- 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 3.2.2.2 has shown that regular middles are characterized by the fact that their subjects correspond to the direct objects of the corresponding transitive verbs. This does not hold for adjunct middles; the primed examples in (230) show that their subjects correspond to entities that are normally expressed by means of adjuncts, like instrumental met-PPs or adverbial phrases of place or time. Like regular middles, adjunct middles must contain an evaluative modifier like lekker'nicely' or prettig'pleasantly' in (230).
a. | Els | snijdt | altijd | met dat mes. | instrument | |
Els | cuts | always | with that knife |
a'. | Dat mes | snijdt | lekker/prettig. | |
that knife | cuts | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to cut with that knife.' |
b. | Peter rijdt | graag | op deze stille wegen. | location | |
Peter drives | readily | on these quiet roads | |||
'Peter likes to drive on these quiet roads.' |
b'. | Deze stille wegen | rijden | lekker/prettig. | |
these quiet roads | drive | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.' |
c. | Jan werkt | het liefst | op rustige middagen. | time | |
Jan works | preferably | on quiet afternoons | |||
'Jan prefers to work on quiet afternoons.' |
c'. | Rustige middagen | werken | het prettigst. | |
quiet afternoons | work | the most.pleasant | ||
'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.' |
Before we discuss the adjunct middle in more detail, it should be noted that Ackema & Schoorlemmer (2006:147-8) suggest that the instrumental middles should be distinguished from the locational/temporal ones given that the former, in contrast to the latter, are quite common across languages. Since there is little language-internal evidence from Dutch in favor of this claim, we will leave this as a topic for future research and simply assume a uniform analysis for the three types of adjunct middle in (230).
The following subsections discuss the properties of the adjunct middle construction in more detail, subsection I starts with the syntactic verb types that can be used as input for adjunct middle formation, subsections II and III continue with a discussion of some properties of the subject and the evaluative modifier, subsection IV discusses the attributive and predicative use of past and present participles of adjunct middle verbs, subsection V concludes by suggesting a number of topics for future research.
The primed examples in (231) show that adjunct middle formation differs from regular middle formation in that it can readily take intransitive verbs as input. This difference is of course related to another difference: whereas subjects of regular middles correspond to the direct object of the input verbs, those of adjunct middles correspond to adverbial phrases of various types.
a. | Peter fietst | graag | op het fietspad. | |
Peter cycles | gladly | on the bikeway | ||
'Peter likes to cycle on the bikeway.' |
a'. | Het fietspad | fietst | lekker. | |
the bikeway | cycles | nicely | ||
'It is nice to cycle on the bikeway.' |
b. | Peter fietst | graag | op zijn nieuwe fiets. | |
Peter cycles | gladly | on his new bicycle | ||
'Peter likes to cycle on his new bicycle.' |
b'. | Deze nieuwe fiets | fietst | lekker. | |
this new bicycle | cycles | nicely | ||
'It is nice to cycle on this new bicycle.' |
The examples in (232) show that adjunct middles behave like regular middles and unlike passives in that the subject of the input verb cannot be expressed by means of an agentive door-phrase. Nevertheless, some notion of agentivity still seems to be implied; this is due to the fact that the evaluative modifier provides an assessment of some property of the subject in relation to the activity denoted by the verb, and thus indirectly evokes the notion of agent.
a. | * | Het fietspad | fietst | lekker | door Peter. |
the bikeway | cycles | nicely | by Peter |
b. | * | Deze nieuwe fiets | fietst | lekker | door Peter. |
this new bicycle | cycles | nicely | by Peter |
Transitive verbs can only be used as input for adjunct middle formation if they can be used as pseudo-intransitives; overtly realizing the object in the middle constructions in the primed examples in (233) leads to unacceptability (but see Subsection VA below, which discusses some potential cases of adjunct middles in which the object is realized).
