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    Bare pronominal postpositional construction
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    Some postpositions may take a demonstrative as their complement. The demonstrative may either have deictic reference or it may function as an anticipatory pronoun which is doubled by a Adposition Phrase (PP). When combining with the demonstrative, the postposition refers to a goal, rather than to a source:

    1
    Hy moast dat út nei de greidhoeke
    he must that out to the region.of.meadows
    He had to go in the direction of the Greidhoeke
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    The following postpositional construction can be used to convey the meaning that way or in that direction:

    2
    a. Hy moast dat út nei de greidhoeke
    he must that out to the region.of.meadows
    He had to go in the direction of the Greidhoeke
    b. Sjoukje wiisde dat út nei de keamer
    Sjoukje pointed that out to the room
    Sjoukje pointed in the direction of the room

    The construction consists of two PPs. The first PP dat út contains a demonstrative pronoun and a postposition. The demonstrative pronoun may have discourse reference, that is, it may refer to a direction that is inferred from the preceding discourse. The demonstrative pronoun is doubled by a second PP nei de greidhoeke, turning the demonstrative pronoun effectively into a cataphor. The second PP sometimes contains the postposition ta to, as shown in the example below:

    3
    Tegearre rûnen se dat út nei it doarp ta
    together walked they that out to the village to
    Together they walked to the village

    The demonstrative pronoun may also be accompanied by some other postposition. The following examples involve the postposition lâns along:

    4
    It hûs lokke mannich wurge of toarstige reizger, dy dat lâns moast
    the house attracted many.a weary or thirsty traveller who that along must
    The house attracted many weary or thirsty travellers, who had to go past it

    In the above example, one might also have the idea that the demonstrative pronoun refers back to the house. This is hard to confirm or negate. If the demonstrative pronoun truly refers back to the house, then normally an R-pronoun would be used instead:

    5
    It hûs lokke mannich warrige of toarstige reizger, dy dêr lâns moast
    the house attracted many.a weary or thirsty traveller that.R along must
    The house attracted many weary or thirsty travellers, who had to go past it

    A similar example involves the postposition del off, along, in which the demonstrative pronoun seems to refer ambiguously to either a direction or a location, although the directional reading is probably the basic one:

    6
    Yn in omsjoch fûnen se it paad nei de grutte wei, en marsjearden dat del
    in a moment found they the path to the big road and marched that down
    In no time, they found the path leading to the main road and marched down it / that way

    The postposition op on can also appear in this construction, in which it has roughly the same meaning as út out:

    7
    a. De ober skoffele fuort, dat op nei de ferreinde fakânsjelju
    the waiter walked off that on to the rained holiday.people
    The waiter shuffled off, in the direction of the people on holiday who were wet from the rain
    b. It stie efkes bûten it doarp, dat op nei it bûterfabryk
    it stood DcP outside the village that on to the butter.factory
    It was situated just outside the village, in the direction of the butter factory

    The construction may also feature the proximal demonstrative pronoun dit this, as in the following example:

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    Avenseare Eisenhower, Churchill, jei jimme troepen dit út
    hurry.up Eisenhower, Churchill hurry your troops this out
    Hurry up, Eisenhower, Churchill, hurry your troops in this (our) direction

    The proximal pronoun is marked as compared to the distal pronoun, which is unmarked. Correspondingly, the proximal pronoun is hardly ever doubled by a PP, although a rare example may be encountered, such as the following:

    9
    Wel faam, moat ik dit lâns nei Ynwold ta?
    well girl must I this along to Ynwold to
    Well, girl, should I pass along here for Ynwold?

    It has also been claimed that the pronoun can be questioned:

    10
    Wat ried dy auto út?
    what drove that car out
    In which direction did that car go?

    Instead of the demonstrative pronoun, the pronoun it oare the other appears to be found in the bare postpositional construction as well, as in the following example:

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    Hja holden har eigen paad: út 'e berch wei it iene om en dêr hinne it oare lâns
    they kept their own path out the mountain away the one around and R.it to the other along
    They kept their own path: going out of the mountain they took one path, and toward the mountain they took the other

    However, this may involve a different construction. In the example below, the pronoun it oare the other can refer to the noun path, corresponding to the following sentence:

    12
    Hja giene dat paad lâns
    they went that path along
    They went along that path

    Hence a common postpositional construction could be involved, which is also found in language varieties such as Dutch which lack the bare demonstrative postpositional construction. However, the pronoun it iene the one does not refer to the noun paad path, since the following is ungrammatical:

    13
    *Hja giene dat paad om
    they went that path along
    They went along that path

    However, the following sentence is grammatical, with a truly bare postpositional construction:

    14
    Hja giene dat om
    they went that along
    They went along that path

    Therefore the example above involves at least one and possibly two instances of the bare postpositional construction.

    extra
    Literature

    More details can be found in Hoekstra (1988).

    References
    • Hoekstra, Jarich1988Dat út nei Dokkum taFriesch Dagblad02-07Taalsnipels 78
    About this article
    Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
    Category: Frisian Syntax
    Keywords: demonstrative pronounbare postpositional construction
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
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    1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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