- Dutch1
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- Phonology
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 1 Characteristics and classification
Circumpositional phrases are typically used in directional constructions, but many of these phrases can also be used in locational constructions. There is a conspicuous difference between these two uses: whereas the second part of the circumposition is mostly obligatorily present in the directional construction, it can generally be dropped in the locational construction without affecting the core meaning of the sentence. This casts some doubt on the assumption that we are dealing with constructions of a similar status. This section discusses the circumpositions from Table 10 and Table 12 from Section 1.2.5 and investigate (i) whether they can be used in the locational and/or the directional construction and (ii) whether the second part can be omitted. Our findings will be summarized in Table 19.
Examples (269) and (270) illustrate the use of spatial circumpositions with aan as their second member, and show that the circumpositional phrase tegen de muur aan may indicate a (change of) location or a direction. This does not hold, however, for the circumpositional phrase achter de optocht aan in (270b), which can only be used to indicate a direction.
a. | Er | stond | een ladder | tegen de muur | (aan). | location | |
there | stood | a ladder | against the wall | aan | |||
'A ladder stood against the wall.' |
b. | Jan zette | de ladder | tegen de muur | (aan). | change of location | |
Jan put | the ladder | against the wall | aan | |||
'Jan put a ladder against the wall.' |
a. | Jan liep | tegen | de ladder | *?(aan). | direction | |
Jan walked | against | the ladder | aan | |||
'Jan ran into the ladder.' |
b. | Er | liepen | veel kinderen | achter | de optocht | #(aan). | direction | |
there | walked | many children | behind | the parade | aan | |||
'Masses of children followed the parade.' |
The element aan in the locational examples in (269) can be dropped without a notable change in meaning; the presence of aan just seems to stress that there is physical contact between the located object and the reference object. In the directional examples in (270), on the other hand, aan must be present; without it the construction is either degraded or the directional meaning gets lost. The latter holds for (270b), which can be readily illustrated by considering its perfect tense counterparts in (271): if the verb lopen takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and aan is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and aan is preferably dropped.
a. | Er | zijn | horden kinderen | achter | de optocht | *(aan) | gelopen. | |
there | are | masses children | behind | the parade | aan | walked | ||
'Masses of children have followed the parade.' |
b. | Er | hebben | horden kinderen | achter | de optocht | (?aan) | gelopen. | |
there | have | masses children | behind | the parade | aan | walked | ||
'Masses of children have walked behind the parade.' |
The locational and directional examples in (269) and (270) seem to differ in another respect as well. The examples in (272) show that the first differ from the latter in allowing the split pattern under a neutral intonation pattern; see also Section 1.2.5, sub IIIA.
a. | Tegen de muur | stond | een ladder aan. | location |
a'. | Tegen de muur | zette Jan de ladder aan. | change of location |
b. | * | Tegen de ladder liep Jan aan. | direction |
b'. | * | Achter de optocht zijn horden kinderen aan gelopen. | direction |
This suggests that achter ... aan is better not considered a circumposition in the locational construction. Making a distinction between the phrases in the directional and the locational constructions is also supported by the data in (273). In the (change of) locational constructions the element aan can occupy a position within the clause-final verb cluster, which is a typical property of particles, whereas this gives rise to a degraded result in the directional construction. We leave it to future research to investigate whether this suggestion is on the right track; see also Section 1.2.5, sub IIIA, for relevant information.
a. | dat | de ladder | tegen de muur | heeft | aan | gestaan. | location | |
that | the ladder | against the wall | has | aan | stood |
a'. | dat | Jan de ladder | tegen de muur | heeft | aan | gezet. | change of location | |
that | Jan the ladder | against the wall | has | aan | put |
b. | ?? | dat | Jan tegen | de ladder | is | aan | gelopen. | direction |
that | Jan against | the ladder | has | aan | walked |
b'. | ?? | dat | er | veel kinderen | achter | de | optocht zijn | aan | gelopen. |
that | there | many children | behind | the parade | are | aan | walked |
There are two circumpositions with af as their second member: van ... af and op ... af. The examples in (274) show that the circumpositional phrase van ... af may indicate a (change of) location, although it should be noted that (274a) is unnatural. Similar constructions are not possible with op ... af. The examples in (275) show that the two circumpositional phrases can both be used directionally.
