- Dutch1
- 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
Section 9.2 has shown that attributively used adjectives can be either verbal or truly adjectival in nature. This section adopts as its starting point the hypothesis that only participles of the latter type can be used as complementives: Subsection I will examine this for the past/passive participles and Subsection II for the present participles, subsection III concludes with a discussion of the complementive use of modal infinitives.
This subsection discusses the complementive use of past/passive participles. According to the tests listed in Section 9.2, Table 6, past/passive participles like geslacht'slaughtered' and getrouwd'married' can be used as truly adjectival attributive participles, whereas past/passive participles like aangeboden'offered' and gevallen'fallen' cannot; cf. the discussion of (63) and (64). Consequently, if only truly adjectival participles can be used in the function of a complementive, we expect only the former to be possible in copular constructions. As we have seen in (65), repeated here as (96), this expectation indeed seems to be borne out.
a. | De schapen | bleken | geslacht. | |
the sheep | turned.out | slaughtered | ||
'The sheep turned out (to be) slaughtered.' |
b. | Dat stel | bleek | getrouwd. | |
that couple | turned.out | married | ||
'That couple turned out (to be) married.' |
c. | ?? | Dat boek | bleek | aangeboden. |
that book | turned.out | prt.-offered |
d. | ?? | De jongen | bleek | gevallen. |
the boy | turned.out | fallen |
The participles geslacht and getrouwd also exhibit truly adjectival behavior in the constructions in (96a&b) with respect to the tests in Table 6. The participle getrouwd, for example, has no aspectual content but refers to the state of being married. Furthermore, (97a) show that it can be prefixed with the negative marker on-, and (97b) that it can only be modified by time adverbs that refers to an interval on the time axis, such as jarenlang'for years'.
a. | Het stel | bleek | ongetrouwd. | |
the couple | turned.out | unmarried | ||
'The couple turned out to be unmarried.' |
b. | Het stel | bleek | jarenlang/??om drie uur | getrouwd. | |
the couple | turned.out | for.years/at 3 oʼclock | married | ||
'The couple turned out to have been married for years.' |
The two remaining tests in Table 6 cannot be used for independent reasons: the verb trouwen'to marry' has only one argument (a DO-subject), and comparative formation is impossible due to the fact that the truly adjectival participle getrouwd is not scalar; one is either married or not. Given that examples like (96a&b) exhibit truly adjectival behavior they are sometimes also referred to as adjectival passives.
The remainder of this subsection wil focus on the verb types of past/passive participle that can be used as complementive. Section 9.2.1 has shown that past/passive participles of intransitive verbs and nom-dat verbs that select the auxiliary hebben cannot be used attributively. The examples in (98) show that the same thing holds for the complementive use of these participles.
a. | * | De jongen | is | gehuild. | is = copular |
the boy | is | cried |
b. | * | De moed | is | (ons) | ontbroken. | is = copular |
the courage | has | us | lacked |
The subsections below will therefore focus on past/past participles of verb types that can also be used attributively, and will also discuss a number of tests that can be used to distinguish this complementive use of these participles from their use in perfect tense and passive constructions.
Given that the copular zijn'to be' is homophonous with the passive auxiliary and the auxiliary of time selected by unaccusative verbs, copular constructions with adjectival past/participle participles are sometimes difficult to distinguish from perfect tense and passive constructions. The following subsections discuss some tests that can be used to distinguish them.
