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    No NP-complements
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    Generally, postpositions do generally not select Noun Phrases (NPs). An exception to this claim involves nouns referring to directions (see postposition with NP complement).

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    Postpositional complements that seem to be NPs are of the category Adposition Phrase (PP). An example is repeated below:

    1
    Se rûnen de berch op
    they walked the mountain up
    They walked up the mountain

    If the postpositional complement were of the category NP, then pronouns replacing it should also be of the category NP. These, however, are not grammatical (although not all speakers agree on this, which might be due to interference from Dutch):

    2
    *Dy berch? Se rûnen him sa op
    that mountain They walked it so up
    That mountain? They easily walked up it

    Instead, the R-pronoun must be used, and it is obligatorily accompanied by a preposition, as in the example below:

    3
    a. Dy berch? Se rûnen der sa by op
    that mountain They walked R.it so at up
    That mountain? They easily walked up it
    b. *Dy berch? Se rûnen der sa op
    that mountain They walked R.it so up
    That mountain? They easily walked up it

    The starred sentence above is ungrammatical under the intended interpretation. It is grammatical in case the adposition receives a locative interpretation (which is pragmatically odd); in the latter case the adposition is in effect a preposition. In fact, this preposition is optionally present, in case the nominal argument is not an R-pronoun but a full NP, as in the example below:

    4
    Se rûnen (by) de berch op
    they walked at the mountain up
    They walked up the mountain.

    The preposition is obligatory in case the nominal argument is an R-pronoun, as we saw above. The same preposition is used with the antonym postposition:

    5
    Se rûnen (by) de berch del
    they walked at the mountain down
    They walked down the mountain

    Similar examples are therefore grammatical only in case the postposition takes a prepositional complement, as in the following example:

    6
    Efter Ljouwert wei
    behind Ljouwert away
    From behind Ljouwert

    The structure is as indicated by the bracketing below:

    7
    [[Efter Ljouwert] wei]
    behind Ljouwert away
    From behind Ljouwert

    What we see here is that the circumpositional string efter Ljouwert wei from behind Ljouwert is analysed as consisting of a postposition selecting a prepositional phrase. If we accept the analysis proposed above, there do not seem to be examples of a postposition accompanying a reduced NP. A possible example is the following, but this seems to be a loan from Dutch, especially since there are no mountains in Fryslân:

    8
    Se rûnen berch ôf
    they walked mountain down
    They walked down the mountain

    In fact, it is remarkable that there is a pair of antonyms, one involving a preposition and the other a postposition. The prepositional idiom shows reduction of NP whereas the postpositional idiom does not:

    9
    a. Hy gie op bêd
    he went to bed
    He went to bed
    b. Hy kaam fan 't bêd ôf
    he came of the bed from
    He rose from bed

    However, this is not a perfect minimal pair since the postpositional example involves a preposition as well. Furthermore, the postposition can be omitted from the example above, as shown below:

    10
    Hy kaam fan 't bêd
    he came of the bed
    He rose from bed

    Nevertheless, it is remarkable that there do not seem to be idiomatic cases of a reduced NP and a postposition, whereas there are many examples of a preposition and a reduced NP. This might be related to the fact that complements to a postposition are generally of the category PP (see also meaning of postpositions), unless directional nouns are involved (see postposition with NP complement). Note that in the example above the determiner, a voiceless coronal plosive, may be phonologically assimilated with respect to voice and place to the voiced labio-dental plosive that is the first phoneme of the noun.

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      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: NPadposition phrase
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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