- 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
This section discusses two types of right dislocation (henceforth: RD), which are illustrated in example (93). Semantically, RD is characterized by the fact that the dislocated phrase adds more specific information to what is said in the preceding clause: in (93), the right-dislocated phrases provide more information about the function of Mr Jansen: he is a manager in some presupposed organization. The two types of RD differ in that afterthoughts provide additional information that is new for the hearer while backgrounded phrases provide information already familiar to the hearer but which may help him to identify the intended reference; cf. Ott & De Vries (2015). Furthermore, afterthoughts but not backgrounded phrases can often be preceded by a special marker such as je weet wel'you probably know who': Ik heb dhr. Jansen gesproken, je weet wel, de directeur.
a. | Ik | heb | dhr. Jànsen | gesproken, | de directeur. | afterthought RD | |
I | have | Mr Jansen | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken to Mr Jansen, the manager.' |
b. | Ik | heb | dhr. Jansen | gespròken, | de directeur. | backgrounding RD | |
I | have | Mr Jansen | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken Mr Jansen, the manager.' |
Speakers’ judgments seem to differ with respect to the question as to whether the clause-internal correlate of an afterthought can be a weak proform. For some speakers (including the second author of this work) substituting the direct object in the afterthought construction (93a) results in a degraded result, while it is easily possible in the backgrounding construction in (93b). In the remainder of this work we will follow the more permissive variety, according to which examples in (94) are both fully acceptable. We leave it to future research to investigate the differences in speakers’ judgment in more detail.
a. | % | Ik | heb | ʼm | gespròken, | de directeur. | afterthought RD |
I | have | him | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken him, the manager.' |
b. | Ik | heb | ʼm | gespròken, | de directeur. | backgrounding RD | |
I | have | him | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken him, the manager.' |
Phonetically, RD constructions are characterized by the fact that the right-dislocated phrase cannot receive sentence accent (indicated by a grave accent in the examples above); this accent is always located on some element in the preceding clause. That sentence accent cannot be placed on the right-dislocated phrase is related to the fact that the latter can be preceded by an intonation break: in the case of afterthoughts this break is normally distinctly present while, at least in casual speech, it is often less prominent in the case of backgrounding. The two types of RD also differ in that afterthoughts are assigned contrastive accent (indicated by small caps), while backgrounded phrases are normally pronounced with a flat intonation contour (that is, without a prominent accent).
This section is organized as follows. Subsection I starts by showing that RD resembles left dislocation (LD) in various respects. Subsection II continues by briefly reviewing a number of differences between RD and extraposition; this partly repeats information which was discussed in more detail in Chapter 12, to which we refer the reader for more information. Subsection III discusses a number of restrictions on right-dislocated phrases and their clause-internal correlate (if present). Subsection IV continues by discussing a number of differences between afterthought RD and backgrounding RD; we will see that these can be traced back to the fact that afterthoughts provide discourse-new while backgrounded phrases provide discourse-old information. Subsection V shows that RD resembles hanging-topic LD in that it is not sensitive to various islands for wh-extraction and Subsection VI discusses a number of word order issues related to RD. Subsection VII, finally, discusses some possible theoretical approaches to RD.
- I. A brief comparison between left and right dislocation
- II. Right dislocation versus extraposition
- III. Restrictions on right-dislocated phrases and their clause-internal correlates
- IV. Differences between afterthoughts and backgrounded phrases
- V. Island-sensitivity
- VI. Word order restrictions
- VII. Analyses of RD
The two types of RD constructions, illustrated again in the (a)-examples in (95), resemble in various respects the two types of LD constructions discussed in Section 14.2, which are illustrated in the (b)-examples.
a. | Ik | heb | hem gespròken, | de directeur. | afterthought RD | |
I | have | him spoken | the manager | |||
'I spoke to him, the manager.' |
a'. | Ik | heb | hem gespròken, | de directeur. | backgrounding RD | |
I | have | him spoken | the manager | |||
'I spoke to him, the manager.' |
b. | De directeur, | die | heb | ik | gesproken. | contrastive LD | |
the manager | dem | have | I | spoken | |||
'The manager, I have spoken to him.' |
b'. | De directeur, | ik | heb | hem | gesproken. | hanging-topic LD | |
the manager | I | have | him | spoken | |||
'The manager, I have spoken to him.' |
First, all four types of dislocated phrases in (95) seem to be clause-external, as all of them have a clause-internal pronominal associate, namely the pronouns hem'him' and die'that'. The fact that the thematic role of the verb is assigned to the pronoun suggests that the dislocated phrases are not licensed within the clause but in some other way. That the dislocated phrases are not part of the clause is also supported by the fact that (like parentheticals) they are separated from the intonation contour of the clause, which, at least in the case of afterthoughts and contrastive left-dislocated phrases, goes hand-in-hand with a distinct intonation break. More reasons for assuming that dislocated phrases are clause-external are that left-dislocated phrases precede the sentence-initial position and that right-dislocated phrases cannot be assigned sentence accent, which is again indicated by a grave accent in the (a)-examples.
Secondly, all four types of dislocated phrases provide more specific information than their clause-internal associate: in (95), they all provide information about the function of the person referred to by the pronoun.
