- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological processes
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Word stress
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Monomorphemic words
- Diachronic aspects
- Generalizations on stress placement
- Default penultimate stress
- Lexical stress
- The closed penult restriction
- Final closed syllables
- The diphthong restriction
- Superheavy syllables (SHS)
- The three-syllable window
- Segmental restrictions
- Phonetic correlates
- Stress shifts in loanwords
- Quantity-sensitivity
- Secondary stress
- Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Stress in complex words
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Accent & intonation
- Clitics
- Spelling
- Morphology
- Word formation
- Compounding
- Nominal compounds
- Verbal compounds
- Adjectival compounds
- Affixoids
- Coordinative compounds
- Synthetic compounds
- Reduplicative compounds
- Phrase-based compounds
- Elative compounds
- Exocentric compounds
- Linking elements
- Separable complex verbs (SCVs)
- Gapping of complex words
- Particle verbs
- Copulative compounds
- Derivation
- Numerals
- Derivation: inputs and input restrictions
- The meaning of affixes
- Non-native morphology
- Cohering and non-cohering affixes
- Prefixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixation: person nouns
- Conversion
- Pseudo-participles
- Bound forms
- Nouns
- Nominal prefixes
- Nominal suffixes
- -aal and -eel
- -aar
- -aard
- -aat
- -air
- -aris
- -ast
- Diminutives
- -dom
- -een
- -ees
- -el (nominal)
- -elaar
- -enis
- -er (nominal)
- -erd
- -erik
- -es
- -eur
- -euse
- ge...te
- -heid
- -iaan, -aan
- -ief
- -iek
- -ier
- -ier (French)
- -ière
- -iet
- -igheid
- -ij and allomorphs
- -ijn
- -in
- -ing
- -isme
- -ist
- -iteit
- -ling
- -oir
- -oot
- -rice
- -schap
- -schap (de)
- -schap (het)
- -sel
- -st
- -ster
- -t
- -tal
- -te
- -voud
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Univerbation
- Neo-classical word formation
- Construction-dependent morphology
- Morphological productivity
- Compounding
- Inflection
- Inflection and derivation
- Allomorphy
- The interface between phonology and morphology
- Word formation
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
- 3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
- 3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
- 7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
- 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
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 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
- Phonology
-
- General
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological Processes
- Assimilation
- Vowel nasalization
- Syllabic sonorants
- Final devoicing
- Fake geminates
- Vowel hiatus resolution
- Vowel reduction introduction
- Schwa deletion
- Schwa insertion
- /r/-deletion
- d-insertion
- {s/z}-insertion
- t-deletion
- Intrusive stop formation
- Breaking
- Vowel shortening
- h-deletion
- Replacement of the glide w
- Word stress
- Clitics
- Allomorphy
- Orthography of Frisian
- Morphology
- Inflection
- Word formation
- Derivation
- Prefixation
- Infixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixes
- Verbal suffixes
- Adjectival suffixes
- Adverbial suffixes
- Numeral suffixes
- Interjectional suffixes
- Onomastic suffixes
- Conversion
- Compositions
- Derivation
- Syntax
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Unergative and unaccusative subjects
- Evidentiality
- To-infinitival clauses
- Predication and noun incorporation
- Ellipsis
- Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo
- Expression of irrealis
- Embedded Verb Second
- Agreement
- Negation
- Nouns & Noun Phrases
- Classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Partitive noun constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Nominalised quantifiers
- Kind partitives
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Bare nominal attributions
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers and (pre)determiners
- Interrogative pronouns
- R-pronouns
- Syntactic uses
- Adjective Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification and degree quantification
- Comparison by degree
- Comparative
- Superlative
- Equative
- Attribution
- Agreement
- Attributive adjectives vs. prenominal elements
- Complex adjectives
- Noun ellipsis
- Co-occurring adjectives
- Predication
- Partitive adjective constructions
- Adverbial use
- Participles and infinitives
- Adposition Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Intransitive adpositions
- Predication
- Preposition stranding
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
-
- General
- Morphology
- Morphology
- 1 Word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 1.1.1 Compounds and their heads
- 1.1.2 Special types of compounds
- 1.1.2.1 Affixoids
- 1.1.2.2 Coordinative compounds
- 1.1.2.3 Synthetic compounds and complex pseudo-participles