In the copular constructions in (96), we have used the copular verb blijken'to turn out' instead of zijn'to be' in order to avoid problems that arise due to the fact that the copular verb zijn'to be' is homophonous with the perfect and passive auxiliaries zijn; if we replace blijken in (96b-d) by zijn, as in (99), it is not immediately clear whether we are dealing with a copular or a passive/past perfect construction. Note that we can put (96a) aside for the moment because transitive verbs do not take the perfect auxiliary zijn'to be', but hebben'to have' (but see the discussion in Subsection 2).
a. | Het stel | is getrouwd. | |
that couple | is married | ||
Past perfect construction: 'The couple has married.' | |||
Copular construction: 'The couple is married.' |
b. | Het boek | is aangeboden. | |
the book | is prt.-offered | ||
Passive construction: 'The book has been offered.' |
c. | De jongen | is gevallen. | |
the boy | is fallen | ||
Past perfect construction: 'The boy has fallen.' |
Example (99c) is grammatical, in contrast to (96d), but we are not dealing with a copular construction since the participle can only refer to the process of falling and not to the state of being fallen. This is also clear from the fact, illustrated in (100), that adverbials like al jarenlang cannot be used. From this we conclude that we are dealing with the perfect auxiliary zijn.
De jongen | is gisteren/*al jarenlang | gevallen. | ||
the boy | is yesterday/for years | fallen | ||
'The boy fell yesterday.' |
We are not dealing with a copular construction in (99b) either: the participle does not refer to the state of being offered and (101a) shows that modification by the adverbial phrase al jarenlang is impossible. Furthermore, an indirect object can be added, which is impossible if we are dealing with a truly adjectival participle; cf. Table 6. Since a passive door-phrase is also possible in (101a), we are clearly dealing with a passive construction. Recall that if the passive auxiliary is worden, as in (101b), an inchoative or durative aspect is added, as a result of which the adverb test is no longer conclusive: adverbial phrases that refer to an interval on the time axis become possible in that case.
a. | Het boek | is gisteren/*al jarenlang | (door hem) | (aan Marie) | aangeboden. | |
the book | is yesterday/for years | by him | to Marie | prt.-offered | ||
'The book was offered yesterday.' |
b. | Het boek | wordt | morgen/al jarenlang | aangeboden. | |
the book | is | tomorrow/for years | prt.-offered | ||
'The book will be/has been offered tomorrow/for years.' |
In accordance with our findings with respect to (99b&c), the participle in example (99a) may also have a verbal reading. So, (99a) differs from the unambiguous copular construction with blijken'to turn out' in (96b) in that it need not have the adjectival/state reading, but can also have the (verbal) past perfect reading. In accordance with this, example (102a) shows that the adverbial phrases al jarenlang'for years' and om drie uur'at 3 oʼclock' can both be used felicitously. This does not imply, however, that constructions with zijn are always ambiguous: if the participle is prefixed with on-, as in (102b), we are clearly dealing with an adjective and only the stative reading is possible, which is also clear from the fact that the presence of the adverbial PP om drie uur leads to unacceptability. Furthermore, example (102c) shows that the adjectival reading is excluded if the participle appears after the verb in clause-final position: this is, of course, in accordance with the finding from Section 6.2.2 that adjectives must precede the clause-final verb(s); see also Table 2.
a. | Het stel | is al jarenlang/om drie uur | getrouwd. | |
the couple | is for years/at 3 oʼclock | married | ||
. |
b. | Het stel | is al jarenlang/*om drie uur | ongetrouwd. | |
the couple | is for years/at 3 oʼclock | unmarried | ||
'The couple has been unmarried for years.' |
c. | dat | het stel | om drie uur/*al jarenlang | is getrouwd. | |
that | the couple | at 3 oʼclock/for years | is married | ||
'that the couple married at 3 oʼclock.' |
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the ungrammatical version of sentences such as (102c) is sometimes produced. On closer introspection, most speakers will agree that this should be considered a performance error. The same performance error is occasionally made with pseudo-participles like bekend'well-known/famous'.
