/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch1
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    Wh-clefts
    quickinfo

    An example of a wh-cleft is given below:

    1
    Wat ik seach, wie in hazze
    what I saw was a hare
    What I saw was a hare
    readmore

    The pseudo-cleft construction contains the following constituents from left to right:

    • A free relative clause
    • The verb wêze be
    • An XP, usually a Noun Phrase (NP)
    In case a pseudo-cleft construction is chosen containing a relative clause of reason, both options are grammatical, that is, the relative clause of reason can either be introduced by wêrom't why or by the neutral complementiser dat that.

    2
    a. ?Wêrom't Bouke net kaam wie omdat er siik wie
    why Bouke not came was because he ill was
    Why Bouke did not come was because he was ill
    b. Dat Bouke net kaam wie omdat er siik wie
    that Bouke not came was because he ill was
    That Bouke did not come was because he was ill

    The first example above may be restricted to spoken language, unlike the second one. Free relative clefts that are not introduced by the neutral complementiser dat that may show a preference for resumption with the topic pronoun dat that:

    3
    Wêrom't Bouke net kaam dat wie omdat er siik wie
    why Bouke not came that was because he ill was
    Why Bouke did not come was because he was ill

    Indirect objects are marginal in a wh-cleft:

    4
    ?Wa't se it jild ûntkrigen wie in rike skevel út Den Haach
    who they the money took.from was a rich guy from The Hague
    Who they took the money from was a rich guy from The Hague

    Prepositional complements are grammatical, provided of course that the relative pronoun is a R-pronoun:

    5
    Wêr't ik op hope wie dat er betelje soe
    REL.R I for hoped was that he pay would
    What I hoped for was that he would pay
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: pseudo-cleft constructionbuilding blocks
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X