- 1.1.2.4 Reduplicative compounds
- 1.1.2.5 Phrase-based compounds
- 1.1.2.6 Elative compounds
- 1.1.2.7 Exocentric compounds
- 1.1.2.8 Linking elements
- 1.1.2.9 Separable Complex Verbs and Particle Verbs
- 1.1.2.10 Noun Incorporation Verbs
- 1.1.2.11 Gapping
- 1.2 Derivation
- 1.3 Minor patterns of word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 2 Inflection
- 1 Word formation
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
- 0 Introduction to the AP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of APs
- 2 Complementation of APs
- 3 Modification and degree quantification of APs
- 4 Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative
- 5 Attribution of APs
- 6 Predication of APs
- 7 The partitive adjective construction
- 8 Adverbial use of APs
- 9 Participles and infinitives as APs
- Nouns and Noun Phrases (NPs)
- 0 Introduction to the NP
- 1 Characteristics and Classification of NPs
- 2 Complementation of NPs
- 3 Modification of NPs
- 3.1 Modification of NP by Determiners and APs
- 3.2 Modification of NP by PP
- 3.3 Modification of NP by adverbial clauses
- 3.4 Modification of NP by possessors
- 3.5 Modification of NP by relative clauses
- 3.6 Modification of NP in a cleft construction
- 3.7 Free relative clauses and selected interrogative clauses
- 4 Partitive noun constructions and constructions related to them
- 4.1 The referential partitive construction
- 4.2 The partitive construction of abstract quantity
- 4.3 The numerical partitive construction
- 4.4 The partitive interrogative construction
- 4.5 Adjectival, nominal and nominalised partitive quantifiers
- 4.6 Kind partitives
- 4.7 Partitive predication with a preposition
- 4.8 Bare nominal attribution
- 5 Articles and names
- 6 Pronouns
- 7 Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- 8 Interrogative pronouns
- 9 R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive
- 10 Syntactic functions of Noun Phrases
- Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases (PPs)
- 0 Introduction to the PP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of PPs
- 2 Complementation of PPs
- 3 Modification of PPs
- 4 Bare (intransitive) adpositions
- 5 Predication of PPs
- 6 Form and distribution of adpositions with respect to staticity and construction type
- 7 Adpositional complements and adverbials
- Verbs and Verb Phrases (VPs)
- 0 Introduction to the VP in Saterland Frisian
- 1 Characteristics and classification of verbs
- 2 Unergative and unaccusative subjects and the auxiliary of the perfect
- 3 Evidentiality in relation to perception and epistemicity
- 4 Types of to-infinitival constituents
- 5 Predication
- 5.1 The auxiliary of being and its selection restrictions
- 5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
- 5.3 The auxiliary of continuation and its selection restrictions
- 5.4 The auxiliary of coming and its selection restrictions
- 5.5 Modal auxiliaries and their selection restrictions
- 5.6 Auxiliaries of body posture and aspect and their selection restrictions
- 5.7 Transitive verbs of predication
- 5.8 The auxiliary of doing used as a semantically empty finite auxiliary
- 5.9 Supplementive predication
- 6 The verbal paradigm, irregularity and suppletion
- 7 Verb Second and the word order in main and embedded clauses
- 8 Various aspects of clause structure
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
-
- General
- Phonology
- Afrikaans phonology
- Segment inventory
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
- The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
- The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
- The rounded high back vowel /u/
- The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
- The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
- The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
- Overview of Afrikaans consonants
- The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
- The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
- The bilabial nasal /m/
- The alveolar nasal /n/
- The velar nasal /ŋ/
- The trill /r/
- The lateral liquid /l/
- The alveolar fricative /s/
- The velar fricative /x/
- The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
- The approximants /ɦ/, /j/ and /ʋ/
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- Word stress
- The phonetic properties of stress
- Primary stress on monomorphemic words in Afrikaans
- Background to primary stress in monomorphemes in Afrikaans
- Overview of the Main Stress Rule of Afrikaans
- The short vowels of Afrikaans
- Long vowels in monomorphemes
- Primary stress on diphthongs in monomorphemes
- Exceptions
- Stress shifts in place names
- Stress shift towards word-final position
- Stress pattern of reduplications
- Phonological processes
- Vowel related processes
- Consonant related processes
- Homorganic glide insertion
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Phonotactics
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Afrikaans syntax