a. | ? | Het boek | lag | van de tafel | (af). | location |
the book | lay | from the table | af | |||
'The book was removed/had fallen from the table.' |
b. | Jan legde | het boek van de tafel | (af). | change of location | |
Jan put | the book from the table | af | |||
'Jan removed the book from the table.' |
a. | Jan reed | van de berg | ?(af). | direction | |
Jan drove | from the mountain | af | |||
'Jan drove down from the mountain.' |
b. | Jan liep | op zijn tegenstander | *(af). | direction | |
Jan walked | towards his opponent | af |
In the locational examples in (274), the element af can be dropped without a clear change in meaning; the presence of af just seems to stress that the physical contact between the located object and the reference object has been broken. At first sight, it appears that af can also be dropped in the directional example in (275a), but this may be due to the fact that the preposition van can also be used as a directional preposition. In this respect, it is important to note that the absence or presence of af affects the meaning of the clause: if af is present, as in (276a), the implied path goes downward along the surface of the mountain, as depicted in Figure 32A; if af is absent, as in (276b), the clause can also express that Jan is withdrawing from the mountain, as in Figure 32B. In other words, only if af is present is it necessarily implied that the starting point of the implied part is situated on the mountain. Since the element af cannot be dropped in the case of (275b), it seems safe to conclude that it is actually obligatory in the directional construction, and that the case without af involves the directional prepositional phrase van de berg.
a. | Jan reed | van de berg | af. | |
Jan drove | from the mountain | af | ||
'Jan drove down from the mountain.' |
b. | Jan reed | van de berg | ?(naar het meer). | |
Jan drove | from the mountain | to the lake | ||
'Jan drove from the mountain to the lake.' |
The (a)-examples in (277) show that the circumposition tussen ... door cannot be used to indicate a (change of) location. The grammatical use of the circumpositional phrase in (277b) is directional. The same thing holds for onder ... door, which we will not illustrate here.
a. | Het boek | ligt | tussen de andere spullen | (*door). | location | |
the book | lies | between the other things | door |
a'. | Jan legt | het boek | tussen de andere spullen | (*door). | change of location | |
Jan puts | the book | between the other things | door |
b. | Jan reed | tussen de bomen | #(door). | direction | |
Jan drove | between the trees | door | |||
'Jan drove along a path that goes through the trees.' |
In (277b), door must be present; without it the directional meaning is lost. This can be readily illustrated by considering the perfect-tense constructions in (278): if the verb rijden takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and door is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and door is preferably dropped.
a. | Jan is tussen de bomen | *?(door) | gereden. | |
Jan is between the trees | door | driven | ||
'Jan has driven through in between the trees.' |
b. | Jan heeft | tussen de bomen | (?door) | gereden. | |
Jan has | between the trees | door | driven | ||
'Jan has driven along a path that goes through the trees.' |
The (a)-examples in (279) show that circumpositions with heen as their second member may indicate a (change of) location. The circumpositional phrase in (279b) is directional. In the (a)-examples, heen can be dropped without any clear effect on the meaning. This is also the case in (279b), which is not surprising since over can also be used as a directional preposition; the same thing holds at least marginally for langs'along' and om'around'.
a. | Over | zijn schouder | (heen) | hing | een kleurige das. | location | |
over | his shoulder | heen | hung | a colorful scarf | |||
'A colorful scarf was hanging over his shoulder.' |
a'. | Over | zijn schouder | (heen) | hing | Jan een kleurige das. | change of location | |
over | his shoulder | heen | hung | Jan a colorful scarf | |||
'Jan hung a colorful scarf over his shoulder.' |
b. | Jan reed | over de brug | (heen). | direction | |
Jan drove | over the bridge | heen | |||
'Jan drove over the bridge.' |
For completeness' sake we want to note that it is not particularly clear what semantic effect dropping heen has on the example in (279b). It has been suggested that heen indicates a movement directed away from the speaker (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal; entry heenII) or some other anchoring point, but this certainly cannot be extended to the non-directional cases in (279). Furthermore, it does not seem to provide a correct characterization for directional examples such as (280) either.
Jan is drie keer | om mij | heen | gefietst. | ||
Jan is three time | around me | heen | cycled | ||
'Jan has traversed the path around me three times on bicycle.' |
It should be noted, however, that heen can be used as a verbal particle, and in that case it indeed has this implication of movement away from the speaker or some other anchoring point. However, these cases often have an archaic or idiomatic flavor. Some more or less idiomatic examples are given in (281).
a. | Jan is heen | gegaan. | |
Jan is away | gone | ||
'Jan has departed this life.' |
b. | Loop heen! | |
go away | ||
'Go away!' or 'You're kidding.' |
c. | Ik | ga | er | morgen | heen. | |
I | go | there | tomorrow | heen | ||
'Iʼll go there tomorrow' or 'Iʼll visit him/her/it/them tomorrow.' |
That (281a) is idiomatic is beyond doubt. . Turning to (281b), in addition to its idiomatic meaning “youʼre kidding!”, the more literal meaning “go away!” is special in that in colloquial speech this combination only occurs in the imperative mood: Jan liep heen'Jan walked away' is very formal and perhaps even archaic. That (281c) is more or less idiomatic is perhaps less clear. The main reason for assuming this is that the locational pro-form er'there' cannot be replaced by a full PP; examples such as (282a) are completely ungrammatical if heen is present (the same thing holds for iets er heen brengen'to bring something to NP'). More idiomatic expressions with heen are given in (282b&c).
a. | Ik | ga | morgen | naar oma/de bioscoop | (*heen). | |
I | go | tomorrow | to granny/the cinema | heen | ||
'Iʼll visit granny /go to the movies tomorrow.' |
b. | achter | iets | heen | gaan | |
after | something | heen | go | ||
'to chase/follow something up' |
c. | achter | iets/iemand | heen | zitten | |
after | something/someone | heen | sit | ||
'to keep onto something/someone' |
The (a)-examples in (283) show that the circumpositional phrase tussen de meisjes in may indicate a (change of) location; this is not easily possible, however, with tegen + NP + in. Both circumpositional phrases with in as their second member can be used directionally. This is illustrated in (283b) for tegen de stroom in: this example expresses that the speaker is traversing a path opposite to the direction of the current.
a. | Jan zit | tussen de twee meisjes | (in). | location | |
Jan sits | between the two girls | in | |||
'Jan is sitting in between the two girls.' |
a'. | Marie zet | Jan | tussen de twee meisjes | (in). | change of location | |
Marie puts | Jan | between the two girls | in | |||
'Marie is putting Jan in between the two girls.' |
b. | Tegen | de stroom | *(in) | zwem | ik | niet | graag. | direction | |
against | the current | in | swim | I | not | gladly | |||
'I don't like to swim against the current.' |
The element in can be dropped without a notable difference in meaning in the non-directional (a)-examples; in just seems to function as an emphasizer. In the directional example in (283b), on the other hand, in must be present; without it, the directional meaning gets lost.
The examples in (284) show that circumpositions with langs as their second member are only used as directional adpositions; the non-directional (a)-examples are only acceptable without the element langs.
a. | De bloemen | liggen | achter het huis | (*langs). | location | |
the flowers | lie | behind the house | langs | |||
'The flowers are lying behind the house.' |
a'. | Jan legt | de bloemen | achter het huis | (*langs). | change of location | |
Jan puts | the flowers | behind the house | langs | |||
'Jan is putting the flowers behind the house.' |
b. | Jan wandelt | achter | het huis | #(langs). | direction | |
Jan walks | behind | the house | langs | |||
'Jan is walking along the back of the house.' |
In (284b), the element langs is obligatory; without it the directional meaning gets lost. This can be readily illustrated by considering the perfect-tense constructions in (285): if the verb wandelen takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and langs is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and langs is preferably dropped.
a. | Jan is achter | het huis | *(langs) | gewandeld. | |
Jan is behind | the house | langs | walked | ||
'Jan has walked along the back of the house.' |
b. | Jan heeft achter | het huis | (*?langs) | gewandeld. | |
Jan is behind | the house | langs | walked | ||
'Jan has walked behind the house.' |
The examples in (286) show that circumpositions with om as their second member are only used as directional adpositions; the non-directional (a)-examples are only acceptable without the element om. In example (286c), we are dealing with a metaphorical use of the circumpositional phrase buiten de administratie om.