a. | Peter eet | (zijn lunch) | in een hoog tempo. | |
Peter eats | his lunch | at a high speed | ||
'Peter is eating his lunch at high speed.' |
a'. | Een hoog tempo | eet | (*lunch) | niet prettig. | |
a high speed | eats | lunch | not pleasantly | ||
'It isnʼt pleasant to eat at high speed.' |
b. | Jan | leest | graag | (romans) | op rustige middagen. | |
Jan | reads | gladly | novels | on quiet afternoons | ||
'Jan likes to read (novels) on quiet afternoons.' |
b'. | Rustige middagen | lezen | (*romans) | het prettigst. | |
quiet afternoons | read | novels | the most pleasant | ||
'It is the most pleasant to read on quiet afternoons.' |
The fact that direct objects cannot be overtly realized in adjunct middles may also account for the fact that ditransitive verbs normally cannot be the input verb for adjunct middle formation; the (b)-examples in (234) show that the result is unacceptable, regardless of whether the recipient is realized as a dative phrase or as the complement of a periphrastic aan-PP.
a. | Peter | geeft | <Jan> | boeken | <aan Jan> | op zijn verjaardag. | |
Peter | gives | Jan | books | to Jan | on his birthday | ||
'Peter is presenting Jan books on his birthday.' |
b. | * | Zijn verjaardag | geeft | gemakkelijk | Jan | boeken. |
his birthday | gives | easily | Jan | books |
b'. | * | Zijn verjaardag | geeft | gemakkelijk | boeken | aan Jan. |
his birthday | gives | easily | books | to Jan |
The primed examples in (235) show that adjunct middles differ from regular middles in that the former can marginally be found with unaccusative verbs if the internal argument is able to control the process; cf. the contrast between vallen'to fall' and sterven'to die'. The acceptability of examples such as (235a') is somewhat surprising given that it suggests that the subject of the input verb need not be an external argument (agent) but can also be an internal argument (theme). It seems, however, that we are dealing here with the so-called stage context reading, which was shown in Section 3.2.1.2, sub II, to also license passivization of unaccusative verbs; cf. Ackema & Schoorlemmer (2006:175).
a. | Marie | valt | op de judomat. | |
Marie | falls | onto the judo.mat |
a'. | ? | Een judomat | valt | prettiger | dan | de vloer. |
a judo.mat | falls | more.pleasantly | than | the floor | ||
'It is more pleasant to fall on a judo mat than on the floor.' |
b. | Oude officieren | sterven | in het bejaardenhuis. | |
old officers | die | in an old.peopleʼs.home |
b'. | *? | Een bejaardenhuis | sterft | prettiger | dan | het slagveld. |
an old.peopleʼs.home | dies | more.pleasantly | than | the battlefield | ||
'It is more pleasant to die in an old peopleʼs home than on the battlefield.' |
The examples in (236) show that adjunct middle verbs take the auxiliary hebben'to have' in the perfect tense; this also holds for middle verbs derived from unaccusative verbs like vallen, which normally take zijn.
a. | Dit fietspad | heeft | altijd al | lekker | gefietst. | |
this bikeway | has | all along | nicely | cycled | ||
'It has always been nice to cycle on this bikeway.' |
b. | Een hoog tempo | heeft | nog | nooit | prettig | gegeten. | |
a high speed | has | prt | never | pleasantly | eaten | ||
'It has never been pleasant to eat at high speed.' |
c. | Een judomat | ??heeft/*is | altijd al | beter | gevallen | dan | de vloer. | |
a judo.mat | has/is | all along | better | fallen | than | the floor | ||
'It has always been more pleasant to fall on a judo mat than on the floor.' |
The examples in (230) to (235) have already shown that subjects of adjunct middles can correspond to the nominal complement of a wide range of adverbial phrases. The examples in (237) further show that the subject can at least marginally correspond to a benefactive if the direct object is omitted. Note in passing that this supports our earlier suggestion that it is the obligatory presence of direct objects in examples such as (234a) that blocks adjunct middle formation of ditransitive verbs.
a. | Jan schenkt | voor zulke rustige gasten | graag | in. | |
Jan pours | for such quiet guests | readily | prt. | ||
'Jan likes to pour out (drinks) for such quiet guests.' |
b. | ?? | Zulke rustige gasten | schenken | prettig | in. |
such quiet guests | pour | nicely | prt. | ||
'It is nice to pour out (drinks) for such quiet guests.' |
Subjects of adjunct middles are non-agentive and non-volitional. This is clear from the fact that they are normally inanimate and (therefore) cannot control a purpose clause or co-occur with agent oriented adverbial phrases, as shown in (238).