- Nouns and noun phrases
- Characteristics of the NP
- Classification of nouns
- Complementation of NPs
- Modification of NPs
- Binominal and partitive constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Partitive constructions with nominalised quantifiers
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Binominal name constructions
- Binominal genitive constructions
- Bare nominal attribution
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- Syntactic uses of the noun phrase
- Adjectives and adjective phrases
- Characteristics and classification of the AP
- Complementation of APs
- Modification and Degree Quantification of APs
- Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative degree
- Attribution of APs
- Predication of APs
- The partitive adjective construction
- Adverbial use of APs
- Participles and infinitives as adjectives
- Verbs and verb phrases
- Characterisation and classification
- Argument structure
- Verb frame alternations
- Complements of non-main verbs
- Verb clusters
- Complement clauses
- Adverbial modification
- Word order in the clause: Introduction
- Word order in the clause: position of the finite Verb
- Word order in the clause: Clause-initial position
- Word order in the clause: Extraposition and right-dislocation in the postverbal field
- Word order in the middle field
- Emphatic constructions
- Adpositions and adposition phrases
The examples in (2) show that complements of adjectives are normally PPs, which are often optional.
a. | Jan is niet | boos | (over die opmerking). | |
Jan is not | angry | about that remark |
b. | Jan is niet | tevreden | (over zijn beloning). | |
Jan is not | satisfied | with his reward |
The examples in (3) further show that complements of adjectives can sometimes be clauses, which are introduced by the (often optional) anticipatory pronominal PPer + P'P + it'; given that, due to the phonological weakness of the pronominal element er, this PP is normally split by means of R-extraction, we will use italics to make it easier for the reader to detect the constituting parts of this PP.
a. | Jan is (er) | boos | (over) | dat | Peter niet | gekomen | is. | |
Jan is there | angry | about | that | Peter not | come | is | ||
'Jan is angry (about it) that Peter didnʼt come.' |
b. | Jan is (er) | tevreden | (over) | dat | hij | ontvangen | is. | |
Jan is there | satisfied | with | that | he | received | is | ||
'Jan is satisfied (about it) that he has been received.' |
The option of having an anticipatory pronominal PPs in (3) indicates that these examples are related to the examples in (2). The following two subsections will discuss examples of this sort more extensively.
Adjectives typically select a PP as their complement. Although this PP-complement can often either precede or follow the adjective, it is normally assumed that its base-position is the one following the adjective, whereas the pre-adjectival position is derived by leftward movement.
a. | Jan is <over die opmerking> | boos <over die opmerking >. | |
Jan is about that remark | angry |
b. | Jan is <over zijn beloning> | tevreden <over zijn beloning>. | |
Jan is about his reward | satisfied |
There are at least two arguments in favor of the claim that the pre-adjectival position is derived by movement. The first argument is based on the fact that stranded prepositions must occupy their base-position, as expressed by the so-called freezing principle; the fact that the stranded preposition over must follow the adjectives in the examples in (5) therefore shows that the PP originates in post-adjectival position.
a. | Jan is er | <*over> | boos <over>. | |
Jan is there | about | angry |
b. | Jan is er | <*over> | tevreden <over>. | |
Jan is there | about | satisfied |
The second argument is based on the general claim that complements are generated closer to the selecting head than modifiers; if the PP is base-generated in pre-adjectival position, we wrongly predict that it should be able to follow modifiers like erg'very'; the fact that PP-complements can only precede such modifiers therefore shows that the pre-adjectival placement of PP-complements is the result of leftward movement. This discussion suffices for our present limited purpose, but we will see in Section 2.3.1 that there are various complicating factors.
a. | Jan is <over die opmerking> | erg <*over die opmerking > | boos. | |
Jan is about that remark | very | angry |
b. | Jan is <over zijn beloning> | erg <*over zijn beloning> | tevreden. | |
Jan is about his reward | very | satisfied |
From the examples above we may conclude that PP-complements are base-generated in post-adjectival position. This is also supported by the examples in (7); if the PP is base-generated in post-adjectival position, we would expect that the string A–PP forms a constituent, and the fact that this string can be preposed into the clause-initial position shows that this expectation is indeed borne out; cf. the constituency test.
