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3.1.2.Locational PPs that denote a set of vectors
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This section is concerned with adpositions like voor'in front of' and achter'behind', which denote a set of vectors. It will be shown that the denoted set can be delimited by making use of modifiers that restrict the orientation or the magnitude of the vectors.

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[+]  I.  Modifiers of orientation

Modifiers that indicate the orientation of the located object with respect to the reference object are limited in number. The modifier recht in (6a) and the modifiers schuin/links/rechts in (6b) are in a sense complementary: whereas the former restricts the set of vectors to those in which x = 0, the latter exclude these. Note that we have topicalized the modified PPs in these examples to unambiguously show that the modifier and the PP form a constituent; cf. the constituency test.

6
a. Recht voor/achter Jan zit Marie.
  straight  in.front.of/behind  Jan sits  Marie
b. Schuin/Links/Rechts voor/achter Jan zit Marie.
  diagonally/left/right  in.front.of/behind  Jan sits  Marie

The modifiers in the primed examples could be called approximative modifiers given that they all express that the y-value of the vectors is smaller than some contextually determined norm n, that is, that the vectors in the denotation set stay close to the y-axis. The modifiers precies/exact stress that there is no deviation (the y-value is precisely 0), whereas the modifiers ongeveer/zowat express that the deviation is small (y < n).

7
a. Precies/Exact voor/achter Jan zit Marie.
  precisely/exactly  in.front.of/behind  Jan sits  Marie
b. Ongeveer/Zowat voor/achter Jan zit Marie.
  approximately/more or less  in.front.of/behind  Jan sits  Marie

      The primeless examples in (8) show that modifiers of orientation cannot be extracted from the adpositional phrase by means of wh-movement, and we will see in Subsection II that they differ in this respect from modifiers of distance.

8
a. # Hoe recht zit Marie voor/achter Jan?
  how straight  sits  Marie in.front.of/behind  Jan
b. # Hoe schuin zit Marie voor/achter Jan?
  how diagonally  sits  Marie in.front.of/behind  Jan

It seems likely that this ban on extraction is related to the fact that, in contrast to modifiers of distance, modifiers of orientation are not gradable; cf. the primeless examples in (9). It is therefore not the extraction but the modification by the interrogative degree modifier hoe that is excluded, as will also be clear from the primed examples in (9), in which the PPs are pied-piped by wh-movement of the modifiers.

9
a. # Marie zit erg recht voor/achter Jan.
  Marie  sits  very straight  in.front.of/behind  Jan
a'. # Hoe recht voor/achter Jan zit Marie?
b'. # Marie zit erg schuin voor/achter Jan.
  Marie  sits  very diagonally  in.front.of/behind  Jan
b. # Hoe schuin zit Marie voor/achter Jan?

The number signs in (8) and (9) indicate that the examples are acceptable if recht/schuin refers to the posture of Marie; under this reading it acts as an adjectival supplementive modifying Marie; cf. the discussion of the examples in (14) and (15) below. In this connection it can also be noted that it is not surprising that the adjectives recht and schuin are used as modifiers of orientation, since they also denote orientations if they are used attributively or predicatively. Consider the examples in (10a&b): if we use recht'upright', the orientation of the tower is parallel to the vertical axis in the three-dimensional space diagram in Figure 4 below, while the orientation diverges from it if we use schuin'leaning'. Something similar holds for the adjectives links and rechts in (10c), although in these cases a reference object is always implied, which can be made explicit by adding a modifying van-PP.

10
a. De toren staat recht/schuin.
  the tower  stands  upright/leaning
b. een rechte/schuine toren
  a(n)  upright/leaning  tower
c. Jan staat links/rechts (van de auto).
  Jan stands  left/right    of the car
  'Jan is standing to the left/right of the car.'

      Not all locational PPs that denote a set of vectors can be combined with the three types of modifiers illustrated in the examples in (6). Table 1 provides a list of the relevant prepositions and indicates whether modification by these modifiers is possible or not; the percentage sign expressesthat modification is blocked due to pragmatic factors and the number sign that modification is possible but does not give rise to the intended reading.