a. | * | Het fietspad | fietst | lekker | om | Peter | een plezier | te doen. |
the bikeway | cycles | nicely | comp | Peter | a pleasure | to do |
a'. | * | Het fietspad | fietst | opzettelijk/met opzet | lekker. |
the bikeway | cycles | deliberately/on purpose | nicely |
b. | * | Dit mes | snijdt | lekker | om | het | Els | gemakkelijk | te maken. |
this knife | cuts | nicely | comp | it | Els | easy | to make |
b'. | * | Dit mes | snijdt | opzettelijk/met opzet | lekker. |
this knife | cuts | deliberately/on purpose | nicely |
The examples in (239) show that the evaluative modifiers found in adjunct middles are of the gemakkelijk-type; they are normally compulsory.
a. | Deze stoel | zit | *(lekker/prettig/gemakkelijk). | |
this chair | sits | nicely/pleasantly/easily |
b. | Dit mes | snijdt *(prettig/lekker/gemakkelijk/moeilijk). | |
this knife cuts | pleasantly/nicely/easily/with.difficulty |
The primeless examples in (240) show that the evaluative modifier can at least marginally be left out if the negative adverb niet'not' is present. In such cases the evaluation normally expressed by the evaluative modifiers is implied; (240a) expresses that the chair is uncomfortable and (240b) that the knife is blunt or has some other deficiency. The primed examples show that the adverb may also be omitted if the verb is emphatically accented; the continuations in the primed examples show that the evaluation intended varies from case to case: heerlijk provides a positive, afgrijselijk a negative, and En hoe a positive, high degree evaluation.
a. | % | Deze stoel | zit | niet. |
this chair | sits | not |
a'. | Deze stoel | zit. | Heerlijk/Afgrijselijk! | |
this chair | sits | wonderful/horrible |
b. | Dit mes | snijdt | niet. | |
this knife | cuts | not |
b'. | Dit mes | snijdt. | En hoe! | |
this knife | cuts | and how |
The examples in (241), finally, show that the implicit experiencer of the evaluative modifier cannot be overtly realized (with the same proviso made in Section 3.2.2.2, sub IC, for the regular middle).
a. | # | Deze stoel | zit | voor iedereen | lekker. |
this chair | sits | for everybody | nicely |
b. | # | Dit mes | snijdt | voor iedereen | prettig. |
this knife | cuts | for everybody | pleasantly |
The examples in (242) show that adjunct middles do not allow attributive and predicative use of their past participles, whereas attributive use of their present participles is fully acceptable. In this respect adjunct middles behave like regular middles; cf. Section 3.2.2.2, sub IIB.
a. | Deze weg | rijdt | lekker. | |
this road | drives | nicely | ||
'It is nice to drive on this road.' |
a'. | Dit mes | snijdt | prettig. | |
this knife | cuts | pleasantly | ||
'It is pleasant to cut with this knife.' |
b. | * | Een | lekker | gereden | weg |
a | nicely | driven | road |
b'. | * | een | prettig | gesneden | mes |
a | pleasantly | cut | knife |
c. | * | De weg | blijkt | lekker gereden. |
the road | turns.out | nicely driven |
c'. | * | Dit mes | blijkt prettig gesneden. |
this knife | turns.out pleasantly cut |
d. | een | lekker | rijdende | weg | |
a | nicely | driving | road | ||
'a road comfortable for driving' |
d'. | een | prettig | snijdend | mes | |
a | pleasantly | cutting | knife | ||
'a knife pleasant for cutting' |
There are, however, two facts that deserve to be mentioned. First, the attributive constructions in the (d)-examples of (242) seem to allow omission of the present participles while retaining more or less the same meaning. In the resulting structures the adjectives no longer behave as adverbial phrases, but as regular attributive modifiers. This is clear from the fact illustrated in the (a)- and (b)-examples in (243) that they exhibit attributive inflection; cf. Section A5.1. Observe from the (c)-examples that the adjectives cannot be used predicatively; insofar as the copular example in (243c) is acceptable, lekker receives the (inappropriate) property denoting meaning "tasty".
a. | een | lekker-e | weg | |
a | nice | road |
a'. | een | prettig-Ø | mes | |
a | pleasant | knife |
b. | de | lekker-e | weg | |
the | nice | road |
b'. | het | prettig-e | mes | |
the | nice | knife |
c. | # | De weg | blijkt | lekker. |
the road | turns.out | tasty |
c'. | *? | Dit mes | blijkt | prettig. |
this knife | turns.out | tasty |
Second, there are a number of not -well-understood restrictions on the attributive use of present participles. The examples in (244a&b), for instance, show that the adjunct middles derived from the pseudo-intransitives in (233) do not allow attributive use of their present participles. However, there is clearly not a general ban on the attributive use of present participles of adjunct middle verbs derived from pseudo-intransitive verbs; the examples in (244c&d) are fully acceptable.