Thirdly, LD and RD both come in two types: one type in which the dislocated phrase is typically accented and one in which the dislocated phrase is normally pronounced with a flat intonation contour. It should be noted, however, that contrastive LD and afterthought RD differ in that the former invites a set of alternative propositions, while the latter simply provides discourse-new information. This can be brought to light by the examples in (96): while (96a) is fully compatible with a contrastive maar-phrase, the use of a contrastive maar-phrase gives rise to a somewhat marked result in (96b). Note in passing that this example becomes acceptable if the weak referential pronoun is replaced by a contrastively stressed pronoun, but in that case the contrastive phrase is licensed by the pronoun and not by the afterthought.
a. | Jan, | die | heb | ik | niet | gezien | (maar | Marie | wel). | contrastive LD | |
Jan | dem | have | I | not | seen | but | Marie | aff | |||
'Jan, I havenʼt seen him, but I did see Marie.' |
b. | Ik | heb | ʼm | niet | gezien, | Jan, | (??maar | Marie | wel). | afterthought RD | |
I | have | him | not | seen | Jan | but | Marie | aff | |||
'I havenʼt seen him, Jan.' |
Finally, example (97a) shows that right-dislocated phrases may provide information that may help the speaker to identify the intended reference of the clause-internal nominal correlate, but example (97b) shows that the right-dislocated phrase may also be an epithet. If the nominal correlate is predicative, as in (97c), the right-dislocated phrase provides a more precise qualification.
a. | dat | hij | te laat | kwam, | mijn broer. | |
that | he | too late | came | my brother | ||
'that he arrived too late, my brother.' |
b. | dat | Peter | te laat | kwam, | de sukkel. | |
that | Peter | too late | came | the twerp | ||
'that Peter came too late, the twerp.' |
c. | dat | Jan een groot kunstenaar is, | de beste schilder die ik ken. | |
that | Jan a great artist is | the best painter that I know | ||
'that Jan is a great artist, the best painter I know.' |
The fact that left-dislocated phrases do not seem to have such “modifying” function is the principal reason why we will use different notions for the relation between the left and right-dislocated phrases and their clause-internal associate: resumption versus correlation. Left-dislocated phrases provide information that is simply taken up again by their clause-internal associate, while right-dislocated phrases provide more specific information than their clause-internal associate (or about it).
Right-dislocated and extraposed phrases both follow the verbs in clause-final position; consequently, it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish the two cases. In the case of nominal arguments, confusion will not easily arise because extraposition of such arguments is normally not possible. One example is given in (98); for more examples, see Section 12.2, sub I.
Ik | heb | <de directeur > | gesproken <*de directeur >. | extraposition | ||
I | have | the manager | spoken | |||
'I have spoken to the manager.' |
Furthermore, nominal arguments are generally obligatorily present, as a result of which right-dislocated nominal phrases will typically have an overt clause-internal correlate, as in (93) and the (a)-examples in (95). That means that right-dislocated nominal phrases without a correlate are only expected in the case of pseudo-intransitive verbs and (optional) indirect objects. Example (99) shows that the former case indeed occurs, but only if the right-dislocated phrase functions as an afterthought, that is, if it is accented and provides new information.
Jan heeft | altijd | graag | gerookt, | sigaren/*sigaren. | RD | ||
Jan has | always | gladly | smoked | cigars/cigars | |||
'Jan has always liked to smoke, cigars.' |
That we are dealing with a right-dislocated phrase in (99) is immediately clear from its position after the clause-final verb gerookt'smoked'. However, if no clause-final verb is present, as in the examples in (100), confusion could arise with cases in which the object occupies its regular position in the middle field of the clause, but the intonation pattern normally provides sufficient information to distinguish the two: the direct object in (100a) is integrated in the intonation contour of the clause and can carry sentence accent; the afterthought in (100b) is preceded by an intonation break and assigned contrastive accent while the sentence accent is assigned to some other element in the preceding clause.
a. | Jan rookt | graag | (*vooral) | sigàren. | object occupies the middle field | |
Jan smokes | gladly | especially | cigars | |||
'Jan likes to smoke cigars.' |
b. | Jan ròòkt | graag, | (vooral) | sigaren. | RD | |
Jan smokes | gladly | especially | cigars | |||
'Jan likes to smoke, (especially) cigars.' |
The distribution of the focus particle vooral'especially' can also be used as a test for recognizing RD in examples such as (100). The examples in (101) show that afterthoughts can easily be preceded by this element if the clause-internal correlate is indefinite or not present.
a. | Jan heeft | veel boeken gekocht, | vooral romans. | |
Jan has | many books bought | especially novels | ||
'Jan has bought many books, especially novels.' |
b. | Jan heeft | altijd | graag | gerookt, | vooral sigaren. | ||
Jan has | always | gladly | smoked | especially cigars | |||
'Jan has always liked to smoke, especially cigars.' |
Clause-internal phrases, on the other hand, can only be preceded by a focus particle if they are scrambled into a designated focus position, which precedes manner adverbs such as graag'gladly'; cf. (102). The fact that vooral can immediately precede the direct object sigaren in (100b) but not in (100a) therefore supports the proposed analysis.
a. | dat | Jan | <vooral romans> | graag <*vooral romans> | leest. | |
that | Jan | especially novels | gladly | reads | ||
'that Jan especially likes to read novels.' |
b. | dat | Jan <vooral sigaren> | graag <*vooral sigaren> | rookt. | |
that | Jan especially cigars | gladly | smokes | ||
'that Jan especially likes to smoke cigars.' |
The second case in which a right-dislocated nominal phrase may be expected to occur without an overt correlate pertains to ditransitive constructions without an (overt) indirect object, but it seems that such cases do not occur. Example (103b) shows that they are degraded regardless of whether the right-dislocated phrase expresses new or old information; this may be due to the fact that the alternative with a prepositional indirect object in (103b') is preferred.
a. | dat | Jan | (zijn vrouw) | graag | bloemen | geeft. | |
that | Jan | his wife | gladly | flowers | gives | ||
'that Jan likes to give (his wife) flowers.' |
b. | dat | Jan graag | bloemen | geeft, | (vooral) | zijn ??vrouw/*vrouw. | RD | |
that | Jan gladly | flowers | gives | especially | his wife/wife |
b'. | dat | Jan graag | bloemen | geeft, | (vooral) | aan zijn vrouw. | RD | |
that | Jan gladly | flowers | gives | especially | to his wife | |||
'Jan likes to give flowers, especially to his wife.' |
Because prepositional indirect objects can be extraposed, confusion between extraposition and RD may arise in such cases, but again the intonation contour will generally provide sufficient information to identify the two cases (cf. Ott & De Vries 2015): the extraposed prepositional indirect object in (104a) is integrated in the intonation contour of the clause and can even carry sentence accent; the afterthought in (104b) is separated from the preceding clause by a distinct intonation break and is assigned contrastive accent. The two cases again differ in that only the latter can be preceded by the marker vooral.
