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Restriction to main clauses
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By and large the B-construction is restricted to main clauses.

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By and large the B-construction is restricted to main clauses. This is nicely illustrated by the following fragment from a play, in which a B-construction in a main clause is repeated as an A-construction in an embedded clause:

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a. Dan moasten jo har mar earder fuortstjoerd ha
then must you her DcP earlier away.sent have
Then you should have sent her away earlier
b. Mar wêrom sizze jy dan dat ik har mar fuortstjoere moatten hie?
but why say you DcP that I her DcP away.sent must had
But why do you say that I should have sent her away earlier?

The same remarks apply to the following fragment:

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a. Do koest der wol bleaun ha, Simk!
you could there DcP stayed have Simk
You could have stayed there, Simk!
b. Ik ha niis alsa al sein dat Simk der wol bliuwe kinnen hie
I have just so already said that Simk there DcP stay.OI can.PfP had
I just said that Simk could have stayed there

Nevertheless, there are a few instances in which a B-construction occurs in an embedded clause. Three examples are given in (3), (4) and (5). The first example involves the modal kinne can:

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Moolk tinkt er der wol om dat er sa lokkich west ha koe mei har oan syn side
possibly thinks he R DcP about that he so lucky been have could with her on his side
He may think of it that he could have been so lucky with her at his side

The example in (4) involves the modal hoeve need:

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Dat se de slach net ferlern hoefden te hawwen
that they the battle not lost needed to have
That they need not have lost the battle

The third example involves the modal sille shall, which here occurs in a construction in which the semantics of going is involved, although the verb gean go is not used:

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Twa útfanhuzers dy't ek nei Frjentsjer ta west ha soene
two guests who also to Frjentsjer to been have would
Two guests who also would have gone to Frjentsjer

Verb Phrase (VP)-ellipsis may occur quite generally if the semantics of going is involved, see also verb ellipsis and B-construction and verb-ellipsis. Nowadays, the meaning of the sentence above would be expressed as an A-construction with two verbs only:

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Twa útfanhuzers dy't ek nei Frjentsjer ta sild hiene
two guests who also to Frjentsjer to should.PfP had
Two guests who also would have gone to Frjentsjer

It is not clear what to conclude from the scarce occurrence of B-constructions in embedded clauses. It should also be investigated whether these examples are characteristically found when the B-construction was going out of use, say, in the early twentieth-century.

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