Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch1
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

2.2.Nominal complements

quickinfo

Although the typical complement of an adjective is a PP, Subsection I will discuss some adjectives that may also take a noun phrase as their complement, subsection II, will show that these adjectives can occasionally also occur with a clause introduced by the anticipatory pronounhet.

I. Genitive and dative nominal complements
II. Clauses introduced by the anticipatory pronoun het

[+] I. Genitive and dative nominal complements

This subsection discusses a relatively small set of adjectives and adjectival constructions that may take a nominal complement. Although such adjectives occur both in German and in Dutch, they seem somewhat rarer in the latter language; cf. Van Riemsdijk (1983) for an extensive discussion of the German counterparts of the adjectives discussed in this subsection. This subsection will not discuss adjectives in the form of past/present participles or modal infinitives, which may occur with nominal complements inherited from the base verb; these will be extensively discussed in Section 9.2.

[+] A. The case of nominal complements

Although case is not morphologically realized in Dutch, we can divide the set of adjectives that take a nominal complement into three groups on the basis of the case that would be assigned to the nominal complement in German. The German counterparts of the adjectives in parts A and B of Table 5 take, respectively, genitive and dative complements, and the German counterpart of the adjective waard 'worth' in the C part takes an accusative complement.

Table 5: Nominal complements of adjectives

case	example	translation
A. Genitive	zich iets bewust zijn	to be conscious of something
	iets deelachtig worden	to acquire something
	iets gewend/gewoon zijn	to be accustomed to something
	iets indachtig zijn	to be mindful of something
	iets moe/zat/beu zijn	to be weary of something
	iets machtig zijn	to be in command of something.
B. Dative	aangeboren	innate
	beschoren	given
	bespaard	spared
	duidelijk/helder	clear
	gehoorzaam	obedient
	goedgezind	well-disposed
	(on)bekend	(un)known
	toegewijd/toegedaan	devoted
	trouw	loyal
	vertrouwd/vreemd	familiar/foreign
C. Accusative	waard	worth

These case distinctions seem to correlate with the semantic complement type: the dative complements of the adjectives in Table 5B are normally +human or +animate, whereas the genitive and accusative complements of the adjectives in Table 5A can also be -animate. This is illustrated in (26); the nominal complements are given in italics.

a.	Jan is zich	dat probleem	bewust.
	Jan is refl	that problem	aware
	'Jan is aware of that problem.'

b.	Het probleem	werd	Peter	maar	niet	duidelijk.
	the problem	became	Peter	prt	not	clear
	'The problem didnʼt become clear to Peter.'

c.	Dit boek	is	mij	veel geld	waard.
	this book	is	me	much money	worth
	'This book is worth a lot of money to me.'

The adjectives in Table 5A&B can be readily used in copular constructions, which is shown in the primeless examples of (27) and (28); in the German translations in the primed examples, we have indicated the case of the nominal complement by means of a subscript.

a.		Peter is	het Frans	machtig.	Dutch
		Peter is	the French	in.command.of

a'.	Peter ist	des Französischengenitive	mächtig.	German
	Peter is	the French	in.command.of
	'Peter is able to speak French.'

b.		Peter is	deze opera	zat.	Dutch
		Peter is	this opera	weary

b'.	Peter ist	dieser Opergenitive	überdrüssig.	German
	Peter is	this opera	weary
	'Peter is weary of this opera.'

a.		Deze omgeving	is	hem	erg vertrouwd.	Dutch
		this area	is	him	very familiar

a'.	Diese Umgebung	ist	ihmdative	sehr geläufig.	German
	this area	is	him	very familiar
	'This area is very familiar to him.'

b.		De universele grammatica	is	de mens	aangeboren.	Dutch
		the universal grammar	is	the man	innate

b'.	Die Universalgrammatik	ist	dem Menschendative	angeboren.	German
	the universal grammar	is	the man	innate
	'Universal Grammar is innate to man.'

The nominal complements differ from the prepositional ones discussed in 2.1 in that they cannot follow the adjective. This is illustrated in the (a)-examples in (29) for the Dutch examples in (27) and by the (b)-examples for the Dutch examples in (28).

Peter is machtig het Frans.

a'.

Peter is zat deze opera

Deze omgeving is erg vertrouwd hem.

b'.