a. | dat | Jan graag | bloemen | geeft | (*vooral) | aan zijn vròuw. | extraposition | |
that | Jan gladly | flowers | gives | especially | to his wife | |||
'Jan likes to give flowers to his wife.' |
b. | dat | Jan graag | blòemen | geeft, | (vooral) | aan zijn vrouw. | RD | |
that | Jan gladly | flowers | gives | especially | to his wife | |||
'Jan likes to give flowers, especially to his wife.' |
Prepositional objects that are obligatorily realized will not pose any problems either. The examples in (105) show that in such cases right-dislocated PPs typically have an overt clause-internal correlate, while extraposed PPs cannot be combined with such correlates. Observe that in the case of prepositional objects, the right-dislocated phrase need not be an afterthought but can also be backgrounded.
a. | dat | Jan | (*ernaar) | verlangt | naar vakantie. | extraposition | |
that | Jan | for.it | longs | for vacation | |||
'that Jan is longing for a vacation.' |
b. | dat | Jan | *(ernaar) | verlangt, | naar vakantie/vakantie. | RD | |
that | Jan | for.it | longs | for vacation/vacation | |||
'that Jan is longing for.it, for a vacation.' |
If the prepositional object is optional, as in the case of wachten (op)'to wait for', similar problems may arise as with pseudo-intransitive verbs in that we mainly have to rely on the intonation pattern of the construction if the correlate of the right-dislocated PP is not overtly expressed.
a. | dat | Jan | al | weken | (*erop) | wacht | op zijn bòeken. | extraposition | |
that | Jan | already | weeks | for.it | waits | for his books | |||
'that Jan is already waiting for weeks for his books.' |
b. | dat | Jan | al | weken | (erop) | wacht, | op zijn boeken/boeken. | RD | |
that | Jan | already | weeks | for.it | waits | for his books/books | |||
'that Jan has already been waiting for weeks, for his books.' |
Fortunately, there is an additional syntactic test that may help us distinguish extraposition from RD, namely VP-topicalization. While extraposed phrases can be pied piped under VP-topicalization, right-dislocated phrases are generally stranded.
a. | [VP | Wachten op zijn boeken] | doet | hij | al | weken. | extraposition | |
[VP | wait for his books | does | he | already | weeks |
b. | [VP | Wachten] | doet | hij | al | weken, | op zijn boeken/boeken. | RD | |
[VP | wait | does | he | already | weeks | for his books/books |
b'. | * | [VP | Wachten, | op zijn boeken/boeken] | doet | hij | al | weken. | RD |
* | *[VP | wait | for his books | does | he | already | weeks |
Adverbial PPs pose similar problems as optional prepositional objects because they are normally optional, as shown for a comitative met-PP in (108a) and a locative PP in (109a). Consequently, right-dislocated adverbial PPs without a correlate in the preceding clause could in principle be confused with their extraposed counterparts, but the (b)- and (c)-examples show that the two diagnostics used above, intonation and VP-topicalization, may help us make the correct distinction.
a. | dat | Jan graag | (met Peter) | schaakt. | |
that | Jan gladly | with Peter | plays.chess | ||
'that Jan likes to play chess (with Peter).' |
b. | dat Jan | graag | (*met hem) | schaakt | met Peter. | extraposition | |
that Jan | gladly | with him | plays.chess | with Peter |
b'. | [VP | Schaken | met Peter] | doet | Jan | graag. | |
[VP | play.chess | with Peter | does | Jan | gladly |
c. | dat | Jan graag | (met hem) | schaakt, | met Peter/Peter. | RD | |
that | Jan gladly | with him | plays.chess | with Peter/Peter |
c'. | [VP | Schaken] | doet | Jan graag, | met Peter/Peter. | |
[VP | play.chess | does | Jan gladly | with Peter/Peter |
c''. | * | [VP | Schaken, | met Peter/Peter] | doet | Jan graag. |
* | *[VP | play.chess | with Peter/Peter | does | Jan gladly |
a. | dat | Jan graag | (op zijn club) | schaakt. | |
that | Jan gladly | at his club | plays.chess | ||
'That Jan likes to play chess (at his club).' |
b. | dat Jan | (*daar) | graag | schaakt | op zijn club. | extraposition | |
that Jan | there | gladly | plays.chess | at his club |
b'. | [VP | Schaken | op zijn club] | doet | Jan | graag. | |
[VP | play.chess | at his club | does | Jan | gladly |
c. | dat | Jan | (daar) | graag | schaakt, | op zijn club/club. | RD | |
that | Jan | there | gladly | plays.chess | at his club/club |
c'. | [VP | Schaken] | doet | Jan graag, | op zijn club/club. | |
[VP | play.chess | does | Jan gladly | at his club/club |
c''. | * | [VP | Schaken, | op zijn club/club] | doet | Jan graag. |
* | *[VP | play.chess | at his club/club | does | Jan gladly |
Some clausal constituents such as supplementives cannot be extraposed while they can be right-dislocated. This can also be brought to light more clearly by means of VP-topicalization as they cannot be pied-piped if they are in postverbal position.
a. | Jan is daarnet | <kwaad> | weggelopen <*kwaad>. | no extraposition | |
Jan is just.now | angry | away-walked | |||
'Jan walked away angry just now.' |
a'. | [VP | <kwaad> | weggelopen <*kwaad>] | is Jan daarnet. | |
[VP | angry | away-walked | is Jan just.now |
b. | Jan is daarnet | weggelopen, | kwaad. | RD | |
Jan is just.now | away-walked | angry | |||
'Jan walked away angry just now.' |
b'. | [VP | Weggelopen] | is Jan daarnet, | kwaad. | |
[VP | away-walked | is Jan just.now | angry |
b''. | * | [VP | Weggelopen, | kwaad] | is Jan daarnet. |
* | *[VP | away-walked | angry | is Jan just.now |
The same pattern can be seen in various types of (especially non-prepositional) adverbial phrases headed by a manner adverb such as zorgvuldig'carefully', a temporal adverb such as morgen'tomorrow', or a modal adverb such as misschien'maybe'. It can again be brought to light by means of VP-topicalization as these modifiers must be stranded, as illustrated in (111) for the manner adverb zorgvuldig'carefully'.