a. | [Boos over die opmerking] | is Jan niet. | |
angry about that remark | is Jan not |
b. | [Tevreden over zijn beloning] | is Jan niet. | |
satisfied with his reward | is Jan not |
That the PPs in (4) are complements of (selected by) the adjectives is clear from the fact that the latter determine which prepositions must be used: the small sample of adjectives in Table 1 shows that we are dealing with fixed adjective-preposition collocations. The PP-complements in Table 1 are all optional. Some adjectives can be combined with more than one prepositional complement at the same time, as can be exemplified by means of boos op Peter over die opmerking'angry with Peter about that remark'; see the discussion of (16) for more details. Some of the adjectives in Table 1 are marked by means of the diacritic “#" for reasons that will become clear shortly.
preposition | example | translation |
aan | (on)schuldig aan | (not) guilty of |
gehoorzaam aan | obedient to | |
in | bedreven in | skilful in |
met | blij met | glad with |
(on)gelukkig met | (un)happy with | |
#vergelijkbaar met | comparable to | |
naar | nieuwsgierig naar | curious about |
op | boos/kwaad/woedend/woest op | angry with |
jaloers op | jealous of | |
trots op | proud of | |
verliefd op | in-love with | |
over | bedroefd/verdrietig over | sad about |
boos/kwaad/woedend/woest over | angry about | |
tevreden/voldaan over | satisfied about | |
verbaasd over | astonished about | |
verontwaardigd over | indignant about | |
van | #afhankelijk van | dependent on |
voor | bang voor | afraid of |
behulpzaam voor | helpful to | |
bevreesd voor | fearful of | |
#geschikt voor | suitable to/appropriate for | |
#gevoelig voor | perceptive to/susceptible to |
The actual choice of the preposition is largely unpredictable. However, if the adjective is derived from a verbal stem, such as verbaasd or afhankelijk, the selected preposition often coincides with the preposition that is used with the verb. This is shown in the examples in (8).
a. | Jan is verbaasd | over het verhaal. | |
Jan is astonished | about the story |
a'. | Jan verbaast | zich | over het verhaal. | |
Jan wonders | refl | about the story |
b. | Het verkrijgen van steun | is afhankelijk | van een gunstig rapport. | |
the obtaining of support | is dependent | on a positive report |
b'. | Het verkrijgen van steun | hangt | af | van een gunstig rapport. | |
the obtaining of support | depends | prt. | on a positive report |
Some adjectives obligatorily take a prepositional object. Three cases can be distinguished: (i) the adjective shows an unpredictable shift in meaning when the prepositional object is dropped, (ii) the meaning of the adjective remains constant but the adjective must appear in a different syntactic frame when the prepositional object is omitted, and (iii) no form exists without a prepositional object. We start with the first group, a sample of which is given in Table 2.
preposition | with preposition | without preposition | ||
example | translation | example | translation | |
aan | gewoon aan | used to | gewoon | ordinary |
met | bekend met | familiar with | bekend | well-known |
onbekend met | not familiar with | onbekend | unknown | |
vertrouwd met | familiar with | vertrouwd | common(?) | |
op | dol/gek op | fond of | dol/gek | mad/crazy |
van | gek/verrukt van | fond of | gek/verrukt | mad/delighted |
vol van | full of/occupied with | vol | filled | |
kapot van | cut up | kapot | broken | |
(on)zeker van | (not) convinced of | (on)zeker | (in)secure | |
ziek van | fed up with | ziek | ill/sick | |
voor | blind/doof voor | not susceptible to | blind/doof | blind/deaf |
tot | bereid tot | willing to | bereid | prepared |
A conspicuous difference between the two sets of examples in Table 2 is that the logical subjects of adjectives that take a prepositional object are human or, at least, animate, whereas the logical subjects can also be inanimate if the adjectives do not take a prepositional object. This is shown in (9).