De universele grammatica is aangeboren

de mens.

The examples in (30a&b) show that the adjectives in Table 5 cannot readily be used in resultative constructions. An apparent counterexample is given in (30c), in which bekendmaken (which is normally written as a single word) is a fixed collocation with the meaning “to announce".

a.	*	Ik	maak	Jan deze operagenitive	zat	(door hem te vaak te spelen).
		I	make	Jan this opera	weary	by playing it too often

b.	*	Ik	maak	Jandative	deze omgeving	bekend.
		I	make	Jan	this area	familiar

c.	Ik	maak Jan mijn plannen	bekend.
	I	make Jan my plans	familiar
	'I announced my plans to Jan.'

Adjectives that take a genitive or a dative object differ in that only the former can be marginally used in the achten/vinden-construction; this is shown by the examples in (31a&b). However, if the dative noun phrase in (31b) is dropped, the construction becomes fully acceptable, although it is not clear why omitting the complement should have this effect; see the discussion of (35) for a suggestion that may be helpful in this respect.

a.	?	Ik	acht	Jan het Fransgenitive	machtig.
		I	consider	Jan the French	in.command.of

b.	*?	Ik	acht	de mensdative	de universele grammatica	aangeboren.
		I	consider	the man	the universal grammar	innate

b'.		Ik	acht	de universele grammatica	aangeboren.
		I	consider	the universal grammar	innate

An example with the adjective waard in Table 5C is given in (32a). This adjective also occurs in the syntactic frame in (32b); in this frame, the pronoun mij is assigned dative case in German, and the noun phrase het geld receives accusative case.

a.		Peter	is	die onderscheiding	waard.	Dutch
		Peter	is	that distinction	worth

a'.	Peter	ist	die Unterscheidungaccusative	wert.	German
	Peter	is	that distinction	worth
	'Peter deserves that distinction.'

b.		Dit boek	is mij	het geld	niet	waard.	Dutch
		this book	is me	the money	not	worth

b'.	Dieses Buch	ist	mirdative	den Preisaccusative	nicht	wert.	German
	this book	is	me	the money	not	worth
	'This book isnʼt worth the money to me.'

[+] B. The obligatoriness of the nominal complement

The genitive arguments of the adjectives in Table 5A are normally obligatory, although they can occasionally be replaced by a van-PP, as is illustrated in (33). The use of the number sign in (33b) indicates that omitting the genitive argument is possible, but will have a dramatic effect on the meaning of the sentence: Jan is moe/zat'Jan is tired/drunk'.

a.		Jan is zich	*(het probleemgenitive)	bewust.
		Jan is refl	the problem	conscious

a'.	Jan is zich	bewust	van dat probleem.
	Jan is refl	conscious	of that problem
	'Jan is aware of that problem.'

b.		Jan is #(die operagenitive)	moe/zat.
		Jan is that opera	weary

b'.	?	Jan is	moe/zat	van die opera.
		Jan is	weary	of that opera

It seems that the adjectives in Table 5B can be divided into two subclasses in this respect: beschoren, bespaard, goedgezind and toegewijd/toegedaan require that the dative argument be present, whereas aangeboren, duidelijk, gehoorzaam, helder, (on)bekend, trouw, vertrouwd and vreemd can also occur without a dative argument. This is illustrated in (34).

a.	Peter is *(hemdative)	goedgezind.
	Peter is him	well.disposed
	'Peter is well-disposed towards him.'

b.	Dit probleem	is (hemdative)	bekend.
	this problem	is him	known
	'This problem is known (to him).'

It should be noted, however, that omitting the dative argument from the second subclass sometimes affects the meaning/denotation of the adjective. This is illustrated in (35). This raises the question as to whether our claim that the dative argument is optional with adjectives of the second subclass is actually correct; it may be the case that we are simply dealing with two homophonous forms.

a.	Deze karaktereigenschap	is hemdative	vreemd.
	this quality	is him	foreign
	'He doesnʼt possess this quality of character.'

b.		Deze karaktereigenschap	is vreemd.
		this quality	is weird

In some cases the dative noun phrases can be replaced by a voor- or an aan-PP. The former is possible with the adjectives duidelijk/helder, and the latter with the adjectives gehoorzaam and trouw.