a. | Jan heeft | het boek | <zorgvuldig> | gelezen <*zorgvuldig>. | no extraposition | |
Jan has | the book | carefully | read | |||
'Jan has read the book carefully.' |
a'. | [VP | zorgvuldig | gelezen] | heeft | Jan het boek. | |
[VP | carefully | read | has | Jan the book |
b. | Jan heeft | het boek | gelezen*(,) | zorgvuldig. | RD | |
Jan has | the book | read | carefully |
b'. | [VP | gelezen] | heeft | Jan het boek, | zorgvuldig. | |
[VP | read | has | Jan the book | carefully |
b''. | * | [VP | gelezen, | zorgvuldig] | heeft | Jan het boek. |
* | *[VP | read | carefully | has | Jan the book |
Because the two diagnostics have been more systematically applied to a wider range of constructions in our discussion of extraposition, we will not digress on this issue any further here but refer the reader to Chapter 12 for more discussion.
Backgrounded phrases resemble hanging topics in that they are pronounced with a flat intonation contour, but the examples in (112) show that they are more flexible with respect to their categorial status; while hanging topics are typically nominal in nature, backgrounded phrases can be nominal, clausal, adjectival, or adpositional. The examples in (112) also show that the clause-internal correlate of the backgrounded phrase may perform various syntactic functions: it can be an argument, as in the (a)-examples, a complementive (112b), or an adverbial phrase (112c). The correlate is typically a phonetically light element, like the pronouns ʼm'him' and het'it' or the R-word er'there', although the phonetically heavier demonstrative forms like die/dat'that' and daar'there' are occasionally found as well.
a. | Ik | heb | ʼm | niet | meer | gezien, | Peter. | noun phrase | |
I | have | him | not | anymore | seen | Peter | |||
'I havenʼt seen him anymore, Peter.' |
a'. | Hij | heeft | ʼt | me gisteren | verteld, | dat hij vertrekt. | clause | |
he | has | it | me yesterday | told | that he leaves | |||
'He told it to me yesterday, that he is leaving.' |
b. | Ik | ben | ʼt | mijn hele leven | geweest, | gelukkig. | AP | |
I | am | it | my whole life | been | happy | |||
'I have been it my whole life, happy.' |
c. | Ik | ben | er | gisteren | nog | geweest, | in Utrecht. | PP | |
I | am | there | yesterday | prt | been | in Utrecht | |||
'I was there yesterday, in Utrecht.' |
Judgments on the examples in (112) do not seem to change if we assign contrastive accent to the right-dislocated phrase, that is, afterthoughts have the same properties as backgrounded phrases, but the correlate can more easily be heavy or phrasal. This is illustrated in (113).
a. | Ik | heb | die jongen | niet | meer | gezien, | Peter. | noun phrase | |
I | have | that boy | not | anymore | seen | Peter | |||
'I havenʼt seen that boy anymore, Peter.' |
a'. | Hij | heeft | me dat | gisteren | verteld, | dat hij vertrekt. | clause | |
he | has | me that | yesterday | told | that he leaves | |||
'He told me that yesterday, that he is leaving.' |
b. | Ik | ben | dat | eigenlijk | mijn hele leven | geweest, | gelukkig. | AP | |
I | am | it | in.fact | my whole life | been | happy | |||
'I have in fact been that my whole life, happy.' |
c. | Ik | ben | daar | gisteren | nog | geweest, | in Utrecht. | PP | |
I | have | there | yesterday | prt | been | in Utrecht | |||
'I have been there yesterday, in Utrecht.' |
Right-dislocated phrases add to the information expressed by their correlates: (114a) presupposes that the hearer does not know that Mr Jansen is the manager, and (114b) suggests that the hearer may confuse the intended referent with someone who is not the manager. The right-dislocated phrase and its correlate can be interchanged but then it is presupposed that the hearer does not know the name of the manager or may confuse the intended referent with someone who is not called Jansen.
a. | Ik | heb | dhr. Jànsen | gesproken, | de directeur. | afterthought RD | |
I | have | Mr Jansen | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken to Mr Jansen, the manager.' |
b. | Ik | heb | dhr. Jànsen | gesproken, | de directeur. | backgrounding RD | |
I | have | Mr Jansen | spoken | the manager | |||
'I have spoken to Mr Jansen, the manager.' |
The examples in (115) show that afterthoughts of the type in (114a) can surface in German either as an accusative or as a nominative noun phrase. The two cases have a slightly different meaning, which Ott & De Vries (2015: Section 6) try to clarify by means of the paraphrases which are given here as translations: in the first case, the referent of the correlate is contextually given and the afterthought simply provides more specific information about this referent; in the second case, the correlate may introduce a new referent into the discourse, and the afterthought is used to identify this referent as the speaker’s neighbor. Because of this difference in meaning, Ott & De Vries refer to these cases as, respectively, specificational and predicative afterthoughts, and provide different analyses for the two cases. The same meaning difference is found in Dutch, but since Dutch has no morphological case we will largely ignore predicative afterthoughts in this section and refer the reader to Ott & De Vries’ article for more discussion of this type. Note in passing that Van Riemsdijk (1997) and Van Riemsdijk & Zwart (1997:fn.5) observe a similar optionality in case agreement in German LD constructions, although in such constructions a mismatch in case assignment does not seem to trigger a similar predicative reading.
