Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch1
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

Adjectives derived from je-verbs

quickinfo

Adjectives derived from the past participles of je-verbs may not be used as partitive adjectives.

Adjectives derived from je-verbs are subject to restrictions which adjectives derived from other verbs are not subject to. They may not occur in the partitive, as is shown below:

De bôle is ferskimmele / útdroege

the bread is mouldy dried.out

The bread is mouldy / dried out

*Wat ferskimmel-e-s / útdroeg-e-s

something mouldy.PSTP.PA dried.out.PSTP.PA

Something that is mouldy / dried out

In spoken language, the je-verb is sometimes used as if it belonged to the normal (non je) verb class. This happens under the influence of Dutch, since it only happens if there is a similar Dutch equivalent. Now, the past participle ferskimmele grown mouldy is close to the Dutch past participle verschimmeld grown mouldy, but the past participle útdroege dried out is not close enough to Dutch uitgedroogd dried out. The difference between the two cases is that the past participial prefix ge- is present in uitgedroogd dried out, but not in verschimmeld grown mouldy. The following judgments obtain in spoken Frisian thanks to Dutch interference:

Wat ferskimmelds

something mouldy

Something mouldy

*Wat út-ge-droegds / út-droegds

something out.GE.dried dried.out

Something that is dried out / dried out

Past participles can only occur in the construction in case they have an additional lexicalised subjective interpretation. For example, sean cooked cannot occur in the construction, but bedoarn spoiled can, in the context of spoiled food, as the latter is overlaid with a lexicalised subjective interpretation bad. The ungrammatical sentence below has the feel of an accidental gap, which is there for pragmatic reasons: