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9.3.4.The partitive genitive construction

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This section discusses the partitive genitive use of participles and modal infinitives. In the previous sections, we have amply demonstrated that a distinction should be made between verbal and truly adjectival participles/modal infinitives, and that participles and modal infinitives can only be used in predicative position if they are truly adjectival. Section 7.2.3 has shown that partitive genitive adjectives constitute a subset of the adjectives that can be used predicatively; cf. the observational generalization from Section 7.2.3, repeated here as (147) and (148).

147

The set of partitive genitive adjectives is a proper subset of the adjectives that can be used as predicative complements.

148

adjectives that can only be predicated of +animate noun phrases;

adjectives that take a proposition as their subject;

adjectives that take weather het as their subject;

adjectives that take a nominal complement;

superlatives;

adjective that end in /a/, /o/, /i/, /e/, /y/ or /ə/.

Consequently, we predict that only truly adjectival participles/modal infinitives can enter into a partitive genitive construction. This section will show that this prediction is borne out, albeit that the partitive genitive construction is much more restricted than one might expect on the basis of the generalizations in (147) and (148).

I. Past/passive participles
II. Present participles
III. Modal infinitives

[+] I. Past/passive participles

Section 9.3 has shown that only past/passive participles of transitive, unaccusative and object experiencer psych-verbs can be used in predicative position. The generalization in (147) consequently limits the potential candidates for the partitive genitive construction to (a subset of) these verbs. The examples in (149) through (151) show, however, that past/passive participles normally do not seem to occur in the partitive genitive construction at all, although some speakers seem to marginally accept the transitive examples in (149a&c).

149

a.	?	iets	gekookts
		something	cooked

b.	*	iets	besprokens	transitive
		something	discussed

c.	*?	iets	gestolens
		something	stolen

d.	*	iets	gelezens
		something	read

150

a.	*	iets	gekrompens
		something	shrunk

b.	*	iets	gevallens	unaccusative
		something	left

151

a.	*	iets	opgewondens
		something	excited

b.	*	iets	overtuigds	psych-verbs
		something	convinced

c.	*	iets	verontrusts
		something	upset

We need not be surprised at the ungrammaticality of the examples with object experiencer psych-verbs in (151): truly adjectival participles of psychological verbs are predicated of +human entities only (cf. the primed examples in (112)), and these examples are therefore excluded by clause (148a). Since this does not hold for the examples in (149) and (150), the reason for their degraded status remains mysterious. Observe that if the participle is prefixed with on-, which is only possible if we are dealing with true adjectives, the result is still not very felicitous; the primed examples are added to show that these prefixed participles can be used in copular constructions. For completeness’ sake, the examples in (153) show that pseudo-participles can also be used in the partitive genitive construction.

152

(?)

iets ongekookts

a'.		Het ei	bleek	nog	ongekookt.
		the egg	turned.out	still	un-boiled

iets onbesprokens

b'.		Dit onderwerp	bleef	onbesproken.
		this topic	remained	un-discussed

iets ongelezens

c'.		Het boek	bleef	ongelezen.
		the book	remained	unread

153

a.		iets	bekends
		something	well-known

b.		iets	gekleurds
		something	colored

c.		iets	geschikts
		something	fit

[+] II. Present participles

Section 9.3.1, sub II, has shown that the predicative use of present participles is restricted to object experiencer psych-verbs and possibly certain subsets of the unaccusative verbs; cf. Table 7 in Section 9.3.1, sub IIE. We will discuss these cases in Subsections A-C, subsection D concludes with a number of potentially problematic cases.

[+] A. Object experiencer psych-verbs

The generalization in (147) correctly predicts that the present participles of object experiencer psych-verbs can also be felicitously used in the partitive genitive; this is shown in the primed examples in (154).

154

a.		Zijn avontuur	was heel opwindend.
		his adventure	was very exciting

a'.		iets	opwindends
		something	exciting

b.		Die mededeling	was heel verontrustend.
		that announcement	was very disturbing

b'.		iets	verontrustends
		something	disturbing

c.		Zijn argumenten	zijn	erg onovertuigend.
		his arguments	are	very unconvincing

c'.		iets	overtuigends
		something	convincing

Section 9.3.1, sub II, has shown that the present participles of psych-verbs like irriteren'to irritate' and interesseren'to interest' cannot be used predicatively; they are blocked in this context by the existence of genuine adjectives like irritant'irritating' and interessant'interesting'. The same thing can be observed in the partitive genitive constructions in (155).

155

a.	??	iets	irriterends
		something	annoying

a'.		iets	irritants
		something	annoying

b.	*	iets	interesserends
		something	interesting

b'.		iets	interessants
		something	interesting

c.	??	iets	bekorends
		something	beguiling

c'.		iets	bekoorlijks
		something	beguiling

[+] B. Present participles of unaccusative verbs ending in -e

The primeless examples of (156) show again that the present participles of a limited number of unaccusative verbs can be used predicatively, provided they are affixed with the ending -e; such cases are exceptional, given that predicatively used adjectives are normally not inflected; cf. Section 9.3.1, sub IIB. The primed examples show that partitive genitive use of these present participles is possible as well; note that the -e ending is absent in these cases.

156

a.		Het schip	is zinkende.
		the ship	is sinking

a'.		iets	zinkends/*zinkendes
		something	sinking

b.		Het verzet	is groeiende.
		the resistance	is growing

b'.		iets	groeiends/*groeiendes
		something	growing

[+] C. Unaccusative motion verbs

Another subset of the unaccusative verbs that allow predicative use of their present participle is constituted by the motion verbs; cf. (157). However, given that these present participles are always predicated of +human entities, generalization (147a) correctly predicts that they cannot be used in the partitive genitive construction.

157

a.		De jongen	bleek	lopend.
		the boy	turned.out	walking

a'.	*	iets	lopends
		something	walking

b.		Het meisje	bleek	liftend.
		the girl	turned.out	hitchhiking

b'.	*	iets	liftends
		something	hitchhiking

[+] D. Problematic cases

This subsection concludes with a number of problematic cases for the generalization in (147), according to which the set of adjectives that may enter the partitive genitive construction is a proper subset of the set of adjectives that can be used as predicative complements. The (a)-examples in (158) involve intransitive motion verbs, the second (b)- and (c)-examples involve verbs expressing transmission of, respectively, sound and light, and the (d)-examples involve verbs that denote certain natural processes. In all cases, the partitive genitive constructions in the primeless examples are at least marginally acceptable, whereas the corresponding copular constructions in the primed examples are not.

158

a.	?	iets	bewegends/wapperends/vliegends
		something	moving/waving/flying

a'.	*	De vlag is bewegend/wapperend.
		the flag is moving/waving

a''.	*	Het toestel	is vliegend.
		the machine	is flying

b.		iets	zoemends/ruizends
		something	buzzing/rustling

b'.	*	the wekker is	zoemend
		the alarm clock is	buzzing

b''.	*	De bladeren	zijn ruizend.
		the leaves	are rustling

c.	?	iets	flikkerends/glinsterends
		something	glittering

c'.	*	Het glas	is flikkerend/glinsterend.
		the glass	is glittering

d.	?	iets	rottends/bloeiends
		something	rotting/flowering

d'.	*	Die appel	is rottend.
		that apple	is rotting

d''.	*	Die boom	is bloeiend.
		that tree	is flowering

The verbs in (158) do not take an object but differ from normal intransitive verbs in that their subject can be inanimate and that impersonal passivization gives rise to a degraded result. For this reason it has been suggested that verbs like these constitute a special unaccusativity type, which differs from the more familiar type in that its members select the perfect auxiliary hebben; see Section V2.1 for discussion. The question why the primeless examples in (158) are acceptable must be left to future research.

[+] III. Modal infinitives

Section 9.3.1, sub III, has shown that modal infinitives of transitive verbs can be used in the copular construction on their ability reading. The generalization in (147) therefore predicts that truly adjectival predicatively used modal infinitives can be used in the partitive genitive construction, but the primed examples in (159) show that this prediction is incorrect. As in the case of the past/passive participles in Subsection I, there is no obvious explanation for the unacceptability of the partitive genitive constructions.

159

a.	Dat boek	is gemakkelijk	te lezen.
	that book	is easily	to read
	'This book is easily accessible.'

a'.	*	iets	te lezens
		something	to read

b.	Deze afstand	is gemakkelijk	af	te leggen.
	this distance	is easily	prt.	to cover
	'This distance can be covered easily.'

b'.	*	iets	af	te leggens
		something	prt.	to cover

c.	Dit probleem	is gemakkelijk	te begrijpen.
	this problem	is easily	to understand
	'This problem can be understood easily.'

c'.	*	iets	te begrijpens
		something	to understand

References:

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: BlockingModal InfinitiveParticiple

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

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

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