a. | Ich | habe denacc | Jan getroffen, | meinenacc Nachbar. | specificational | |
I | have the | Jan met | my neighbor | |||
'I have met Jan, that is, I have met my neighbor.' |
b. | Ich | habe denacc | Jan getroffen, | meinnom | Nachbar. | predicative | |
I | have the | Jan met | my | neighbor | |||
'I have met Jan, who is my neighbor.' |
That right-dislocated phrases must provide more specific information than their clause-internal correlates also accounts for the acceptability contrast between the (a)-examples in (116): since referential pronouns and definite noun phrases both presuppose that the hearer is able to identify the intended referent, definite noun phrases are more informative due to their descriptive content, and consequently the pronoun cannot be the right-dislocated phrase. Note that we mark (116b) with a dollar sign because the construction is certainly not ungrammatical, as is clear from the fact that it becomes felicitous if the right-dislocated pronoun is accompanied by specific extra-linguistic information, such as a pointing gesture. The acceptability of (b)-examples is also expected because the two coordinated phrases provide more precise information than their clause-internal pronominal correlates.
a. | Ik | heb | hem | gesproken, | de directeur. | |
I | have | him | spoken | the manager |
a'. | $ | Ik | heb | de directeur | gesproken, | hem. |
I | have | the manager | spoken | him |
b. | Jan heeft | ons | uitgenodigd, | jou and mij. | |
Jan has | us | prt.-invited | you and me |
b'. | Jan heeft | jullie | uitgenodigd, | jou en haar. | |
Jan has | you | prt.-invited | you and her |
Backgrounded noun phrases are generally definite noun phrases, due to the fact that they express discourse-old information. Afterthoughts, on the other hand can be indefinite provided they are more informative then their clause-internal correlates: this implies that the correlate must be indefinite as well.
a. | Ik | heb | iets/*hem | gekocht, | een rode vaas. | afterthought RD | |
I | have | something/him | bought | a red vase | |||
'I have bought something, a red vase.' |
b. | * | Ik | heb | iets/hem | gekocht, | een rode vaas. | backgrounding RD |
I | have | something/him | bought | a red vase |
The (a)-examples in (118) show that RD is like LD in that it cannot be applied to non-referential expressions; while definite noun phrases can easily be right-dislocated, quantified noun phrases cannot. The (b)-examples illustrate the same by showing that non-referential parts of idiomatic expressions resist right dislocation.
a. | Ik | heb | de/iedere kandidaat | gesproken. | |
I | have | the/every candidate | spoken | ||
'I haven spoken to the/every candidate.' |
a'. | Ik | heb | hem | gesproken, | de/*iedere kandidaat. | |
I | have | him | spoken | the/every candidate |
b. | Ik | geloof | er | de ballen | van. | |
I | believe | there | the balls | of | ||
'I donʼt believe any of it.' |
b'. | * | Ik | geloof | ze | er | van, | de ballen. |
I | believe | them | there | of | the balls |
De Vries (2009) claims that nominal right-dislocated phrases do not exhibit connectivity effects for binding and, at first sight, this appears indeed to be borne out by the unacceptability of example (119a): RD of reflexive/reciprocal pronouns leads to unacceptability because the pronoun is not bound by a local antecedent. However, it is not clear whether the unacceptability of (119a) is really the result of the lack of connectivity; it may also be due to the fact that under the given coindexation the referential pronoun ze'them' is incorrectly bound within its local domain, the clause. This means that in order to investigate whether connectivity effects occur we have to consider more complex examples like (119b), in which the anaphor is embedded in a right-dislocated phrase. The acceptability status of such examples is somewhat unclear: while De Vries (2009) gives similar examples as unacceptable, we find them acceptable and certainly much better than examples such as (119a).
a. | * | [Jan en Peter]i | vinden | zei | erg knap, | zichzelfi/elkaari. |
Jan and Peter | consider | them | very bright | themselves/each other |
b. | % | [Jan en Peter]i | vinden | zej | erg spannend, | [elkaarsi boeken]j. |
Jan and Peter | consider | them | very exciting | each.other’s books | ||
'Jan and Peter consider them very exciting, each others books.' |
That connectivity effects with reflexive pronouns do occur is also clear from the fact that they may occur as an afterthought in examples such as (120a), taken from Ott & De Vries (2015); example (120b) provides a similar case with a reciprocal.
a. | Jan zag | iemand | in de spiegel, | zichzelf. | |
Jan saw | someone | in the mirror | himself |
b. | Jan en Peter | beschuldigen | alletwee | iemand | van fraude, | elkaar. | |
Jan and Peter | accuse | both | someone | of fraud | each.other | ||
'Jan and Peter both accuse someone of fraud: each other.' |
Example (121) shows that connectivity effects can also be demonstrated by means of bound variable reading: De Vries (2009) claims this reading to be unavailable, but similar examples are given as fully acceptable in Ott & De Vries (2015); we agree with them.
Elke schrijveri | is | er | trots | op, | [zʼni debuut]. | ||
every writer | is | there | proud | of | his debut | ||
'Every writer is very proud of it, his debut.' |
Example (122a) suggests that connectivity effects also occur with referential expressions: the proper noun Peter cannot be construed as coreferential with the subject pronoun hij'he'. De Vries (2009) correctly points out, however, that this is not a telling fact because coreferentiality is also blocked if the pronoun and the proper noun occur in two subsequent clauses; linear order may be the crucial factor here.
a. | * | Hiji | heeft | hetj | gelezen, | [dat boek van Peteri]j. |
he | has | it | read | that book by Peter | ||
Intended reading: 'Peter has read it, his own book.' |
b. | * | Hiji | heeft | de boeken | ontvangen, | maar | het boek van Peteri | ontbrak. |
he | has | the book | received | but | the book by Peter | was.missing | ||
Intended reading: 'Peter has received the books, but his own book was missing.' |
If the correlate of a right-dislocated phrase is a non-obligatory clausal constituent, it can be omitted. Various cases were already given in Subsection II, but we illustrate this again in (123a) for a temporal adverbial phrase. Some right-dislocated phrases never have a correlate, simply because there is no proform available; this holds for modal adverbs like misschien'maybe' in (123b).
a. | Ik | was | (toen) | erg moe, | na die lange wandeling. | |
I | was | then | very tired | after that long walk | ||
'I was very tired then, after that long walk.' |
b. | Hij | komt | morgen, | misschien. | |
he | comes | tomorrow | maybe | ||
'He will come tomorrow, maybe.' |
Although the previous subsection has shown that afterthoughts and backgrounded phrases as well as their correlates exhibit similar behavior in various respects, there are also a number of differences; see Ott & De Vries (2015) and the references cited there. We have already mentioned that afterthoughts provide new information while backgrounded phrases express information already known to the hearer. This can easily be shown by the question-answer pair in (124): RD of the noun phrase Marie is possible in the answer, but only if pronounced with a flat intonation.