Table 1: Modifiers of orientation
preposition translation recht
'straight'
ongeveer
'approximately'
schuin
'diagonally'
achter
voor
behind
in front of
+ + +
boven
onder
above
under
+ + +
naast
links/rechts van
next to
to the left/right of
% % %
buiten
bij
outside
near
om
rond
around
around
tegenover opposite + + +
langs along +
tussen between #

      If we assume the Cartesian-style coordinate system in Figure 4 (cf. Section 1.3.1.2.2), we may conclude that at least the modifiers of orientation recht and schuin can only modify prepositions that are related to one single axis, that is, to one single dimension in space. We will discuss this below.

Figure 4: The division of space (repeated)

The proposed constraint on the use of modifiers of orientation immediately accounts for the fact that voor/achter and onder/boven are eligible for modification, since they are related to only a single axis (the z- and the y-axis, respectively). We would also expect modification of naast to be possible, but the judgments on such examples are less clear. The primed examples in (11) have been given as grammatical in the literature, but according to us they are certainly not as felicitous as the primeless examples involving voor/achter and onder/boven: (11a') seems to be unacceptable, (11b') is at least marked, and the same thing holds for (11c').

11
a. Jan zit recht voor/achter Marie.
  Jan sits  straight  in.front.of/behind  Marie
a'. % Jan zit recht naast Marie.
  Jan sits  straight  next.to  Marie
b. Jan zit schuin voor/achter Marie.
  Jan sits  diagonally  in.front.of/behind  Marie
b'. % Jan zit schuin naast Marie.
  Jan zits  diagonally  next.to  Marie
c. Jan zit links/rechts voor/achter Marie.
  Jan sits  left/right  in.front.of/behind  Marie
c'. % Jan zit links/rechts naast Marie.
  Jan sits  left/right  next.to  Marie

We have assigned the primed examples a percentage sign given that their infelicitousness may be due to pragmatic rather than to syntactic factors. This holds especially for the examples in (11b'&c'); the intended meaning of these examples can in principle also be expressed by means of the corresponding primeless examples. Given that the latter are more precise in the sense that they denote a smaller set of vectors, we may be dealing with a pragmatic blocking effect; in accordance with Griceʼs Maxim of Quantity, the more precise and therefore more informative assertion is preferred over the less informative one.
      The proposed constraint on the distribution of modifiers of orientation straightforwardly accounts for the fact indicated in Table 1 that modification of buiten and bij is excluded given that they involve two axes (dimensions), viz. the x- and the y-axis; cf. Figure 21 in Section 1.3. Similarly, modification of om and rond is excluded since they also involve at least two axes; cf. the discussion of Figure 13C&D in Section 1.3.1.2.2, sub I. Modification of tegenover is possible since it refers to a subset of situations in which voor is applicable, and hence involves just a single axis; see the discussion of Figure 19 in Section 1.3.

12
Het café staat recht/schuin tegenover de kerk.
  the bar  stands  straight/diagonally  opposite the church

The preposition langs'along' is special in that the vectors it denotes do not have the same starting point (which actually also holds for the prepositions buiten and bij but in a less conspicuous way). Instead, the vectors are more or less parallel; see the discussion of Figure 20 in Section 1.3. Therefore, langs also involves more than one dimension, and modification by recht and schuin is correctly predicted to be excluded in (13a). Nevertheless, the use of the modifiers precies and ongeveer is possible (13b); the two modifiers differ in that the former expresses that the garbage cans are placed in a neat line, whereas the latter expresses that their arrangement is a bit sloppier.

13
a. * De vuilnisbakken staan recht/schuin langs de rand van de stoep.
  the garbage.cans  stand straight/diagonally along the edge of the sidewalk
b. De vuilnisbakken staan precies/?ongeveer langs de rand van de stoep.
  the garbage.cans  stand exactly/approximately  along the edge of the sidewalk

      The preposition tussen deserves special discussion. As can be seen in (14a), the PP seemingly can be modified by the modifier recht. However, the meaning of recht seems to differ from the intended meaning. It does not modify the position of the located object Jan with respect to the reference objects de twee agenten, but refers to Janʼs posture: the example expresses that Jan is standing between the two agents, and that his posture is straight. In other words, recht seems to be predicated of Jan rather than modifying the PP; it is equivalent to the supplementive rechtop'upright', which can never be used as a modifier. That we are really dealing with a supplementive, not a modifier, is also clear from the fact that the AP can appear if the PP is not present, and from the fact illustrated in (14b) that the adjective can be topicalized in isolation.

14
a. Jan staat recht/rechtop (tussen de agenten).
  Jan stands  upright   between the cops
b. Recht/Rechtop staat Jan tussen de agenten.

The same arguments can be repeated for the adjective schuin in (15), which performs a similar function as the supplementive gebogen'stooped'. Therefore, we may conclude that the modifiers recht and schuin cannot be used to modify a PP headed by tussen.

15
a. Jan staat schuin/gebogen (tussen de agenten).
  Jan stands  diagonally/stooped   between the cops
b. Schuin/Gebogen staat Jan tussen de agenten.

      Modification of tussen by means of precies'exactly' is possible, but then the modifier expresses that the distances from the located object and the relevant reference objects are all equal. Example (16a) expresses that the distance between the painting and candlestick 1 is equal to the distance between the painting and candlestick 2. Note that it is not necessarily the case that the painting is located on the straight line between the two candlesticks; the painting may be hanging in the region above the candlesticks. The same thing holds for ongeveer'approximately'; example (16b) only expresses that the distance between the painting and candlestick 1 is approximately the same as the distance between the painting and candlestick 2. We therefore conclude that PPs headed by tussen cannot be modified by modifiers of orientation; precies and ongeveer must have some other function.

16
a. Het schilderij hing precies tussen de twee kandelaars.
  the painting  hung  exactly  between the two candlesticks
b. Het schilderij hing ongeveer tussen de twee kandelaars.
  the painting  hung  approximately  between the two candlesticks

      Example (17b) shows that the modifiers discussed in this subsection do not modify the preposition itself, but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition. Note that the R-word can also precede the modifier, but this is not relevant as this simply shows that the R-word can undergo R-extraction, that is, be moved further to the left.

17
a. Recht/Schuin/Precies achter die zuil staat een klein beeldje.
  straight/diagonally/exactly  behind that pillar  stands  a small statue
b. [Recht/Schuin/Precies [PP er achter]] staat een klein beeldje.
  straight/diagonally/exactly  there  behind  stands  a small statue

      Finally, it can be observed that the degree of appropriateness of the use of two prepositions can be compared; example (18a) expresses that, as far as the orientation of the vector is concerned, both boven'above' and naast'next to' seem to be applicable, but that boven is the more accurate term. Note that the set of vectors denoted by the adpositions must partly overlap; (18b) shows that antonymous adpositions, which do not satisfy this condition, cannot be used in this construction. Note that the number sign indicates that (18b) is acceptable if meer is interpreted as a frequency adverb meaning “more often”.

18
a. De kogel zit meer boven dan naast het hart.
  the bullet  sits  more  above  than  next.to the heart
b. # Jan zit meer voor dan achter Marie.
  Jan sits  more in.front.of  than behind  Marie
[+]  II.  Modifiers of distance

Whereas modifiers of orientation are always adjectival in nature, modifiers of distance (the modifiers of the magnitude of the vectors in the denoted set) can be either adjectival or nominal. This is shown in (19), in which we have topicalized the modified PP in order to unambiguously show that the modifier and the PP form a constituent; cf. the constituency test. We will discuss the adjectival and nominal modifiers in separate subsections.

19
a. Hoog boven de deur hangt een schilderij.
adjectival distance phrase
  high  above the door  hangs  a painting
b. Twee meter boven de deur hangt een schilderij.
nominal measure phrase
  two meter  above the door  hangs  a painting
[+]  A.  Adjectival modifiers and adverbs

Adjectival modifiers are sensitive to the meaning of the modified PP. The adjectival modifier hoog'high' in (19a), for example, can only modify PPs headed by boven'above'. Since, to our knowledge, the modification possibilities of locational PPs have not been investigated thoroughly, we restrict ourselves to the discussion of a limited set of modifiers: the pair diep/hoog'deep/high', which may amplify the antonymous adpositions boven and onder, the more or less antonymous pair dicht-ver'close-far', which may amplify the adpositions bij'near' and buiten'outside', and the adverbial modifiers vlak/pal'close'. Table 2 gives an overview of the modification possibilities, which will be discussed in more detail in the following subsections.