a. | Jan/*Het boek | is bekend | met dit probleem. | |
Jan/the book | is familiar | with this problem |
a'. | Jan/Het boek | is bekend. | |
Jan/the book | is well-known |
b. | Jan/*De vaas | is kapot | van die gebeurtenis. | |
Jan/the vase | is cut.up | by this event |
b'. | Jan/De vaas | is kapot. | |
Jan/the vase | is broken |
In this connection, it should be noted that the adjectives from Table 4 below that obligatorily take a PP-complement also require an animate subject.Given that the adjectives marked with “#" in Table 1 may take an inanimate subject regardless of whether the PP-complement is present or not, we may perhaps conclude that adjectives that take an obligatory PP-complement are special in that they must denote properties of human (or, at least, animate) entities.
A sample of the adjectives of the second type is given in Table 3. An important difference between the adjectives with and the adjectives without a PP-complement is that the logical subjects of the former can be singular whereas the logical subjects of the latter must be plural. This is illustrated in the final column of the table. Apart from the fact that the relation holding between the entities involved is expressed in an asymmetric way if the PP-complement is present and in a symmetric way if it is absent, the two cases are more or less synonymous.
preposition | example | illustration |
met | bevriend (met) ‘friendly with’ | Marie is goed bevriend *(met Peter). Marie is well friendly with Peter ‘Marie is good friends with Peter.’ |
Marie en Peter zijn goed bevriend. Marie and Peter are well friendly ‘Marie and Peter are good friends.’ | ||
aan | verwant (aan) ‘related to’ | De mens is nauw verwant *(aan de chimpansee). The human is closely related to the chimpanzee ‘Man is closely related to the chimpanzee.’ |
De mens en de chimpansee zijn nauw verwant. The human and the chimpanzee are closely related |
Participial adjectives such as getrouwd (met)'married (to)' and verloofd (met)'engaged (to)' may also belong to this class, although the adjective without a PP-complement does occasionally occur with a singular noun phrase, as shown in (10c); perhaps, we may assume that the PP-complement has been left implicit or underspecified in this case.
a. | Marie bleek | getrouwd/verloofd | met Jan. | |
Marie turned.out | married/engaged | to Jan |
b. | Marie en Jan | bleken | getrouwd/verloofd. | |
Marie and Jan | turned.out | married/engaged |
c. | Marie bleek | getrouwd/verloofd. | |
Marie turned.out | married/engaged |
A sample of adjectives that cannot occur without a prepositional object is given in Table 4. All these adjectives are deverbal, or at least have the appearance of a past/passive participle; see Section 2.3.1, sub III, for a discussion of these so-called pseudo-participles.
preposition | example | translation |
aan | gehecht aan | attached/devoted to |
met | ingenomen met | delighted with |
om | rouwig om | sorry about |
op | gebrand op | keen on |
gespitst op | especially alert to | |
gesteld op | keen on | |
verkikkerd op | crazy about | |
tegen | gekant tegen | opposed to |
van | afkerig van | (to have) an aversion to |
This subsection discusses clausal complements of the adjectives introduced by the anticipatory PP er + P. The clausal complement can be finite or infinitival; we will discuss the two types in separate subsections.
Many of the adjectives discussed in Subsection I can also occur with a clausal complement, especially those that express a mental state of their subject. The adjectives boos'angry', tevreden'satisfied' and verontwaardigd'indignant' in (11), for example, may take a declarative clausal complement, while the adjectives benieuwd'curious' and geïnteresseerd'interested' in (12) sometimes take an interrogative clausal complement. The examples in (11) and (12) also show that the clausal complement is not adjacent to the selecting adjective, but placed after the verbs in clause-final position.