a. | * | een | hoog etend | tempo |
a | high eating | speed |
b. | * | prettig | lezende | rustige middagen |
pleasantly | reading | quiet afternoons |
c. | een | prettig | dansende | vloer | |
a | pleasantly | dancing | floor |
d. | een | gemakkelijk | vervende | kwast | |
an | easily | painting | brush |
This subsection discusses a number of issues that may be subjects for future research, subsection A starts by taking issue with our earlier claim that adjunct middle formation requires the input verb to be intransitive by suggesting that there in fact do exist adjunct middles based on transitive verbs, subsection B will show that there are adjunct middle-like constructions in which the obligatory adjunct is not (or at least less clearly) evaluative in nature, subsection C concludes by briefly comparing adjunct middles to easy-to-please constructions.
Although the primeless examples in (245) look structurally similar, they differ in that the latter allows for the addition of a direct object. The primed examples show the same thing for the corresponding constructions with attributively used present participles.
a. | Dit mes | snijdt | (*?het vlees) | lekker. | |
this knife | cuts | the meat | nicely |
a'. | een | (*het vlees) | lekker snijdend | mes | |
a | the meat | nicely cutting | knife |
b. | Dit mes | snijdt | (het vlees) | goed/beter. | |
this knife | cuts | the meat | well/better |
b'. | een | (het vlees) | goed | snijdend | mes | |
a | the meat | well | cutting | knife |
The claim in Subsection I that adjunct middles do not allow the presence of a direct object suggests that the two constructions are different, and that example (245b) is not an adjunct middle construction. Another possibility, however, is to assume that this claim was wrong and to investigate whether the contrast between the (a)- and (b)-examples can be accounted for in some other way. One reason to follow this track is that there is in fact no a priori reason to expect that a direct object cannot occur in this type of middle construction.
Now, consider the examples in (246) with the transitive verb snijden. These examples show that the realization of the direct object gives rise to a rather odd result if the adverbially used adjective lekker is present, but is easily possible if the adverb is goed'well'.
a. | Ik | snijd | lekker | ( met dit mes). |
a'. | Ik | snijd | het vlees | lekker | *(??met dit mes). | |
I | cut | the meat | nicely | with this knife |
b. | Ik | snijd | goed/beter | (met dit mes). |
b'. | Ik | snijd | het vlees | goed/beter | (met dit mes). | |
I | cut | the meat | well/better | with this knife |
If lekker and goed differ in that the former, but not the latter, favors the pseudo-intransitive use of snijden, this may provide an alternative account for the contrast found in (245). If so, the two constructions in (245) can both be taken as instances of the adjunct middle construction. For completeness' sake, observe that the two examples in (245) both have an easy-to-please counterpart, illustrated in (247).
a. | Dit mes | is lekker | om | mee | te snijden. | |
this knife | is nice | comp | with | to cut |
b. | Dit mes | is goed/beter | om | (het vlees) | mee | te snijden. | |
this knife | is good/better | comp | the meat | with | to cut |
The discussion above suggests that the claim in Subsection I that adjunct middles do not allow the presence of a direct object may be wrong and that this restriction may be related to the choice of evaluative modifier. We leave it to future research to investigate whether this suggestion is on the right track.
This subsection discusses a second construction that looks quite similar to the adjunct middle, but nevertheless may have to be analyzed differently. Consider the primeless examples in (248), which look structurally similar but differ with respect to the question as to whether they have an easy-to-please counterpart.
a. | Deze weg | rijdt | lekker. | |
this road | drives | nicely |
a'. | Deze weg | is lekker | [om PRO | op | te rijden]. | |
this road | is nice | comp | on | to drive |
b. | Deze weg | rijdt | snel/vlot. | |
this road | drives | fast/smoothly |
b'. | * | Deze weg | is snel/vlot | [om PRO | op | te rijden]. |
this road | is fast/smooth | comp | on | to drive |
The impossibility of (248b') seems related to the inability of the adjectives snel'fast' and vlot'smoothly' to take an experiencer voor-PP: *snel/vlot voor mij. The explanation for this is that the easy-to-please construction requires the phonetically empty subject PRO of the infinitival clause to be controlled by the (implicit) experiencer of the evaluative adjective; if the experiencer is left implicit, as in (248a'), it receives an arbitrary interpretation, which results in the generic meaning of the complete sentence. The ungrammaticality of (248b') can now be accounted for by appealing to the fact that adjectives like snel/vlot do not select an experiencer and that the phonetically empty subject PRO of the infinitival clause is therefore not controlled, as a result of which it cannot be assigned an appropriate interpretation.