Section 6.2.1, sub IB, has shown that in Dutch dialects that allow possessive datives, the Standard Dutch copular construction in (103a) has the semi-copular alternant in (103b).
a. | Zijn band | is lek. | |
his tire | is punctured |
b. | Hij | heeft | de band | lek. | |
he | has | the tire | punctured | ||
'He has a punctured tire.' |
Now, consider the Standard Dutch example in (104a), which can be construed either as a passive or as a copular construction, depending on whether the participle is construed as verbal or adjectival. The actual reading can be established by means of several tests: addition of the adverb gisteren'yesterday', as in (104b), suggests that we are dealing with the verbal (passive) participle, which is confirmed by the fact that the passive door-phrase can be added to such examples; addition of adverbial phrases like al jarenlang, as in (104c), suggests that we are dealing with a copular construction, which is confirmed by the fact that the door-phrase cannot be added. More evidence for these conclusions is that (104d) shows that the participle cannot occur postverbally if the adverbial phrase is al jarenlang.
a. | Zijn fiets | is gestolen. | ||
his bicycle | is stolen | |||
Passive construction: 'His bike is stolen.' | is = passive auxiliary | |||
Semi-copular construction: 'His bike is stolen.' | is = copular |
b. | Zijn fiets | is gisteren | (door Peter) | gestolen. | |
his bicycle | is yesterday | by Peter | stolen | ||
'His bicycle was stolen (by Peter) yesterday.' |
c. | Zijn fiets | is al jarenlang | (*door Peter) | gestolen. | |
his bicycle | is for years | by Peter | stolen | ||
'His bicycle has been stolen for years.' |
d. | dat | zijn fiets | gisteren/*al jarenlang | is gestolen. | |
that | his bicycle | yesterday/for years | is stolen | ||
'that his bicycle was stolen yesterday.' |
In the non-standard varieties of Dutch that allow the semi-copular construction in (103b), (104a) can be translated as in (105a) on the truly adjectival reading of the participle. This sentence is again ambiguous, as it can also be interpreted as a perfect-tense construction. The construction can be disambiguated in similar ways as (104a): addition of the adverb gisteren in (105b) is only possible on the verbal reading of the participle, whereas addition of al jarenlang in (105c) triggers the adjectival/state reading. Observe that, as expected, the adverbial phrase al jarenlang cannot be used in the corresponding present-tense construction *Hij steelt al jarenlang de fiets'He was stealing the bike for years'. Example (104d), finally, shows that the adverbial phrase al jarenlang cannot be used if the participle follows the auxiliary in clause-final position.
a. | Hij | heeft | de fiets | gestolen. | |
he | has | the bicycle | stolen | ||
Past perfect construction: 'He has stolen the bike.' | |||||
Semi-copular construction: 'His bike was stolen.' |
b. | Hij | heeft | gisteren | de fiets | gestolen. | |
he | has | yesterday | the bicycle | stolen | ||
'He stole the bicycle yesterday.' |
c. | Hij | heeft | al jarenlang | de fiets | gestolen. | |
he | has | for years | the bicycle | stolen | ||
'He has had his bicycle stolen for years.' |
d. | dat | hij | gisteren/*al jarenlang | de fiets | heeft | gestolen. | |
that | he | yesterday/for years | the bicycle | has | stolen |
As the participle can only be interpreted as truly adjectival if the subject enters into a possessive relation with the object, (105a) can also be disambiguated by adding a possessive pronoun to the object: this blocks this possessive relation and, as a result, (106) is only compatible with the verbal reading of the participle.
Hij | heeft | haar/zijn fiets | gestolen. | ||
he | has | her/his bicycle | stolen | ||
'He has stolen her/his bicycle.' |
Section 6.2.1, sub IB, has also shown that Standard Dutch has a similar semi-copular construction with hebben'to have', which occurs under somewhat more strict conditions than the dialect construction in (105a). A sentence like (107a), for example, is ambiguous between a past perfect and a semi-copular reading. That (107a) can be interpreted as a past perfect construction is clear from the fact that it has the present tense counterpart in (107b), and that it can be interpreted as a semi-copular construction is evident from the fact that hebben can be replaced by the semi-copular verb krijgen'to get' in (107c). Observe that, unlike the dialect construction in (105a), the Standard Dutch semi-copular construction is possible if the object contains a possessive pronoun.