a. | De bloemen | liggen | achter het huis | (*om). | location | |
the flowers | lie | behind the house | om | |||
'The flowers are lying behind the house.' |
a'. | Jan legt | de bloemen | achter het huis | (*om). | change of location | |
Jan puts | the flowers | behind the house | om | |||
'Jan is putting the flowers behind the house.' |
b. | Jan liep | achter | het huis | #(om). | direction | |
Jan walked | behind | the house | om | |||
'Jan walked around the back of the house.' |
c. | Deze procedure | loopt | buiten | de administratie | *(om). | |
this procedure | goes | outside | the administration | om | ||
'The administration is not involved in this procedure.' |
In (286b&c), the element om is obligatory; without it the directional meaning of (286b) is lost, and (286c) becomes ungrammatical. The loss of the directional meaning of (b) can be readily illustrated by considering the perfect-tense constructions in (287): if the verb lopen takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and om is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and om is preferably dropped.
a. | Jan is achter | het huis | *(om) | gewandeld. | |
Jan is behind | the house | om | walked | ||
'Jan has walked around the back of the house.' |
b. | Jan heeft | achter | het huis | (*?om) | gewandeld. | |
Jan has | behind | the house | om | walked | ||
'Jan has walked behind the house.' |
The examples in (288) show that the circumposition tegen ... op can only be used as a directional adposition; the non-directional (a)-examples are only acceptable without the element op. In example (288c), we are dealing with an idiomatic construction tegen de klippen op werken.
a. | De ladder | stond | tegen de muur | (??op). | location | |
the ladder | stood | against the wall | op | |||
'The ladder stood against the wall.' |
a'. | Marie zette | de ladder | tegen de muur | (??op). | change of location | |
Marie put | the ladder | against the wall | op | |||
'Marie put the ladder against the wall.' |
b. | Jan klimt | tegen de muur | #(op). | direction | |
Jan climbs | against the wall | op | |||
'Jan is climbing up against the wall.' |
c. | Jan werkt | tegen | de klippen | *(op). | |
Jan works | against | the cliffs | up | ||
'Jan is working extremely hard.' |
The element op is obligatory in the directional construction; without it the directional meaning of (288b) gets lost and (288c) becomes ungrammatical. For those people who accept (289b) without op, the verb acts as an activity verb, and the PP acts as an adverbial phrase.
a. | Jan is | tegen de berg | *(op) | geklommen. | |
Jan is | against the mountain | op | climbed | ||
'Jan has climbed up against the wall.' |
b. | Jan heeft | tegen de berg | ?(*?op) | geklommen. | |
Jan has | against the mountain | op | climbed | ||
'Jan has climbed up against the wall.' |
The examples in (290) show that the circumposition tot ... toe cannot readily be used to denote a (change of) location.
a. | De stenen | liggen | tot de heg | (*?toe). | location | |
the stones | lie | until the hedge | toe | |||
'The stones are lying up to the hedge.' |
b. | Jan legt | de stenen | tot de heg | (*?toe). | change of location | |
Jan lays | the stones | until the hedge | toe | |||
'Jan is laying the stones up to the hedge.' |
The examples seem to improve slightly if we add a van-PP, as in (291). It is, however, doubtful whether the circumpositions refer to a (change of) location in these cases: the van-PP is directional (it indicates the starting point of the path) so we expect that the circumpositional phrase is also directional (it indicates the endpoint of the path). Therefore, the examples in (291) are directional, and have an extent reading comparable to Het pad loopt van hier tot aan de heg (toe)'The path extends from here to the hedge'.
a. | De stenen | liggen | van hier | tot de heg | (?toe). | |
the stones | lie | from here | until the hedge | toe |
b. | Jan legt | de stenen | van hier | tot de heg | (?toe). | |
Jan lays | the stones | from here | until the hedge | toe | ||
'Jan is laying the stones from here to the hedge.' |
As is shown in (292), the examples in (290) become completely grammatical if the noun phrase de heg is preceded by the element aan. It has been suggested that tot aan ... toe is also a circumposition, albeit of a slightly more complex nature. There are, however, reasons to reject this suggestion: the preposition tot is able to take an adpositional complement (see Section 2.2.1, sub III, for more discussion), so we may be dealing with the circumposition tot ... toe, which takes a PP-complement.
a. | De stenen | liggen | tot | aan de heg | (toe). | |
the stones | lie | until | at the hedge | toe |
b. | Jan legt | de stenen | tot | aan de heg | (toe). | |
Jan lays | the stones | until | at the hedge | toe | ||
'Jan is laying the stones from here to the hedge.' |
From the discussion above, we can probably conclude that circumpositions with toe are directional only, as in (293). In these examples, toe seems to be optional, which is not really surprising given that the prepositions naar'to' and tot'until' are both directional themselves; the meaning contribution of toe seems to be mainly a case of adding emphasis. Note that (293b) can also be made more complex by adding the element aan; we will return to such examples in Section 2.2.1, sub III.
a. | Jan | reed | naar Peter | (toe). | |
Jan | drove | to Peter | toe | ||
'Jan drove to Peter.' |
b. | Jan reed | tot | <aan> | de grens <aan> | (toe). | |
Jan drove | until | aan | the border | toe | ||
'Jan drove until the border.' |
The circumpositions with uit as their second member can be used to refer to a location, as in (294a): the element uit must be present in order to obtain the “out from” reading. The corresponding construction involving a change of location in (294b) is infelicitous, which, in this case, may be due to the fact that it seems improbable that Marie would stick out her skirt on purpose.
a. | Haar rok | hing | onder haar jas | #(uit). | location | |
her skirt | hung | under her coat | uit | |||
'Her skirt was sticking out from under her coat.' |
b. | # | Marie hing | haar rok | onder haar jas | uit. | change of location |
Marie hung | her skirt | under her coat | uit |
A verb that seems to combine rather easily with the sequence P + NP + uit is steken, but in this case, too, the change of location reading seems degraded, as is shown in (295a'). Sometimes, however, the change of location construction seems to be possible, as in (295b'), but whether we can conclude something from this is not clear because uit can also be used as a verbal particle, which is clear from the fact that the PP boven de menigte is optional in this example.
a. | Het formulier | stak | onder zijn papieren | uit. | |
the form | stuck | under his papers | uit | ||
'The form stuck out from under his papers.' |
a'. | * | Jan stak | het formulier | onder zijn papieren | uit. |
Jan stuck | the form | under his papers | uit |
b. | Jans hand | stak | (??boven de menigte) | uit. | |
Janʼs hand | stuck | above the crowd | uit | ||
'Janʼs hand was sticking out above the crowd.' |
b'. | Jan stak | zijn hand | (boven de menigte) | uit. | |
Jan stuck | his hand | above the crowd | uit | ||
'Jan stuck out his hand above the crowd.' |
Whatever the answer may be to the question as to whether circumpositions with uit can be used in constructions involving a change of location, it is clear that they can be used to refer to directions. One example is given in (296).
De fanfare | liep | voor | de optocht | #(uit). | ||
the brass band | walked | before | the parade | uit | ||
'The brass band walked in front of the parade.' |
Example (296) shows that the element uit is obligatory in the directional construction; if it is absent the directional meaning is lost. This can be readily illustrated by considering the perfect-tense constructions in (297): if the verb lopen takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and uit is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and uit is preferably dropped.
a. | De fanfare | is voor | de optocht | *(uit) | gelopen. | |
the brass band | is before | the parade | uit | walked | ||
'The brass band has walked in front of (= led) the parade.' |
b. | De fanfare | heeft | voor | de optocht | (??uit) | gelopen. | |
the brass band | has | before | the parade | uit | walked | ||
'The brass band has walked in front of (≠ led) the parade.' |
The examples in (298) show that circumpositions with vandaan as their second member are only used as directional adpositions. The non-directional (a)-examples are only acceptable without the element vandaan.