a. | dat | Jan (er) | boos | (over) | is | [dat | Peter niet | uitgenodigd | is]. | |
that | Jan there | angry | about | is | that | Peter not | invited | is | ||
'that Jan is angry (about it) that Peter isnʼt invited.' |
b. | dat | Jan (er) | tevreden | (over) | is | [dat | Peter uitgenodigd | is]. | |
that | Jan there | satisfied | about | is | that | Peter invited | is | ||
'that Jan is satisfied (about it) that Peter is invited.' |
c. | dat | Jan | (er) | verontwaardigd | (over) | is | [dat | Els niet | mocht | komen]. | |
that | Jan | there | indignant | about | is | that | Els not | allowed.to | come | ||
'Jan is indignant (about it) that she wasnʼt allowed to come.' |
a. | dat | Jan (er) | benieuwd | (naar) | is [of | hij | uitgenodigd | is]. | |
that | Jan there | curious | about | is whether | he | invited | has.been | ||
'that Jan is eager to know whether he has been invited.' |
a'. | dat | Jan (er) | benieuwd | (naar) | is | [wie | Peter | uitgenodigd | heeft]. | |
that | Jan there | curious | about | is | who | Peter | invited | has | ||
'that Jan is eager to know who Peter invited.' |
b. | dat | Jan (er) | (in) | geïnteresseerd | was [of | Els zou | komen]. | |
that | Jan there | in | interested | was whether | Els would | come | ||
'that Jan was interested in whether Els would come.' |
b'. | dat | Jan | (er) | (in) | geïnteresseerd | was | [wie | er | zou | komen]. | |
that | Jan | there | in | interested | was | who | there | would | come | ||
'that Jan turned out to be interested in who would come.' |
It is plausible that the clausal complements in (11) and (12) are in fact not the syntactic complements of the adjective. The reason for this is that, as the material within parentheses shows, an anticipatory pronominal PP can be added to these examples, which acts as the semantic complement of the adjective and in which the element er is a “place-holder" of the clause-final sentence; see V4 for a discussion of comparable cases in the verbal domain. Observe in passing that the stranded preposition is placed to the right of the adjective benieuwd'curious' in (12a) and to the left of the adjective geïnteresseerd'interested' in (12b); see Section 2.3.1, sub III, for a discussion of this fact.
The examples in (13) and (14) show that the anticipatory pronominal PP becomes obligatory if the clausal complements of the examples in (11) and (12) are placed in clause-initial position. The primeless examples show that the PP has the demonstrative form daar P'P that', which suggests that we are dealing with a form of left dislocation in these examples. That we are not dealing with topicalization is clear from the fact, illustrated in the primed examples, that the clause cannot occupy the clause-initial position immediately preceding the finite verb, irrespective of whether the pronominal PP er + P is present or not.
a. | [Dat Peter niet uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan boos over. |
a'. | * | [Dat Peter niet uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) boos(over). |
b. | [Dat Peter uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan tevreden over. |
b'. | * | [Dat Peter uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) tevreden (over). |
c. | [Dat Els niet mocht komen] daar is Jan verontwaardigd over. |
c'. | * | [Dat Els niet mocht komen] is Jan (er) verontwaardigd (over). |
a. | [Of Peter uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan benieuwd/nieuwsgierig naar. |
a'. | * | [Of Peter uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) benieuwd/nieuwsgierig (naar). |
b. | [Of Els zou komen] daar bleek Jan in geïnteresseerd. |
b'. | * | [Of Els zou komen] bleek Jan (er) (in) geïnteresseerd. |
The possibility of omitting the anticipatory pronominal PP is restricted to those adjectives that optionally take a PP-complement; with the adjectives in Table 2 and Table 4 the anticipatory pronominal PP must therefore be present, as shown by the examples in (15).
a. | Jan is er | ziek | van | [dat | jij | steeds | zeurt]. | |
Jan is there | fed.up | with | that | you | continually | nag | ||
'Jan is fed up with it that you are nagging all the time.' |
a'. | * | Jan is ziek [dat jij steeds zeurt]. |
b. | Jan is er | tegen | gekant | [dat | Marie uitgenodigd | wordt]. | |
Jan is there | against | opposed | that | Marie invited | is | ||
'Jan is opposed to it that Marie is invited.' |
b'. | * | Jan is gekant [dat Marie uitgenodigd wordt]. |
Occasionally, the anticipatory pronominal PP cannot be used at all. This is especially the case if the adjective takes two prepositional objects at the same time. Consider example (16a). That both PPs are complements of the adjective boos is clear from the fact illustrated in (16a') that the complete string boos op Peter over die opmerking can be placed in clause-initial position; cf. the constituency test. Note that we added the adverb niet'not' to the primed example since this facilitates topicalization. When we replace the noun phrase die opmerking in (16a) by a clause, it turns out that the result is still acceptable, provided that the pronominal prepositional object is absent, as is clear from the contrast between the examples in (16b) and (16c).