Table 2: Adjectival modifiers of distance
preposition diep
'deep'
hoog
'high'
dicht
'close'
ver
'far'
vlak
'close'
pal
'close'
achter
voor
behind
in front of
? + + +
boven
onder
above
under

+
+
% + +
naast
links van
rechts van
next to
to the left of
to the right of


%

+
+
buiten
bij
outside
near

+
+

+
+
om
rond
around
around
tegenover opposite
cf. (27)
langs along + +
tussen between

[+]  1.  Adjectival modifiers

The examples in (20) provide some concrete examples of locational PPs modified by the adjectives diep/hoog and dicht/ver.

20
a. Jan zat ver voor/achter/*naast de anderen.
  Jan sat  far  in.front.of/next.to  the others
b. De ballon hing hoog/?ver boven het huis.
  the balloon  hung  high/far  above the house
b'. Amsterdam ligt diep/?ver onder de zeespiegel.
  Amsterdam  lies  deep/far  under the sea level
c. Jan woont ver/*dicht buiten de stad.
  Jan lives  far/close  outside the city
c'. Jan woont dicht/*ver bij de stad.
  Jan lives  close/far  near the city

      The first percentage sign in the column headed by ver in Table 2 indicates that, although the (b)-examples are marked with the modifier ver, this modifier can sometimes readily be used in metaphorically used locational boven-PPs like dat gaat ver boven mijn macht'that is far beyond my power'. The examples in (21) illustrate the same point.

21
a. Haar prestatie steekt ver/??hoog boven die van Jan uit.
  her performance  sticks  far/high  above  that of Jan  out
  'Her performance is much better than Jan's.'
b. De wolkenkrabber steekt hoog/?ver boven de andere huizen uit.
  the skyscraper  sticks high/far  above the other houses  out
  'The skyscraper towers over the other houses.'

The second percentage sign indicates that although (20a) shows that ver normally cannot be used to modify locational PPs headed by naast, there are a number of more or less idiomatic constructions in which this is possible. One of the most common cases is the change of location construction in (22a) from sports jargon, in which naast can also be used as an intransitive adposition; note that the antonym dicht cannot replace the modifier ver in this construction. Example (22a') shows that ver cannot be used as a modifier of locational PPs headed by the phrasal adpositions links/rechts van. Example (22b) provides another more or idiomatic construction; note that the literal meaning “Jan sat next to it” is not available.

22
a. Jan schoot de bal ver/*dicht naast (het doel).
  Jan shot  the ball  far/close  next.to the goal
a'. * Jan schoot de bal ver/dicht links/rechts van het doel.
  Jan shot  the ball  far/close  left/right  of the goal
b. Jan zat er ver/*dicht naast.
  Jan sat there  far/close next.to
  'Jan was completely wrong.'

Ver can also modify naast-PPs if it is preceded by niet, as in (23a). Example (23a') shows that locational PPs headed by the phrasal adpositions links/rechts van do not have this modification possibility, however; (23b) shows that the idiomatic expression in (22b) can also be modified by niet ver.

23
a. Niet ver/*dicht naast de deur zat de brievenbus.
  not far/close  next.to the door  sat the mailbox
  'The mailbox was close to the door.'
a'. * Niet ver/dicht links/recht van de deur zat de brievenbus.
  not far/close  left/right  of  the door  sat the mailbox
b. Jan zat er niet ver/*dicht naast.
  Jan sat there  not far/close  next.to
  'Jan was nearly right.'

      The fact that the adjectival modifiers in (20) are all used as amplifiers is consistent with the fact that adjectival downtoners are rare; cf. Section A3.1.2, sub IIB. The only seeming exception is the modifier dicht'close' in (20c'), but this is due to the fact that bij'near' itself already indicates that the distance is small, and it is the smallness of the distance that is emphasized by the modifier dicht. The other modifiers in (20) indicate that the distance between the located and the reference object is large; there are no antonyms that indicate that the distances are small.