a. | De bloemen | liggen | achter het huis | (*vandaan). | location | |
the flowers | lie | behind the house | vandaan | |||
'The flowers are lying behind the house.' |
a'. | Jan legt | de bloemen | achter het huis | (*vandaan). | change of location | |
Jan puts | the flowers | behind the house | vandaan | |||
'Jan is putting the flowers behind the house.' |
b. | Jan reed | achter de bomen | #(vandaan). | direction | |
Jan drove | behind the trees | vandaan | |||
'Jan drove from behind the trees.' |
The element vandaan is obligatorily present in the directional construction in (298b); without it the directional meaning is lost. This can be readily illustrated by considering the perfect-tense constructions in (299): if the verb rijden takes the auxiliary zijn it is a verb of traversing, which requires a directional complementive, and vandaan is compulsory; if the verb takes hebben it is an activity verb, which is compatible with a locational adverbial PP, and vandaan must be dropped.
a. | Jan is achter de bomen | *(vandaan) | gereden. | |
Jan is behind the trees | vandaan | driven | ||
'Jan has driven from behind the trees.' |
b. | Jan heeft | achter de bomen | (*vandaan) | gereden. | |
Jan has | behind the trees | vandaan | driven | ||
'Jan has driven behind the trees.' |
Often, circumpositional phrases with vandaan can be preceded by the preposition van; cf. (300a). This element is not, however, part of the circumposition but a regular preposition, as will be clear from the fact that the circumpositional phrase can be replaced by the adpositional pro-form daar'there'; cf. (300b). We return to this in Section 2.2.1.
a. | Jan kwam | van | achter de bomen vandaan. | |
Jan came | from | behind the trees vandaan | ||
'Jan can from behind the trees.' |
b. | Jan kwam | van daar. | |
Jan came | from there |
Finally, note that the construction in (301) seems to be the antonym of the idiomatic construction Ik ga er heen in (281c), and is therefore in all likelihood also an idiomatic expression.
Ik | kom | er | net | vandaan. | ||
I | come | there | just | from | ||
'I just come from there.' or 'Iʼve just visited him/her/it/them.' |
Table 19 again gives the list of circumpositions and indicates whether they can be used to indicate a (change of) location or a direction. Further, we have indicated whether or not the second part of the circumposition must be present in order for the circumpositional phrase to express the locational/directional meaning.
circumposition | locational reading | directional reading | ||
available | particle | available | 2nd part | |
achter ... aan | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
tegen ... aan | + | optional | ||
van ... af | + | optional | + | obligatory (but see (275a)) |
op ... af | — | n.a. | ||
onder/tussen ... door | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
door/langs/om/ over ... heen | + | optional | + | obligatory |
tegen ... in | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
tussen ... in | + | optional | ||
achter/boven/onder/voor ... langs | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
achter/buiten/voor ... om | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
tegen ... op | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
naar/tot ... toe | — | n.a. | + | optional |
achter/boven/onder/ tussen/voor ... uit | location: + change of location: — | optional; meaning effect | + | obligatory |
achter/bij/om/onder/ tussen/van ... vandaan | — | n.a. | + | obligatory |
It will be clear from this table that all circumpositions can have a directional meaning, and that the second part of the circumposition is generally obligatorily present then; it can only be dropped if the first part can also occur as a preposition with a directional meaning.
The table also shows that only a small subset of the circumpositions can be used in a locational construction. Moreover, the second part generally has little impact on the meaning expressed. Perhaps it is therefore even legitimate to ask whether we are really dealing with circumpositions in these cases, or just with prepositional phrases that are somehow emphasized by some sort of particle. We will assume the latter option, although we will leave it to future research to investigate whether this suggestion is indeed on the right track.
To conclude, note that most circumpositional phrases also allow an extent reading. The examples in (302) show that only the circumpositions ending in aan, uit and vandaan seem to resist this use.
De weg loopt ... |
a. | *? | tegen | het bos | aan |
against | the wood | aan |
b. | van | de berg | af | |
from | the mountain | af |
c. | tussen | de bomen | door | |
between | the trees | door |
d. | over | de brug | heen | |
over | the bridge | heen |
e. | ? | tussen | de bomen | in |
between | the trees | in |
f. | achter | het huis | langs | |
behind | the house | langs |
g. | voor | het huis | om | |
in.front.of | the house | om |
h. | tegen | de berg | op | |
against | the mountain | op |
i. | naar | het hek | toe | |
towards | the gate | toe |
j. | * | achter | het bos | uit |
behind | the wood | uit |
k. | * | achter | het bos | vandaan |
behind | the wood | vandaan |
