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2.4.AP-complements

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APs selected by a verb are normally predicative complements and occur in copula, vinden- and resultative constructions. These constructions, which are exemplified in (404), are extensively discussed in Section 2.2 and Section A6.2, and we will therefore not discuss them here.

404

a.		Jan is aardig.	copular construction
		Jan is nice

b.		Ik	vind	Jan aardig.	vinden-construction
		I	consider	Jan kind

c.		Jan slaat	Peter dood.	resultative construction
		Jan hits	Peter dead

Non-predicative AP-complements may not exist at all, and, if they do, they are probably extremely rare. The following subsections will discuss some potential cases involving measure verbs, the verbs hebben'to have' and krijgen'to get', and the verb wonen'to live'; however, but we will see that there is insufficient evidence to establish beyond a doubt that we are dealing with complementives in these cases.

I. Measure verbs
II. The verbs hebben/krijgen
III. The verb wonen'to live'
IV. Conclusion

[+] I. Measure verbs

A first set of potentially non-predicative AP-complements are APs selected by measure verbs like duren'to last', wegen'to weigh', and kosten'to cost' in (405); cf. Klooster (1972). The judgments on these examples vary among speakers and from case to case: whereas lang duren'to last long' in (405a) is accepted by everyone, the collocation zwaar wegen'to weigh heavy' in examples such as (405b) is generally given as unacceptable in the normative literature (cf. onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/advies/zwaar-wegen-veel-wegen) and duur kosten'to cost expensive' in (405c) is considered as unacceptable by many speakers (see onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/advies/duur-kosten). Observe that all examples in (405) are fully acceptable for all speakers if the AP is replaced by a nominal measure phrase.

405

a.		Het concert	duurde	lang/drie uur.
		the concert	lasted	long/three hour

b.		Jan	weegt	?zwaar/zestig kilo.
		Jan	weighs	heavy/sixty kilo

c.		Dat boek	kost	??duur/vijftig euro.
		that book	costs	expensive/fifty euro

It seems reasonable, however, to assume that these examples are all grammatical given that they can be heard frequently and improve much if the adjective is modified by, e.g., te'too' or genoeg'enough', as in (406b). Example (405c) also improves, but may still be rejected by some speakers; see the (c)-examples in (406).

406

a.		Het concert	duurde	te lang.
		the concert	lasted	too long

a'.		Het concert	duurt	lang genoeg.
		the concert	lasted	long enough

b.		Jan	weegt	te zwaar.
		Jan	weighs	too heavy

b'.		Jan	weegt	zwaar	genoeg.
		Jan	weighs	heavy	enough

c.	(?)	Dat boek	kost	te duur.
		that book	costs	too expensive

c'.	(?)	Dat boek	kost	duur	genoeg.
		that book	costs	expensive	enough

Note, however, that not all verbs that may take a nominal measure phrase can be combined with an AP, which is clear from examples like De totale prijs bedraagt vijftig euro/*duur'the total price amounts to fifty euro/*expensive'.
The resistance that the usage of the adjectives in (405b&c) meets may be related to the fact that the intended assertion can readily be expressed by making use of a copula; this is illustrated in (407). The fact that the nominal measure phrases in these examples are degraded compared to those in (405) may provide further credibility to the idea that these examples somehow compete.

407

a.		Het concert	is (?)lang/*drie uur.
		the concert	is long/three hour

b.		Jan	is zwaar/?zestig kilo.
		Jan	is heavy/sixty kilo

c.		Dat boek	is duur/(?)vijftig euro.
		that book	is expensive/fifty euro

Another argument in favor of assuming that the judgments on the examples in (405) are due to competition with the examples in (407) is provided by the contrast in acceptability between the two verbs in the examples in (408), in which the adjective zwaar is used in a metaphorical sense; since the copular in the primed examples is unacceptable, we correctly predict the primeless examples to be acceptable for all speakers.

