Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch1
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

5.2.1.4.Relative personal pronouns

quickinfo

This section on relative personal pronouns will be relatively brief given that these pronouns can be discussed in a more natural way in relation to the syntactic context in which they are found, relative clauses; see Section 3.3.2.2, sub I, for a more exhaustive discussion of these pronouns. Here, we will confine ourselves to a concise discussion of the most common forms in their most common uses, and focus on the fact that these pronouns can be used as arguments of the clause, and should hence be considered personal pronouns. The relative personal pronouns in question can be divided into the three groups in (368).

368

D-pronouns: die and dat

W-pronouns: wie[+human] and wat[-human]

R-pronoun: waar + P

I. D-group
II. W-pronouns
III. The R-pronoun waar + P
IV. Conclusion

[+] I. D-group

The choice between die and dat depends on the gender and number features of the antecedent of the pronoun: dat is used for singular, neuter nouns and die in all other cases. This is illustrated in example (369).

369

	singular	plural
[-neuter]	de bal die daar ligt the ball that there lies ‘the ball that is lying there’	de ballen die daar liggen the balls that there lie ‘the balls that are lying there’
[+neuter]	het boek dat daar ligt the book that there lies ‘the book that is lying there’	de boeken die daar liggen the books that there lie ‘the books that are lying there’

The D-pronouns must be considered personal pronouns given that they may occur as subject or object of the relative clause, as is illustrated in (370a-c). Example (370d) shows, however, that D-pronouns are special in that they do not occur as the complement of a preposition.

370

a.	de jongen	[die	hier	gisteren	was]	subject
	the boy	that	here	yesterday	was
	'the boy who was here yesterday'

b.	het boek	[dat	ik	gisteren	gekocht	heb]	direct object
	the book	that	I	yesterday	bought	have
	'the book I bought yesterday'

c.	het meisje	[dat	ik	het boek	gegeven	heb]	indirect object
	the girl	that	I	the book	given	have
	'the girl that I gave the book'

d.	*	de jongen	[over die	ik spreek]	complement of P
		the boy	of that	I speak
		Intended meaning: 'the boy I spoke about'

[+] II. W-pronouns

The choice between wie and wat depends on whether the antecedent is human or not. Given that the W-pronouns are typically used in free relative clauses, this antecedent will generally be left implicit. The W-pronouns can be used as the subject or the object of the relative clause. Example (371c) is perhaps slightly marked due to the fact that it is potentially ambiguous: both the relative pronoun and the personal pronoun can in principle be interpreted as indirect objects. It is hard to construct natural sounding examples for wat with the function of indirect object, which is due to the fact that indirect objects are typically human.

371

a.	[Wie	dit	zegt]	is gek.
	who	this	says	is crazy
	'Whoever is saying this is mad.'

a'.	[Wat	daar	staat]	klopt	niet.
	what	there	stands	be.correct	not
	'What is written there is false.'

b.	[Wie	je	daar	ziet]	is Peter.
	who	you	there	see	is Peter
	'The person you see over there is Peter.'

b'.	[Wat	je	daar	zegt]	klopt	niet.
	what	you	there	say	is.correct	not
	'What youʼre saying there is false.'

c.	?	[Wie	je	dat	geeft]	wordt	een gelukkig mens.
		who	you	that	give	becomes	a lucky person
		'The person you give that to will be a lucky person.'

As is discussed in Section 3.3.2.2, sub I, the use of W-pronouns is subject to several constraints if the antecedent is overtly realized. However, in this context wie can readily be used as the complement of a preposition. The pronoun wat, on the other hand, cannot be used in this position: the next subsection will show that it triggers R-pronominalization, just like the referential pronoun het.

372

a.	De man [op wie	ik	wacht]	is Peter.
	the man for whom	I	wait	is Peter
	'The man for whom Iʼm waiting is Peter.'

b.	*	De tekening	[naar wat	ik	kijk]	is erg mooi.
		the drawing	at what	I	look	is very beautiful
		Intended meaning: 'The drawing Iʼm looking at is very beautiful.'

[+] III. The R-pronoun waar + P

The R-pronounwaar is typically used as the complement of a preposition. The pronoun is not sensitive to the nominal features of the antecedent, and can be used both with human and non-human antecedents. This means that example (372a) freely alternates with the form in (373a), despite normative pressure in favor of the former variant. The grammatical counterpart of example (372b) is the one in (373b). R-pronominalization is possible both with PP-complements of the verb and with certain adverbial PPs; examples of the latter can be found in Section 3.3.2.2, sub I.

373

a.	De man [waar	ik	op	wacht]	is Peter.
	the man where	I	for	wait	is Peter
	'The man Iʼm waiting for is Peter.'

b.	De tekening	[waar	ik	naar	kijk]	is erg mooi.
	the drawing	where	I	at	look	is very beautiful
	'The drawing Iʼm looking at is very beautiful.'

[+] IV. Conclusion

The previous subsections have shown that the relative pronouns in (368) can be used as arguments of the verb, and should hence be considered personal pronouns. This does not mean, however, that they can occur in all positions. We have seen that there are several additional constraints that regulate their distribution. A more extensive discussion of these relative pronouns can be found in Section 3.3.2.2, sub I.

References:

⇑ Back to top

About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Nominal featuresPersonal PronounPronounR-pronominalizationRelative Personal PronounRelative Pronoun

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis	December 2015

report errorprintcite

Jump to:

introduction
references
related articles