a. | Ken | jij | Marie? | |
know | you | Marie | ||
'Do you know Marie?' |
b. | Ja, | ik | ken | haar | goed, | Marie/*Marie. | |
yes | I | know | her | well | Marie/Marie |
Related to this difference in information load is that afterthoughts can be preceded by epistemic modal adverbs such as waarschijnlijk'probably' if their correlates are indefinite; this option does not arise with backgrounded phrases as their correlates normally refer to entities known both to the speaker and to the hearer. For the same reason, afterthoughts but not backgrounded phrases can be combined with a modality marker like wellicht'maybe' or an hesitation marker like toch.
a. | Jan heeft | iemand | bezocht, | waarschijnlijk | Marie. | afterthought | |
Jan has | someone | visited | probably | Marie | |||
'Jan has visited someone, probably Marie.' |
a'. | * | Jan heeft | haar | bezocht, | waarschijnlijk | Marie. | backgrounded |
Jan has | her | visited | probably | Marie |
b. | Jan heeft | iemand | bezocht, | Marie | wellicht/toch? | afterthought | |
Jan has | someone | visited | Marie | perhaps/prt | |||
'Jan has visited someone; Marie perhaps/it was Marie, wasnʼt it?' |
b'. | * | Jan heeft | haar | bezocht, | Marie | wellicht/toch? | backgrounded |
Jan has | her | visited | Marie | perhaps/prt |
As afterthoughts add more specific information to the assertion in the preceding clause, the hearer can negate the added information independently of the clause. For the same reason the afterthought can be provided by the hearer. Note that examples like (126b) show that afterthoughts can at least sometimes be independent from the clause containing their correlate; Subsection VI will provide more evidence in favor of this conclusion.
a. | Jan heeft | iemand | bezocht, | Marie. | speaker A | |
Jan has | someone | visited | Marie | |||
'Jan has visited someone, Marie.' |
a'. | Niet | waar: | hij | was | de hele dag | thuis/het | was | Els. | speaker B | |
not | true | he | was | the whole day | home/it | was | Els | |||
'Thatʼs not true: he has been at home all day/it was Els.' |
b. | Jan heeft | iemand | bezocht. | Ja, | Marie. | speaker A & B | |
Jan has | someone | visited | yes | Marie | |||
'Jan has visited someone. Yes, Marie.' |
This subsection has shown that there are a number of differences in use between afterthoughts and backgrounded phrases, which can be traced back to the role they play in the information structure of the discourse; afterthoughts provide discourse-new, while backgrounded phrase provide discourse-old information.
Section 14.2, sub V, has shown that hanging-topic LD is not island-sensitive, due to the resumptive pronoun hem'him' remaining in situ. Contrastive LD is different in this respect as the resumptive demonstrative pronoun die must be moved into sentence-initial position; the contrast in (127) can be attributed to the fact that the demonstrative die is extracted from an interrogative clause.
a. | Jani, | [Ik | weet | niet | [wie (of) | hemi | geholpen | heeft]]. | hanging-topic LD | |
Jan | I | know | not | who comp | him | helped | has | |||
'Jan, I donʼt know who has helped him.' |
b. | * | Jani, | [diei | weet | ik | niet | [wie | (of) ti | geholpen | heeft]]. | contrastive LD |
Jan | dem | know | I | not | who | comp | helped | has |
Because RD is like hanging-topic LD in that it does not involve movement of the correlate of the right-dislocated phrase, we expect it not to be island-sensitive either. The examples in (128) show that this is indeed borne out for interrogative and adjunct clauses, for afterthoughts as well as backgrounded phrases.
a. | Ik | weet | niet | [wie (of) | hemi | geholpen | heeft], | Jani/Jani. | |
I | know | not | who comp | him | helped | has | Jan/Jan | ||
'I donʼt know who has helped him, Jan.' |
b. | Ik | ben | bedroefd | [omdat | ik | hemi | niet | gezien | heb], | Jani/Jani. | |
I | am | sad | because | I | him | not | seen | have | Jan/Jan | ||
'I am sad because I havenʼt seen him, Jan.' |
The situation is less clear for non-clausal islands, an issue to which we will return in Subsection VII. The examples in (129) show that RD seems to be like LD in that it is not sensitive to the islandhood of PPs: the preposition can be used but is not needed. We added a percentage sign to (129b), however, because Zwart (2011:78) as well as Ott & De Vries (2015:40ff.) have claimed that the preposition must be realized; for them RD may therefore be sensitive to the islandhood of PPs. Note in passing that an anonymous reviewer of De Ott & De Vries (2015) indicated that not all Dutch speakers require a preposition to be present.
a. | Jani, | ik | wil | op hemi | niet langer | wachten. | hanging-topic LD | |
Jan | I | want | for him | no longer | wait | |||
'Jan, I donʼt want to wait for him any longer.' |
b. | Ik | wil | op hemi | niet langer | wachten, | %(op)Jani/Jani. | RD | |
I | want | for him | no longer | wait | for Jan/Jan | |||
'I donʼt want to wait for him any longer, Jan.' |
The primeless examples in (130) show that there a sharp acceptability contrast between hanging-topic LD and RD if the correlate is embedded in a coordinate structure; this may suggest that RD is sensitive to the islandhood of those structures. It should be noted, however, that the primed examples show that a similar contrast is found if the correlate is simply embedded in, e.g., a direct object, which indicates that we cannot attribute the ungrammaticality to the presence of the coordinate structure.