a.	Het probleem	is	mij	duidelijk/helder.
	the problem	is	me	clear/clear
	'The problem is clear to me.'

a'.	?	Het probleem	is duidelijk/helder	voor me.
		the problem	is clear/clear	to me

b.	De hond	is Peter gehoorzaam.
	the dog	is Peter obedient
	'The dog is obedient to Peter.'

b'.		De hond	is gehoorzaam	aan Peter.
		the dog	is obedient	to Peter

c.	De hond	is Peter trouw.
	the dog	is Peter loyal
	'The dog is loyal to Peter.'

c'.		De hond	is trouw	aan Peter.
		the dog	is loyal	to Peter

[+] C. Order of the subject of the clause and nominal complements of adjectives

The genitive complement of the adjectives in Table 5A always follows the subject of the clause, which is illustrated in (37) by the contrast between the primeless and primed examples.

a.	dat	Jan	het Fransgenitive	machtig	is.
	that	Jan	the French	in.command.of	is
	'that Jan has a firm grasp of French'

a'.

dat het Frans Jan machtig is.

b.	dat	Jan deze operagenitive	zat	is.
	that	Jan this opera	weary	is
	'that Jan had enough of this opera.'

b'.

dat deze opera Jan zat is.

The adjectives in Table 5B, however, can again be divided into two subclasses in this respect. The adjectives gehoorzaam and trouw in (38a) require the dative object to follow the subject of the clause; the order in example (38b) forces the reading that it is Jan who is loyal/obedient to the dog.

a.	dat	de hond	Jandative	trouw/gehoorzaam	is.
	that	the dog	Jan	loyal/obedient	is
	'that the dog is loyal/obedient to Jan.'

dat Jan de hond trouw/gehoorzaam is.

The adjectives in (39), on the other hand, allow the dative object to precede the subject. Since we also find this kind of order variation with the subject of dyadic unaccusative verbs, it has been suggested that the subject of the clause is in fact an internal argument of the adjective; cf. Bennis (2004) and also Cinque (1990). More evidence in favor of this claim can be found in Section 6.5.

a.	dat	de universele grammatica	de mensdative	aangeboren	is.
	that	the universal grammar	the man	innate	is
	'that Universal Grammar is innate to man.'

a'.

dat

de mensdative de universele grammatica aangeboren is.

b.	dat	dat probleem	Jandative	nu	eindelijk	duidelijk/helder	is.
	that	that problem	Jan	now	finally	clear	is
	'that the problem is finally clear to Jan now.'

b'.

dat

Jandative dat probleem nu eindelijk duidelijk/helder is.

[+] D. Constituency of the adjective and the nominal complement

The genitive/dative noun phrase is a complement of the adjective (and not of the verb). One fact supporting this claim is that, in German, the case assigned to the noun phrase is determined by the adjective. Furthermore, if the noun phrase can be replaced by a complement PP, the combination A + PP can be placed in clause-initial position and must therefore be a constituent; cf. the constituency test.

a.		Ik	was me	dat probleemgenitive	bewust.
		I	was refl	that problem	aware

a'.	Ik	was me	bewust	van dat probleem.
	I	was refl	aware	of that problem
	'I was aware of that problem.'

a''.		[Bewust	van dat probleem]	was	ik	me	niet.
		aware	of that problem	was	I	refl	not

b.		De ridder	bleef	zijn heerdative	trouw.
		the knight	remained	his lord	loyal

b'.		De ridder	bleef	trouw	aan zijn heer.
		the knight	remained	loyal	to his lord

b''.		[Trouw	aan zijn heer]	bleef	de ridder	niet.
		loyal	to his lord	remained	the knight	not

Given that the combination A + PP forms a constituent, it seems relatively safe to assume that the same thing holds for the combination NP + A, although it should be noted that there is a potential problem: the primeless examples in (41) show that at least for some speakers, topicalization of the combination NP + A gives rise to a degraded result, and all speakers clearly prefer the split patterns in the primed examples. We return to these patterns in Section 2.3, while noting that German speakers seem to have much fewer problems with the primeless orders in (41).

a.	%	[AP	Dat probleemgenitive	bewust]	was	ik	me	niet.
	%	%[AP	that problem	aware	was	I	refl	not
		'I wasnʼt aware of that problem.'

a'.