a. | Jan heeft | zijn raam | niet | gesloten. | |
Jan has | his window | not | closed | ||
Past perfect construction: 'Jan hasnʼt closed his window.' | |||||
Semi-copular construction: 'Jan doesnʼt have his window closed.' |
b. | Jan sluit | zijn raam | niet. | |
Jan closes | his window | not |
c. | Jan krijgt | zijn raam | niet | gesloten. | |
Jan gets | his window | not | closed |
The semi-copular and past perfect readings in (107a) are again subject to the familiar restrictions: use of punctual adverbs like gisteren, as in (108a), is only possible on the verbal/eventive reading of the participle, whereas addition of non-punctual adverbs like altijd in (105c) triggers the adjectival/state reading. Placing the participle after the finite verb in clause-final position, as in (108c), is only possible in the perfect-tense construction, that is, if the participle is verbal; this is clear from the fact that this construction is only compatible with punctual adverbial phrases like gisteren.
a. | Jan heeft | gisteren | zijn raam | gesloten. | |
Jan has | yesterday | his window | closed | ||
'Jan didnʼt close his window yesterday.' |
b. | Jan heeft | altijd | zijn raam | gesloten. | |
Jan has | always | his window | closed | ||
'Jan always has his window closed.' |
c. | dat | Jan zijn raam | gisteren/*altijd | heeft | gesloten. | |
that | Jan his window | yesterday/always | has | closed | ||
'that Jan didnʼt close his window yesterday.' |
This subsection has shown that only truly adjectival participles can be used as predicates in (semi-)copular constructions. Sometimes ambiguity arises between the predicative and the passive/past perfect constructions, but it has been shown that some of the tests from Section 9.1 can be used to distinguish the two readings. Further, it has been shown that the relative position of the participle and the remaining verbs in clause-final position is relevant: if the participle follows the verb hebben/zijn, the adjectival reading is blocked.
Section 9.2.1 has shown that past participles of nom-dat verbs can be used attributively to modify a head noun that corresponds to the DO-subject, provided that the verb takes the auxiliary zijn in the perfect tense. This is shown again in (109).
a. | Die opmerking | is ons | opgevallen. | perfect auxiliary zijn | |
that remark | is us | prt.-noticed | |||
'We have noticed that remark.' |
a'. | de | ons | opgevallen | opmerking | |
the | us | prt.-noticed | remark | ||
'the remark that we have noticed' |
b. | De moed | heeft | ons | ontbroken. | perfect auxiliary hebben | |
the courage | has | us | lacked | |||
'We (have) lacked the courage.' |
b'. | *? | de | ons | ontbroken | moed |
the | us | lacked | courage |
Since the past participle ontbroken cannot be used attributively, it does not come as a surprise that it cannot be used predicatively (cf. *de moed is/bleek ontbroken). Example (110) shows, though, that the past participle of the nom-dat verb opvallen cannot be used predicatively either. This is, however, in accordance with the conclusion reached in 9.2.1, sub II, that past participles of nom-dat verbs like opvallen do not have a truly adjectival interpretation; cf. (57).
a. | * | De opmerking | is/blijkt | opgevallen. |
the remark | is/turns.out | prt.-noticed |
For completeness’ sake, note that (109a) is not ambiguous between the perfect tense and the copular construction as truly adjectival participles generally do not allow nominal arguments; that (109a) cannot be a case of the copular construction is also illustrated by the fact illustrated in (111) that only adverbs that refer to a certain point on the time axis, like gisteren, lead to a felicitous result; cf. Table 6.