Since adjunct middle constructions normally also require an adjective that selects an experiencer voor-PP, it remains to be seen whether (248b) can be analyzed as a middle construction or whether we are dealing with some other construction type. Adjunct middle-like constructions without an easy-to-please counterpart are quite common but do not seem to have received much attention so far. Example (249) presents two other cases based on the pseudo-intransitive verb verven'to paint' and the adverb gelijkmatig'evenly', which again lacks an implicit experiencer; the (a)- and (b)-example closely resemble, respectively, the regular middle and the adjunct middle construction.
a. | Deze muur | verft | gelijkmatig. | |
this wall | paints | evenly |
a'. | * | Deze muur | is gelijkmatig | om | te verven. |
this wall | is evenly | comp | to paint |
b. | Deze kwast | verft | gelijkmatig. | |
this brush | paints | evenly |
b'. | * | Deze kwast | is gelijkmatig | om | te verven. |
this brush | is evenly | comp | to paint |
As noted, it remains to be seen whether the constructions without an easy-to-please counterpart can be analyzed as run-of-the-mill adjunct middle constructions. We leave this to future research while noting one fact that favors a middle analysis, namely, that these constructions have the typical middle semantic characteristic that they refer to inherent properties of their subjects.
We have mentioned a number of times that adjunct middles like the primeless examples in (250) often have easy-to-please counterparts, which express more or less the same meanings and in which the subjects of the matrix clause also correspond to the complement of some adverbial PP; the subjects in the (a)-examples correspond to the nominal part of the instrumental PP met dit mes'with this knife' and the subjects in the (b)-examples correspond to the nominal part of a locational PP.
a. | Dit mes | snijdt | lekker/prettig. | |
this knife | cuts | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to cut with this knife.' |
a'. | Dit mes | is lekker/prettig | om | mee | te snijden. | |
this knife | is nice | comp | with | to cut | ||
'It is nice to cut with this knife.' |
b. | Deze stille wegen | rijden | lekker/prettig. | |
these quiet roads | drive | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.' |
b'. | Deze stille wegen | zijn | prettig | om | op te rijden. | |
these quiet roads | are | pleasant | comp | on to drive | ||
'It is pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.' |
The correlation breaks down, however, if the subject corresponds to the nominal part of an adverbial PP that does not allow R-extraction; the primed examples in (251) are excluded because adverbial phrases of time and manner like op rustige middagen'in quit afternoons' and in een hoog tempo'at high speed' normally do not allow R-extraction.
a. | Rustige middagen | werken | het prettigst. | |
quiet afternoons | work | the most pleasant | ||
'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.' |
a'. | * | Rustige middagen | zijn | het prettigst | om | op | te werken. |
quiet afternoons | are | the most pleasant | comp | on | to work |
b. | Een hoog tempo | eet | niet prettig. | |
a high speed | eats | not pleasantly |
b. | * | Een hoog tempo | is niet prettig | om | in | te eten. |
a high speed | is not pleasantly | comp | in | to eat |
The contrast between the examples in (250) and (251) can be related directly to this difference with respect to R-extraction. Section A6.5, sub IVA3, argues that easy-to-please constructions involve wh-movement of an empty operator into the initial position of the infinitival clause. This means that the structures of the easy-to-please constructions above are as given in (252); note in passing that the prepositional mee'with' in (252a) only occurs if R-extraction has applied, which of course provides strong support for the proposed movement analysis.
a. | Dit mes is lekker/prettig [OPi om PRO [mee ti] te snijden]. | cf. (250a) |
b. | Stille wegen zijn prettig [OPi om PRO [op ti] te rijden]. | cf. (250b) |
c. | * | Rustige middagen zijn het prettigst [OPi om [op ti] te werken]. | cf. (251a) |
d. | * | Een hoog tempo is niet prettig [OPi om [in ti] te eten]. | cf. (251b) |
The unacceptability of the easy-to-please constructions in (251) now follows straightforwardly from the fact that adverbial phrases of time and manner normally do not allow R-extraction; the indicated movement of the operators in (252c&d) is excluded. Note that this account of the contrast between the easy-to-please constructions in (250) and (251) strongly suggests that the adjunct middles cannot be derived from the corresponding non-middle constructions by syntactic movement, since we would then expect the adjunct middles in (251) to be excluded for the same reason as the corresponding easy-to-please constructions.