a. | Jani, | ik | heb | [hemi en zijni vrouw] | niet gezien. | hanging-topic LD | |
Jan, | I | have | him and his wife | not seen | |||
'Jan, I havenʼt seen him and his wife.' |
a'. | Jani, | ik | heb | [zijni vrouw] | niet gezien. | |
Jan, | I | have | his wife | not seen | ||
'Jan, I havenʼt seen his wife.' |
b. | * | Ik | heb | [hemi en zijni vrouw] | niet gezien, | Jani/Jani. | RD |
I | have | him and his wife | not seen | Jan/Jan |
b'. | * | Ik | heb | [zijni vrouw] | niet gezien, | Jani/Jani. |
I | have | his wife | not seen | Jan/Jan |
Finally, we need to point out that on the basis of example (131a) De Vries (2002) suggests that attributively used APs can be used as afterthoughts, which would of course be another example of island-insensitivity. However, Veld (1993:132ff.) already pointed out that this is only apparent: we are dealing with reduced noun phrases, as is also clear from the fact that the indefinite article een'a' shows up obligatorily if the correlate is singular, as in (131b). Like (130b), this shows that RD is sensitive to certain non-clausal islands.
a. | Jan heeft | druiven gekocht, | witte. | |
Jan has | grapes bought, | white | ||
'Jan has bought grapes, white ones.' |
b. | Jan heeft | een auto | gekocht, | een witte. | |
Jan has | a car | bought, | a white | ||
'Jan has bought a car, a white one.' |
Right-dislocated phrases normally follow extraposed phrases such as the obligatory prepositional object naar meer informatie in (132): placement of the modal adverb in a position between the clause-final verb and the extraposed PP gives rise to a degraded result. For completeness’ sake, we contrast example (132b) with example (132b'), in which the PP is right-dislocated.
a. | dat | Jan verlangt | naar meer informatie, | waarschijnlijk. | |
that | Jan longs | for more information | probably | ||
'that Jan probably wishes more information.' |
b. | * | dat | Jan verlangt, | waarschijnlijk, | naar meer informatie. |
that | Jan longs | probably | for more information |
b'. | dat | Jan ernaar | verlangt, | waarschijnlijk, | naar meer informatie. | |
that | Jan for.it | longs | probably | for more information |
Right-dislocated phrases also obey certain order restrictions: cf. Ott & De Vries (2015). Before illustrating this, we want to observe that backgrounded phrases and afterthoughts can be reiterated (although some speakers have difficulty with this). Note in passing that the first afterthought in (133b) is not only marked by means of accent but also by the fact that it can be preceded by althans; we will use this as a diagnostic in (134).
a. | Jan heeft | haar | gezien, | gisteren, | die vrouw. | backgrounding RD | |
Jan has | her | seen | yesterday | that woman | |||
'Jan saw her yesterday that woman.' |
b. | Jan gaat wintersporten, | althans | volgend jaar, | skiën. | afterthought RD | |
Jan goes winter.sport | at.least | next year | skiing | |||
'Jan will go on winter sports, at any rate next year: skiing.' |
Backgrounded phrases and afterthoughts can also be combined but then the former must precede the latter; in tandem with our finding in Subsection IV that afterthoughts may occasionally occur as separate utterances, this shows that backgrounded phrases are more closely related with the preceding clause than afterthoughts.
a. | dat | ik | hem | morgen | ontmoet, | Peter, | (althans) | waarschijnlijk. | |
that | I | him | tomorrow | meet | Peter | at.least | probably | ||
'that I will meet him tomorrow, Peter, at least probably.' |
b. | * | dat | ik | hem | morgen | ontmoet, | (althans) | waarschijnlijk, | Peter. |
that | I | him | tomorrow | meet | at.least | probably | Peter |
That backgrounded phrases are more closely related with the preceding clause is also suggested by the fact, illustrated in (135), that they must be adjacent to the minimal clause containing their correlate, while afterthoughts follow the complete sentence containing their correlate; we return to these instances in Subsection VII.
a. | Dat | hij | weg | was, | Peter/??Peter, | was vervelend. | |
that | he | away | was | Peter/Peter | was annoying | ||
'that he was away, Peter, was annoying.' |
b. | Dat | hij | weg | was, | was vervelend, | Peter/*Peter. | |
that | he | away | was | was annoying | Peter/Peter | ||
'That he was away, was annoying, Peter.' |
Although the examples in (133) have shown that backgrounded phrases and afterthoughts can be reiterated, this does not always give rise to a felicitous result. The examples in (136b&c) show that modal and temporal adverbs can easily be right-dislocated, but for unknown reasons the (d)-examples show that it is difficult to have them simultaneously in right-dislocated position.
a. | dat | Jan morgen | waarschijnlijk | vertrekt. | |
that | Jan tomorrow | probably | leaves | ||
'that Jan will probably leave tomorrow.' |
b. | dat Jan morgen vertrekt waarschijnlijk. |
c. | dat Jan waarschijnlijk vertrekt morgen. |
d. | *? | dat Jan vertrekt morgen waarschijnlijk. |
d'. | *? | dat Jan vertrekt waarschijnlijk morgen. |
While LD has received relatively much attention in the theoretical literature, this is much less so for RD. Because of the similarities between LD and RD constructions discussed in Subsection III, it seems preferable for the two types of dislocation to receive a similar analysis. Consequently, as RD does not involve movement of the correlate of the right-dislocated phrase, this may be a good reason for dismissing the various movement approaches to contrastive LD, discussed in Section 14.2, sub VIII. This would leave us with Ott’s (2014) hypothesis that contrastive LD constructions consist of two juxtaposed clauses, the first of which is reduced under identity with the second clause. Ott & De Vries (2015) go on to provide a similar analysis for RD; they argue that the derivation of RD differs from that of LD only in that the reduction does not apply to the first but to the second clause of the juxtaposition. They analyze the right-dislocated phrase in (137a) in the same way as the fragment answer in (137b), that is, the juxtaposition analysis of RD appeals to an independently motivated deletion operation.