Die opmerking | is ons | gisteren/*al jaren | opgevallen. | ||
that remark | is us | yesterday/for years | prt.-noticed | ||
'We noticed that remark yesterday.' |
Section 9.2.1 has also shown that past participles of object experiencer psych-verbs can be used attributively if the modified noun corresponds to the +human object of the corresponding active verb. This is illustrated again in (112).
a. | Die berichten | verontrusten | de jongen. | |
those messages | disturb | the boy |
a'. | de | verontruste | jongen | |
the | disturbed | boy |
b. | Het avontuur | wond | de jongen | op. | |
the adventure | excited | the boy | prt. | ||
'The adventure excited the boy.' |
b'. | de | opgewonden | jongen | |
the | excited | boy |
The examples in (113) show that the past participles can also be used predicatively; in these cases no confusion arises with perfect-tense constructions, given that these psych-verbs select the auxiliary hebben'to have'. Observe that the truly adjectival status of the participles is also evident from the fact that they can be modified by intensifiers like heel/zeer'very'.
a. | De jongen | is al jaren/*gisteren | (heel) | verontrust | (over die berichten). | |
the boy | is for years/yesterday | very | disturbed | about those messages |
b. | De jongen | is al jaren/*gisteren | (zeer) | opgewonden | (over het avontuur). | |
the boy | is for years/yesterday | very | excited | about the adventure |
The discussion in this subsection has shown that the complementive use of past/passive participles is more restricted than their attributive use: it is only possible if the participle is truly adjectival, that is, with a subset of transitive and monadic unaccusative verbs, and object experiencer verbs; cf. Table 5.
Section 9.2.1, sub II, has shown that the truly adjectival reading of present participles is restricted to object experiencer psych-verbs. If only truly adjectival participles can be used in predicative position, we would expect that only the participles of psych-verbs can occur in the copular construction. The following subsections will show that this expectation is more or less borne out, although various provisos must be made. Let us first start with a brief overview.
Present participles of intransitive and transitive verbs cannot be used in the copular construction. This was shown in (74a&b), and some more examples are given in (114) and (115). The ungrammaticality of the predicative constructions in the primed examples contrast sharply with the acceptability of the corresponding attributive constructions: cf. het vloekende/werkende meisje'the cursing/working girl' and het zingende/etende meisje 'the singing/eating girl'.
a. | Het meisje | vloekt. | |
the girl | curses |
a'. | * | Het meisje | is | vloekend. |
the girl | iscopula | cursing |
b. | Het meisje | werkt. | |
the girl | works |
b'. | * | Het meisje | is | werkend. |
the girl | iscopula | working |
a. | Het meisje | zingt | een lied. | |
the girl | sings | a song |
a'. | * | Het meisje | is | zingend. |
the girl | iscopula | singing |
b. | Het meisje | eet | een appel. | |
the girl | eats | an apple |
b'. | * | Het meisje | is | etend. |
the girl | iscopula | eating |
The examples in (116) show, however, there are many metaphorically used present participles that can be used not only attributively, but also predicatively. Given that the meanings of these forms are highly specialized, we may be dealing with genuine adjectives. Note that the non-metaphorically used present participles in (116c'&d') yield unacceptable results.
a. | een | moordend | tempo | |
a | killing | tempo | ||
'a punishing tempo' |
c. | een | moordende | scholier | |
the | killing | student | ||
'the student who is killing' |
a'. | Het tempo is moordend. |
c'. | * | De scholier is moordend. |
b. | een | sprekende | gelijkenis | |
a | speaking | resemblance | ||
'a remarkable/telling resemblance' |
d. | de | sprekende | voorzitter | |
the | speaking | chairman | ||
'the chairman, who is speaking' |
b'. | De gelijkenis is sprekend. |
d'. | * | De voorzitter is sprekend. |
Example (74c) has shown that present participles of unaccusative verbs normally cannot be used in the copular construction; the examples in (117) illustrate this again. The ungrammaticality of the predicative constructions in the primed examples again contrasts sharply with the acceptability of the corresponding attributive constructions de vertrekkende gasten'the leaving guests' and de vallende jongen'the falling boy'.
a. | De gasten | zijn | vertrokken. | |
the guests | are | left | ||
'The guests have left.' |
a'. | * | De gasten zijn vertrekkend. |
the guests arecopula leaving |
b. | De jongen | is gevallen. | |
the boy | is fallen | ||
'The boy fell/has fallen.' |
b'. | * | De jongen | is | vallend. |