The examples in (253) show that adjunct middles and easy-to-please constructions also differ in that subjects of adjunct middles cannot correspond to the nominal parts of PP-complements, whereas subjects of easy-to-please constructions can. The acceptability of the easy-to-please construction in (253c), of course, follows from the fact that R-extraction from complement-PPs is allowed.
a. | Jan kijkt | graag | naar schilderijen. | |
Jan looks | readily | to paintings | ||
'Jan likes to look at paintings.' |
b. | * | Schilderijen | kijken | prettig. |
paintings | look | pleasantly |
c. | Schilderijen | zijn | prettig [OPi | om PRO | [naar ti] | te kijken]. | |
paintings | are | pleasant | comp | at | to look | ||
'It is nice to look at paintings.' |
The examples in (254) show that subjects of easy-to-please constructions can also correspond to the nominal parts of predicative PPs, which is again in accordance with the R-extraction analysis.
a. | Jan stopt | zijn CDs | in speciale dozen. | |
Jan puts | his CDs | into special boxes |
a'. | Die speciale dozen | zijn | handig [OPi | om PRO | je CDs | [in ti] | te stoppen]. | |
these special boxes | are | handy | comp | your CDs | into | to put | ||
'These boxes, it is handy to put your CDs into them.' |
b. | Jan springt | over de hordes | heen. | |
Jan jumps | over the hurdles | heen |
b'. | Deze hordes | zijn | moeilijk | om | overheen | te springen. | |
these hurdles | are | difficult | comp | over | to jump | ||
'These hurdles are difficult to jump over.' |
Comparable adjunct middles are not expected to arise given that we have seen in Subsection I that transitive and unaccusative verbs normally cannot be used as input for adjunct middle formation. That unaccusative verbs with a predicative PP cannot be the input of adjunct middle formation can be nicely illustrated by the examples in (255) and (256). The examples in (255) show that movement verbs like springen'to jump' have two uses: an intransitive use, in which case the verb selects hebben in the perfect tense and the PP functions as a regular adverbial phrase of place, and an unaccusative use, in which case the verb selects zijn in the perfect tense and the PP functions as a complementive indicating a change of location.
a. | Jan heeft | op de trampoline | gesprongen. | |
Jan has | on the trampoline | jumped | ||
'Jan has jumped on the trampoline.' |
b. | Jan is op de trampoline | gesprongen. | |
Jan is onto the trampoline | jumped | ||
'Jan has jumped onto the trampoline.' |
Semantically, the adjunct middle construction in (256) is clearly related to the intransitive construction in (255a), and not to the unaccusative construction in (255b): it is the jumping on the trampoline that is claimed to be nice, not the jumping onto the trampoline.
De trampoline springt | lekker. | ||
the trampoline jumped | nicely | ||
Available reading: 'It is nice to jump on the trampoline.' | |||
Impossible reading: 'It is nice to jump onto the trampoline.' |
The discussion in this subsection has shown that adjunct middles and easy-to-please constructions differ in that the subject of the latter may correspond to the nominal part of any PP that allows R-extraction; adjunct middles, on the other hand, take subjects that correspond to the nominal part of a wide range of adverbial PPs, regardless of whether these PPs allow R-extraction. Furthermore, adjunct middles do justice to their name by never taking a subject that corresponds to the nominal part of a PP-complement or a predicative PP.
- 2006MiddlesEveraert, Martin & Riemsdijk, Henk van (eds.)The Blackwell companion to syntax3Malden, MA/OxfordBlackwell Publishing131-203
- 2006MiddlesEveraert, Martin & Riemsdijk, Henk van (eds.)The Blackwell companion to syntax3Malden, MA/OxfordBlackwell Publishing131-203