[+]  2.  Adverbs

The fact that all the adjectival modifiers in (20) can be seen as amplifiers does not imply, however, that downtoning is not possible. There is a small set of adverbs that can perform this function. Some examples are given in (24).

24
a. vlak/pal achter de deur
  close  behind  the door
b. net buiten de stad
  just  outside  the city
c. direct boven de deur
  directly  above  the door

Below, we will focus our discussion on the adverbs vlak and pal. As is shown in (25), these adverbial modifiers can be used in virtually all examples in (20). The percentage sign in the (c)-examples indicate that, although we judge these examples as considerably marked, many cases of this sort can be found on the internet.

25
a. Jan zat vlak/pal voor/achter/naast de anderen.
  Jan sat  close  in.front.of/behind/next.to the others
b. De ballon hing vlak/pal boven het huis.
  the balloon  hung  close  above the house
b'. Leiden ligt vlak/pal onder de zeespiegel.
  Leiden lies  close  under the surface of the sea
c. Jan woont pal/%vlak buiten de stad.
  Jan lives  close  outside the city
c'. Jan woont vlak/%pal bij de stad.
  Jan lives  close  near the city

For those speakers who reject the forms marked by the percentage sign, lexical restrictions seem to play a role: buiten in (25c) can only be modified by pal, whereas bij can only be modified by vlak. An alternative approach to these restrictions may be to argue that the markedness of vlak buiten de stad is due to a blocking effect, since the intended meaning of vlak buiten can also be expressed by means of (vlak) bij. Such a blocking account may imply that the markedness of pal bij de stad in (25c') is due to the availability of dicht bij de stad, which is perhaps less plausible.
      Table 2 shows that the adverbs vlak and pal can also modify locational PPs headed by langs, which cannot be amplified by means of adjectival amplifiers. An example is given in (26a). If we want to express that the distance between the waterside and the houses is large, we have to take recourse to the adjectival construction in (26b).

26
a. De huizen staan vlak/pal langs de waterkant.
  the houses  stand  close  along the waterside
b. De huizen staan ver van de waterkant.
  the houses  stand  far  from the waterside

      It is not immediately clear whether tegenover'opposite' can be modified by means of the adverbs under discussion. As is shown in (27a), vlak gives rise to a severely degraded result, whereas pal seems to be more or less equivalent to the modifier of orientation recht'straight' in (12), an interpretation which is also possible in the case of voor. We therefore conclude that PPs headed by tegenover do not allow modification with respect to distance. The remaining prepositions om/rond and tussen are not eligible for modification by pal and vlak either.

27
a. Het café staat #pal/*vlak tegenover de kerk.
  the bar  stands  frontally/close  opposite  the church
b. Het café staat pal voor de kerk.
  the bar  stands  frontally  in.front.of  the church
[+]  3.  Two additional remarks

A difference between the adjectival modifiers diep/hoog and dicht/ver and the adverbs vlak and pal is that the first are gradable (that is, eligible for modification and comparative/superlative formation), whereas the latter are not. This is shown for dicht bij and vlak bij in (28).

28
a. Jan woont heel dicht/*vlak bij de stad.
  Jan lives  very  close near  the city
b. Jan woont dichter/*vlakker bij de stad (dan Marie).
  Jan lives  closer  near the city  than Marie
c. Jan woont het dichtst/*vlakst bij de stad.
  Jan lives  the  closest  near the city

      Like all gradable adjectives, dicht can also be questioned. As is illustrated in (29a), the modifier can then be extracted from the PP and be put in clause-initial position. Being non-gradable, questioning of the adverbs vlak and pal is impossible. This is shown in (29b) for vlak.

29
a. Hoe dichti woont Jan ti bij de stad?
  how close  lives  Jan  near the city
b. * Hoe vlaki woont Jan ti bij de stad?
  how close  lives  Jan  near the city

      Finally, it can be noted that the modifiers in (28a) do not modify the preposition itself but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition. In passing, note that this also shows that vlak bij cannot be considered a compound, contrary to what the orthographic convention of writing vlakbij as a single word suggests.