Bewust was ik me dat probleem niet.

a''.

Dat probleem was ik me niet bewust.

b.	%	[AP	Zijn heerdative	trouw]	bleef	de ridder/hij	niet.
	%	%[AP	his lord	loyal	remained	the knight/he	not
		'The knight/he didnʼt remain loyal to his lord.'

b'.

Trouw bleef de ridder/hij zijn heer niet.

b''.

Zijn heer bleef de ridder/hij niet trouw.

[+] E. Dative complements of adjectives modified by te'too' and genoeg'enough'

Although the set of adjectives that take a nominal complement is quite small in Dutch, it should be noted that virtually any gradable adjective can be combined with a dative object if it is modified by the (evaluative) intensifying element te'too'; cf. Section 3.1.2, sub II. The examples in (42) show that, in the resulting structure, the dative object refers to the individual whose evaluation is given. Note further that the subject of the clause can always follow the dative object; cf. the discussion of examples (38b&c) in Subsection C.

a.	dat	het boek	Jan/mij	*(te)	moeilijk	is.
	that	the book	Jan/me	too	difficult	is
	'that the book is too difficult for Jan/me.'

a'.

dat Jan/mij het boek te moeilijk is.

b.	dat	het water	Jan/mij	*(te)	koud	is.
	that	the water	Jan/me	too	cold	is
	'that the water is too cold for Jan/me.'

b'.

dat Jan/mij het water te koud is.

The examples in (43) show that similar facts can sometimes be observed in the case of the modifier genoeg'enough'; cf. Section 3.1.3, sub IV.

a.	dat	het boek	Jan/mij	al	moeilijk	*(genoeg)	is.
	that	the book	Jan/me	already	difficult	enough	is
	'that the book is already difficult enough for Jan/me.'

a'.

dat Jan/mij het boek al moeilijk genoeg is.

b.	dat	het water	Jan/mij	al	koud	*(genoeg)	is.
	that	the water	Jan/me	already	cold	enough	is
	'that the water is cold enough for Jan/me.'

b'.

dat Jan/mij het water al koud genoeg is.

The primeless examples in (44) illustrate that the dative phrases in (42) and (43) alternate with voor-PPs. The primed examples show that these PPs can be readily pied-piped by topicalization of an AP modified by te'too', but that this is harder in the case of the modifier genoeg. The fact that (44b') is also marked without the PP suggests that this is not due to problems with pied piping of the PP but to problems with topicalization of the modified adjective.

a.		dat	het boek te moeilijk	is voor Jan.
		that	the book too difficult	is for Jan

a.		Te moeilijk voor Jan	is dat boek	niet.
		too difficult for Jan	is that book	not

b.		dat	het boek	al	moeilijk	*(genoeg)	is voor Jan.
		that	the book	already	difficult	enough	is for Jan

b'.	??	Moeilijk genoeg	(voor Jan)	is het boek	nog niet.
		difficult enough	for Jan	is the book	not yet

[+] F. Some less clear cases

Besides the examples in Table 5, there are some more or less fixed expressions in which the categorial status of the predicative element is not clear; examples such as (45) are often considered lexicalized phrasal verbs.

a.	Hij	is het spoor	bijster.
	he	is the track	lost
	'He has lost his way.'

b.	Hij	is de stad	meester.
	he	is the city	in.command.of
	'Heʼs in command of the city.'

c.	Hij	is zijn sleutels	steeds	kwijt.
	he	is his keys	all.the.time	lost
	'He mislays/loses his keys all the time.'

[+] II. Clauses introduced by the anticipatory pronoun het

A small subset of the adjectives in Table 5A, which take a genitive noun phrase as their complement, may also occur with a clausal complement, which can be finite or infinitival; the clearest cases involve the adjectives bewust'conscious' and moe/zat/beu'weary', illustrated in (46a) and (46b), respectively. The examples in (46) show that the clause is obligatorily introduced by the anticipatory pronoun het'it', which suggests that we can consider these examples as special cases of the examples with a nominal complement discussed in Subsection I. Observe that the implied subject PRO of the infinitival clauses in the primed examples must be construed as identical to the subject of the matrix clause.

a.	Ik	ben	??(het)	me	bewust	[dat hij ziek is].
	I	am	it	refl	conscious	that he ill is
	'Iʼm aware of the fact that heʼs ill.'