a. | Jan is boos | op Peter | over die opmerking. | |
Jan is angry | with Peter | about that remark |
a'. | [Boos op Peter over die opmerking] is Jan niet. |
b. | Jan is boos | op Peter | dat | hij | niet | gekomen | is. | |
Jan is angry | with Peter | that | he | not | come | is | ||
'Jan is angry with Peter about the fact that he didnʼt come.' |
c. | * | Jan is er | boos | op Peter | over | dat | hij | niet | gekomen | is. |
Jan is there | angry | with Peter | about | that | he | not | come | is |
The unacceptability of (16c) is probably related to the fact illustrated by (17) that examples such as (16a) do not allow R-extraction from any of the two PP-complements; the fact noted earlier that anticipatory pronominal PPs obligatorily split immediately accounts for the impossibility of (16c). Note further that the ungrammaticality of (17b) may in principle be due to the fact that the stranded preposition over is not immediately adjacent to the selecting adjective; cf. Section P5.3.4. The fact that the example is also excluded if the stranded preposition over precedes the op-PP (*Jan is er boos over op Peter) shows, however, that more is going on than a simple violation of some adjacency requirement.
a. | * | Jan is er boos op over die opmerking . |
b. | * | Jan is er boos op Peter over. |
c. | * | Jan is er boos opover. |
The clausal complements in the previous subsection are finite clauses, but they can also appear in the form of an infinitival clause. This is illustrated in (18), in which the infinitival clause is given in square brackets. A property of these examples is that the reference of the implied subject of the infinitival clause, which is indicated by PRO, is controlled by the subject of the matrix clause, that is, the subject and PRO refer to the same referent, which is indicated here by means of co-indexing. Like in (11), the anticipatory pronoun can be dropped in (18), although this may sometimes give rise to a somewhat marked result. The examples in (18) also show that the clausal complement is not adjacent to the selecting adjective but placed after the verbs in clause-final position.
a. | dat | Jani (er) | boos | (over) | is [PROi | niet | uitgenodigd | te zijn]. | |
that | Jan there | angry | about | is | not | invited | to have.been | ||
'that Jan is angry (about it) not to have been invited.' |
b. | dat | Jani (er) | tevreden | (over) | is [PROi | uitgenodigd | te zijn]. | |
that | Jan there | satisfied | about | is | invited | to have.been | ||
'that Jan is satisfied (about it) to have been invited.' |
c. | dat | Jani (er) | verontwaardigd | (over) | is [PROi | niet | te mogen | komen]. | |
that | Jan there | indignant | about | is | not | to be.allowed | come | ||
'that Jan is indignant (about it) not to be allowed to come.' |
Unlike finite clauses, infinitival clauses cannot readily be fronted. The examples in (19) show that, insofar as this is acceptable, the anticipatory pronominal PP must be present in the demonstrative form daar P'P that'. The primed examples show again that we are dealing with left dislocation, and not with topicalization of the clause into the clause-initial position immediately preceding the finite verb.
a. | ? | [PRO niet uitgenodigd te zijn] daar is Jan boos over. |
a'. | * | [PRO niet uitgenodigd te zijn] is Jan (er) boos (over). |
b. | ? | [PRO uitgenodigd te zijn] daar is Jan tevreden over. |
b'. | * | [PRO uitgenodigd te zijn] is Jan tevreden. |
c. | ? | [PRO niet te mogen komen] daar is Jan verontwaardigd over. |
c'. | * | [PRO niet te mogen komen] is Jan (er) verontwaardigd (over). |
The possibility of omitting the anticipatory pronominal PP is again restricted to those adjectives that optionally take a PP-complement; the examples in (20) show that the adjectives in Table 2 and Table 4 require the pronominal PP to be present.
a. | dat | Jan er | ziek | van | is [PRO | steeds | op zijn zusje | te moeten passen]. | |
that | Jan there | fed.up | with | is | always | after his sister | to have.to look | ||
'that Jan is fed up with it to be obliged to look after his sister all the time.' |
a'. | * | dat Jan ziek is [PRO steeds op zijn zusje te moeten passen]. |
b. | d |