30
a. Dicht/Vlak bij het huis stond een boom.
  close  near the house  stood  a tree
  'A tree stood close to the house.'
b. [Dicht/Vlak [PP er bij]] stond een boom.
  close  there  near  stood  a tree
[+]  B.  Nominal measure phrases

Any nominal phrase that can be used to measure distance can be used as a modifier to express the precise magnitude of the vectors involved. Some examples with the nominal measure phrase twee (kilo)meter'two (kilo)meters' are given in Table 3, which shows that the locational prepositions can be divided into two groups on the basis of whether they can or cannot be modified by such phrases.

Table 3: Nominal modifiers of distance
preposition example translation
achter
voor
twee meter achter het doel
twee meter voor het doel
two meters behind the goal
two meters in front of the goal
boven
onder
twee meter boven de deur
twee meter onder de grond
two meters above the door
two meters under the ground
naast
links van
rechts van
twee meter naast de paal
?twee meter links van de deur
?twee meter rechts van de deur
two meters next to the pole
two meters to the left of the door
two meters to the right of the door
buiten
bij
twee kilometer buiten de stad
*twee kilometer bij de stad
two kilometers outside of the town
*two kilometers near the town
om
rond
tegenover
langs
tussen

It should be noted that the primeless examples in (31) are acceptable, but in such examples the nominal phrase does not modify the magnitude of the vectors involved, which is clear from the fact that the locational PP can be dropped without changing the core meaning of the sentence. The noun phrase instead functions as the complement of the motion verb and refers to the distance that has been covered by the subject of the clause. That the noun phrase does not modify the PP but is selected by the motion verb is also clear from the fact that the primed examples involving a locational verb are not acceptable.

31
a. Jan liep twee kilometer (rond de stad).
  Jan walked  two kilometer  around the city
a'. De huizen stonden *(twee kilometer) rond de stad.
  the houses  stood    two kilometers  around the city
b. Jan liep twee kilometer (langs het kanaal).
  Jan walked  two kilometers   along waterway
b'. Het huis stond *(twee kilometer) langs het kanaal.
  the house  stood     two kilometer  along the waterway

      The examples in (32) show that, like adjectival modifiers, nominal measure phrases can be extracted from the PP and be put in clause-initial position in interrogative clauses; cf. Corver (1990).

32
a. Hoeveel kilometeri ligt jouw huis [PPti buiten de stad]?
  how.many kilometers  lies  your house  outside the city
b. Hoeveel meteri ligt Amsterdam [PPti onder de zeespiegel]?
  how.many meters  lies  Amsterdam  under the surface of the sea

Further, the examples in (33) show that the measure phrases do not modify the preposition itself but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition.

33
a. [Twee centimeter [PP er naast]] lag een klein doosje.
  two centimeter  there  next.to  lay  a small box
b. [Drie meter [PP er voor]] viel hij op de grond.
  three meter  there  in.front.of  fell  he  on the ground
[+]  III.  Summary

The previous subsections have discussed the modification possibilities of locational PPs headed by prepositions that denote vector sets and has shown that such PPs can be divided in three groups. The first group consists of PPs headed by prepositions that are related to one single axis of the coordinate system in Figure 4; the PPs in this group can readily be modified both by modifiers of orientation and by modifiers of distance. The second group consists of PPs headed by the prepositions buiten and bij, which can be modified by modifiers of distance (with a possible lexical restriction on the choice of the adverbs vlak and pal; cf. (25c&c')), but not by modifiers of orientation. The remaining locational PPs form the third group, which can be modified neither for orientation nor for distance; exceptions are PPs headed by tegenover, which can be modified by modifiers of orientation like recht'straight' and schuin'diagonally', and PPs headed by langs, which can be modified by adverbial modifiers of distance like vlak and pal. These findings are summarized in Table 4.

Table 4: Modifiers of locational PPs
preposition translation orientation distance
adjectival
modification
adjectival
modification
vlak/pal
'close'
nominal
modification
achter
voor
behind
in front of
+ + + +
boven
onder
above
under
+ + + +
naast
links van
rechts van
next to
to the left of
to the right of
% +

+
buiten/bij outside/near + + +
om/rond around
tegenover opposite +
langs along +
tussen between

References:
  • Corver, Norbert1990The syntax of left branch extractionTilburgUniversity of TilburgThesis
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