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8.2.Modification in the clausal domain: clause and VP adverbs

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This section discusses adverbially used adjectives in the clausal domain. There are at least two cases that can be distinguished on semantic grounds: adverbial phrases that modify the complete clause, and adverbial phrases that modify the verb phrase only. The following subsections will show how these two cases can be distinguished by means of paraphrasing.

I. Clausal adverbs
II. VP adverbs
III. Ambiguity between the two readings

[+] I. Clausal adverbs

Adverbial phrases that modify the full clause can be used in the syntactic frame: Het is adverb zo dat clause, as in (11).

		[clause ... Adverb ...] ⇒ het is ADVERB	zo	dat CLAUSE
		it is	the.case	that

This is illustrated in example (12) for the modal adverb waarschijnlijk'probably'. Note that the examples in (13) show that this test is also applicable to discourse particles like toch.

a.	Jan gaat	waarschijnlijk	naar Groningen.
	Jan goes	probably	to Groningen
	'Probably, Jan is going to Groningen.'

b.	Het	is waarschijnlijk	zo	dat	Jan naar Groningen	gaat.
	it	is probably	the.case	that	Jan to Groningen	goes
	'Itʼs probably the case that Jan will go to Groningen.'

a.	Jan komt	toch	morgen?
	Jan comes	prt	tomorrow
	'Jan is coming tomorrow, isnʼt he?'

Het is toch zo dat Jan morgen komt?

Example (12b) is also acceptable without the element zo, but this does not mean that this element is optional in the paraphrase. Example (14a) shows that the clausal adverb waarschijnlijk can neither undergo comparative formation nor be prefixed with the negative element on-. The same facts are found in the paraphrase in (14b), but not in (14c), in which zo is omitted.

a.	*	Jan is waarschijnlijker/onwaarschijnlijk	ziek.
		Jan is more.probably/not.probably	ill

b.	*	Het	is waarschijnlijker/onwaarschijnlijk	zo	dat	Jan ziek	is.
		it	is more.probably/not.probably	the.case	that	Jan ill	is

c.		Het	is waarschijnlijker/onwaarschijnlijk	dat	Jan ziek	is.
		it	is more.probable/improbable	that	Jan ill	is

The difference between (14b) and (14c) is that the adjective acts as an adverb in the former, but as an adjectival predicate that takes a clausal subject in the latter case (cf. Section 6.5), as was actually already suggested by the glosses in (14). This strongly suggests that zo is obligatory in the right-hand part of the schematic representation in (11), which is also supported by the fact that toch, which cannot be used predicatively, cannot be omitted in (13b).

[+] II. VP adverbs

Clauses that contain a VP adverb can be paraphrased by placing the adverb in a coordinated ... en pronoun doet dat adverb clause, in which the pronoun refers to the subject of the first conjunct. A schematic representation of this paraphrase is given in (15), in which coreference is indicated by means of coindexing. The examples in (16) illustrate this test for the manner adverb snel'fast'.

		[clausesubject .. Adverb ..] ⇒ [clause subjecti ..]	en pronouni	doet	dat adverb
			and	does	that

a.		Jan	rent	snel	naar de bakker.
		Jan	runs	fast	to the bakery

b.		Jani	rent	naar de bakker	en	hiji	doet	dat	snel.
		Jan	runs	to the bakery	and	he	does	that	fast

[+] III. Ambiguity between the two readings

The two subsections above have discussed the semantic tests for distinguishing clause and VP adverbs. The examples in (17a) and (17b) show that the two paraphrases are often mutually exclusive: modal adverbs like waarschijnlijk cannot be used in an ... en pronoundoet datadverb clause, and manner adverbs like snel cannot be used in the het is adverb zo dat ... frame.

a.	*	Jan gaat	naar Groningen	en	hij	doet	dat	waarschijnlijk.
		Jan goes	to Groningen	and	he	does	that	probably

b.	*	Het	is snel	zo	dat	Jan naar de bakker	rent.
		it	is fast	the.case	that	Jan to the bakery	runs

However, this does not hold for all adverbs. Adverbs of time like morgen'tomorrow', for example, can often be used both as a sentence adverb and as a VP adverb, which is also reflected in that they may either precede or follow adverbs like waarschijnlijk, which must be interpreted as clausal adverbs according to the adverb test in the primed examples.

a.	Jan wordt	morgen	(waarschijnlijk)	ontslagen.
	Jan be	tomorrow	probably	fired
	'Tomorrow, John will (probably) be fired.'

a'.		Het	is morgen	(waarschijnlijk)	zo	dat	Jan	ontslagen	wordt.
		it	is tomorrow	probably	the.case	that	Jan	fired	be

b.	Jan wordt	(waarschijnlijk)	morgen	ontslagen.
	Jan be	probably	tomorrow	fired
	'John will (probably) be fired tomorrow.'

b'.		Het	is waarschijnlijk	zo	dat	Jan morgen	ontslagen	wordt.
		it	is probably	the.case	that	Jan tomorrow	fired	be

References:

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: AdverbClause AdverbDiscourse ParticleParticleVP Adverb

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

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

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