408

a.	Dit argument	woog	zwaar	bij onze beslissing.
	this argument	weighs	heavy	with our decision
	'This argument played an important role in our decision.'

a'.	*	Dit argument	was	zwaar.
		this argument	was	heavy

b.	Dat schuldgevoel	weegt	zwaar.
	that sense.of.guilt	weighs	heavy
	'That sense of guilt is a burden.'

b'.	*	Dat schuldgevoel is zwaar.
		that sense.of.guilt is heavy

The idea that the examples in (405) and (407) compete may lead to the claim that the adjectives in (405) are actually used as complementives, just like the adjectives in (407), and this, in turn, may lead to the idea that the verbs duren'to last', wegen'to weigh' and kosten'to cost' are semi-copular verbs. The fact that these verbs cannot be passivized if they take a nominal measure phrase is sometimes given as evidence in favor of this claim, but it should be noted that this may also be due to the inanimate/non-agentive nature of the subject of the clause.

409

a.	*	Drie uur	wordt	(door het concert)	geduurd.
		three hour	is	by the concert	lasted

b.	*	Zestig kilo	wordt	(door Jan)	gewogen.
		sixty kilo	is	by Jan	weighed

c.	*	Vijftig euro	wordt	(door dat boek)	gekost.
		fifty euro	is	by that book	cost

A somewhat better argument in favor of the claim that (adjectival) complements of measure verbs are complementives is that they must precede the verb(s) in clause-final position. This will become clear by inspecting the word orders of the embedded counterparts in (410) of the examples in (405).

410

a.		dat	het concert	<lang >	duurde <*lang >.
		that	the concert	long	lasted

b.		dat	Jan	<%zwaar>	weegt <*zwaar>.
		that	Jan	heavy	weighs

c.		dat	dat boek	<%duur>	kost <*duur>.
		that	that book	expensive	costs

[+] II. The verbs hebben/krijgen

The verbs hebben'to have' and krijgen'to get' can also be combined with an AP, as is illustrated in (411). Section A6.2.1, sub II, shows, however, that in cases like these we are also dealing with a predicative complement, and the verbs hebben and krijgen can be considered semi-copular verbs.

411

a.	Jan heeft	het raam	graag	open.
	Jan has	the window	gladly	open
	'Jan likes to have the window open.'

b.	Jan krijgt	het raam	niet	open.
	Jan gets	the window	not	open
	'Jan doesnʼt get the window open.'

[+] III. The verb wonen'to live'

The final case of a verb that may potentially select a non-predicative AP is the verb wonen'to live'. As is shown in (412a), this verb must be combined either with an AP or a locational PP. There are other verbs from the same semantic group that obligatorily take a PP but are not able to take an AP; two examples are given in (412b&c).

412

a.		Jan woont	erg mooi/in Groningen.
		Jan lives	very beautiful/in Groningen

b.		We	verblijven	in dure hotels/*erg mooi.
		we	stay	in expensive hotels/very beautiful

c.		Marie verblijft	al jaren	in het buitenland/*erg mooi.
		Marie stays	already years	in the abroad/very beautiful

The main reason for assuming that we are not dealing with a predicatively used AP in (412a) is that the clause does not contain an argument of which the AP could be predicated. The subject is certainly not a candidate; example (412a), for instance, does not express that Jan is beautiful. Nevertheless, some implicit predication relation seems to be implied: it is the surroundings in which Jan lives that are claimed to be beautiful. The semantic relations between the constituents in the examples in (412) are still much of a mystery, as is the overall structure of these sentences.

[+] IV. Conclusion

The previous subsections have considered three cases that could potentially involve non-predicative AP-complements. We have seen that the first two cases are perhaps apparent counterexamples to the claim that there are no non-predicative AP-complements. The most recalcitrant counterexample is the AP-complement of the verb wonen. For the moment, we will leave this problem for future research and simply conclude that APs normally cannot be used as non-predicative complements.

References:

Klooster, Wim1972The structure underlying measure phrase sentencesDordrechtReidel

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: AP-complementMeasure PhraseResultative Construction

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos	January 2016

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