a'.	Iki	ben	*(het)	me	bewust [PROi	ziek	te zijn].
	I	am	it	refl	conscious	ill	to be
	'Iʼm aware of the fact that Iʼm ill.'

b.	Ik	ben	*(het)	moe/zat/beu	[dat	jij	steeds	zeurt].
	I	am	it	weary	that	you	all.the.time	nag
	'Iʼm tired of it that you are nagging all the time.'

b'.	Iki	ben	*(het)	moe/zat/beu	[(om) PROi	steeds	te moeten	dansen].
	I	am	it	weary	comp	all.the.time	to have.to	dance
	'Iʼm weary of being obliged to dance all the time.'

The anticipatory pronoun het'it' cannot be present if the clausal complement is placed in clause-initial position; this occurs with finite clauses only, as infinitival clauses generally resist placement in this position. The fact that an anticipatory pronoun is impossible suggests that this pronoun acts as a kind of “placeholder" for the clause-final clauses in (46). Perhaps this may even lead to the conclusion that the clause is not even a constituent of the matrix or main clause when the anticipatory pronoun is present, given that clausal constituents normally can occupy the clause-initial position; cf. the constituency test.

[Dat hij ziek is] ben ik *(het) me bewust.

a'.

[PRO ziek te zijn] ben ik (het) me bewust.

[Dat jij steeds zeurt] ben ik *(het)

moe/zat/beu.

b'.

[Om PRO steeds te moeten dansen] ben ik (het) moe/zat/beu.

Perhaps this conclusion can also be supported by means of the left dislocation constructions in (48). Given that the clause-initial position immediately preceding the finite verb is occupied by the demonstrative dat'that', which has a function similar to the anticipatory pronoun het in (46), we conclude that the complement is external to the main clause. Observe that in these constructions infinitival clauses are at least marginally acceptable.

[Dat hij ziek is] dat ben ik me bewust.

a'.

[PRO ziek te zijn] dat ben ik me bewust.

[Dat jij steeds zeurt] dat ben ik moe/zat/beu.

b'.

[Om PRO steeds te moeten dansen] dat ben ik moe/zat/beu.

Given that example (40b) has shown that the nominal complement of bewust can be replaced by a PP-complement, it does not come as a surprise that the anticipatory pronoun het in (46a) can be replaced by an anticipatory pronominal van-PP, as shown by the (a)-examples in (49). The (b)-examples show that moe/zat/beu'weary' allow the same option. Section 2.1, sub II, provides a more extensive discussion of clausal complements introduced by an anticipatory pronominal PP.

a.		Ik	ben	me	er	bewust	van	[dat hij ziek is].
		I	am	refl	there	conscious	of	that he ill is

a'.		Ik	ben	me	er	bewust	van [PRO	ziek	te zijn].
		I	am	refl	there	conscious	of	ill	to be

b.	?	Ik	ben	er	moe/zat/beu	van	[dat	jij	steeds	zeurt].
		I	am	there	weary	of	that	you	all.the.time	nag

b'.	?	Ik	ben	er	moe/zat/beu	van	[om PRO	steeds	te moeten	dansen].
		I	am	there	weary	of	comp	all.the.time	to have.to	dance

Finally, we can note that the adjectives in Table 5B, which take a dative noun phrase as their complement, never take a clausal complement. This is of course not surprising given our earlier observation that the dative arguments of adjectives always refer to +animate entities.

References:

Bennis, Hans2004Unergative adjectives and psych verbsAlexiadou, Artemis, Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Everaert, Martin (eds.)The unaccusativity puzzle: studies on the syntax-lexicon interfaceOxfordOxford University Press84-113
Cinque, Guglielmo1990Ergative adjectives and the lexicalist hypothesisNatural Language and Linguistic Theory81-39
Riemsdijk, Henk van1983The case of the German adjectivesHeny, Frank & Richards, B. (eds.)Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and related Puzzles1DordrechtReidel223-252

⇑ Back to top

About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Accusative CaseAccusative ComplementationAdjectiveAnticipatoryAnticipatory PronounCaseClauseComplementationControlDative CaseDative ComplementationFinite ComplementationGenitive CaseGenitive ComplementationInfinitival ComplementationNominal ComplementNoun PhrasePronoun

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