a form like inne ‘in’ is only used as a bare static adposition. Its dynamic equivalent as a bare adposition is ien ‘in’. Their prepositional equivalent is in ‘in’. Their postpositional equivalent is oun ‘in, to’ in the large majority of cases. This is illustrated by the examples below:

    3
    Inne weze. Ien gunge.
    in be in go
    Be in. Go in.
    4
    Die oolde Buk stiet mie in dän Sloot oan.
    the old ram punched me in the ditch in
    The old ram punched me into the ditch.

    The lexical changes in the form of the adposition are almost like a conjugation. But they are not regular, and the case of IN is quite unique. See also: Schwa as a marker of staticity on adpositions (6). Consider also a pair like mäd / mee ‘with, along’. Mee is used as a bare adposition, which is inherently dynamic, whereas mäd is used both as a preposition and as a R-adposition.

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      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
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      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
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