a. | Ik | heb | het | gelezen, | Hersenschimmen van J.Bernlef. | |
I | have | it | read | Hersenschimmen by J.Bernlef | ||
'I have read it, Hersenschimmen by J.Bernlef.' |
a'. | [Ik heb het gelezen] &: [Hersenschimmen van J.Bernlefiheb ik ti gelezen]. |
b. | Welk boek | heb | je | gelezen? | |
which book | have | you | read | ||
'Which book have you read?' |
b'. | Hersenschimmen van J.Bernlefi | heb | ik ti | gelezen. | |
Hersenschimmen by J.Bernlef | have | I | read |
A potential problem for the analysis in (137a') is that it is not very clear what would trigger topicalization in the derivation of RD. Nevertheless, Ott & De Vries (2015) claim that examples of the type in (138) provide independent evidence for topicalization. Zwart (2011:79) has noted that the two examples in (138a&b) differ in their relative scope of the indefinite subject twee mensen'two persons' and the epistemic modal vermoedelijk: the most prominent reading of example (138a) is that the modal is in the scope of the numeral, that is, two people have seen something that is presumably a wolf. The most prominent reading of the RD construction in (138b) is that the modal takes scope over the complete proposition including the numerals, that is, it is presumably the case that two people have seen a wolf. This would follow immediately under the proposed analysis of RD because the wide scope reading of the modal is also the most prominent one for the topicalization construction in (138c).
a. | Twee mensen | hebben | vermoedelijk | een wolf | gezien. | numeral > modal | |
two persons | have | presumably | a wolf | seen | |||
'Two people have presumably seen a wolf.' |
b. | Twee mensen | hebben | een wolf | gezien, | vermoedelijk. | modal > numeral | |
two persons | have | a wolf | seen | presumably | |||
'Two people have seen a wolf, presumably.' |
c. | Vermoedelijk | hebben | twee mensen | een wolf | gezien. | modal > numeral | |
presumably | have | two persons | a wolf | seen | |||
'Presumably, two people saw a wolf.' |
Another potential problem for assuming topicalization in the second conjunct is the fact established in Subsection V that RD is not sensitive to, e.g., interrogative and adjunct islands. Section 14.2, sub VIII, has shown, however, that this also holds for fragment clauses and LD constructions. This means that we are dealing with the more general fact discussed in Section 5.1.5, sub IB, that the ellipsis operation found in fragment clauses in one way or another cancels island violations; we refer the reader to Merchant (2001/2006), and references cited there for possible explanations of this fact.
Ott & De Vries (2015) develop an alternative to the island-insensitivity of RD by assuming that the juxtaposition involves the minimal clause of the associate of the dislocated phrase; we illustrate this here for RD only. The minimal clause restriction requires that we analyze example (139a) as in (139b); the analysis in (139b') is not available.
a. | Els zei | dat hij weg was, | Peter. | |
Els said | that he away was | Peter | ||
'Els said that he was away, Peter.' |
b. | Els zei [[dat hij weg was] &: [Peter was weg]]. |
b'. | * | [[Els zei [dat hij weg was]] &: [Peterizei Els [dat tiweg was]]]. |
A potential drawback of relying on the minimal clause restriction is that we have to allow for coordination of embedded and main clauses; cf. the structure in (139b), in which the first conjunct is a non-main while the second conjunct is a main clause. Although this kind of unbalanced coordination is normally not possible, the minimal clause restriction is supported empirically by the fact illustrated in the primeless examples in (140) that backgrounded phrases must be adjacent to their minimal clauses; the structures in the corresponding primed examples show that this can only be derived by assuming the minimal clause restriction, otherwise, (140a) could not be derived and example (140b) would be incorrectly predicted to be acceptable.
a. | Dat | hij | weg | was, | Peter, | was vervelend. | |
that | he | away | was | Peter | was annoying | ||
'that he was away, Peter, was annoying.' |
a'. | [dat hij weg was] &: [Peter was weg] was vervelend. |
b. | * | Dat | hij | weg | was, | was vervelend, | Peter. |
that | he | away | was | was annoying | Peter |
b'. | * | [[dat hij weg was] was vervelend] &: [Peteriwas [dat ti weg was] vervelend]. |
Example (140a) again illustrates the island-insensitivity of RD, given that wh-movement out of subject clauses is normally impossible; cf. *Peteri was [dat ti weg was] vervelend. The lack of island-sensitivity follows immediately from the minimal clause restriction. We illustrate the same island-insensitivity again in (141) for an interrogative island. For completeness’ sake observe that (141b') would also be unacceptable because it violates the complementizer-trace filter; cf.Ik weet dat Els al gegeten heeft'I know that Els has already eaten' versus *Elsi weet ik dat ti al gegeten heeft.
a. | Ik | weet | niet | of | zij | gegeten | heeft, | Els. | |
I | know | not | whether | she | eaten | has | Els | ||
'I do not know whether she has eaten, Els.' |
b. | Ik weet niet [[of zij gegeten heeft] &: [Els heeft gegeten]]. |
b'. | * | [[Ik weet niet [of zij gegeten heeft]] &: [Elsiweet ik niet [of ti gegeten heeft]]]. |
Recall from Subsection VI that afterthoughts can be detached from the clause containing their correlate, that is, example (140b) becomes fully acceptable for at least some speakers if the right-dislocated phrase is contrastively stressed. This seems to be related to the fact that afterthoughts can be used as independent expressions; if afterthoughts are independent of the sentences preceding them, the minimal clause restriction cannot hold for them by definition.
The minimal clause restriction seems superior to Merchant’s analysis according to which ellipsis cancels island violations because it accounts for the fact that RD is normally sensitive to certain non-clausal islands, such as the coordinate structure in (142a): this follows from the fact that topicalization in the second conjunct in (142b) violates the coordinate structure constraint (but see Ott & De Vries, 2015:fn.50, for a potential problem). The disadvantageous aspect of the minimal clause restriction is that LD does not seem to be sensitive to the coordinate structure constraint (cf. Section 14.2, sub V), which is a problem for Ott & De Vries in light of their claim that LD and RD should be analyzed in essentially the same way.
a. | * | Ik | heb | [hem en Marie] | niet gezien, | Jan. |
I | have | him and Marie | not seen | Jan |
b. | [Ik heb [hem en Marie] niet gezien] &: [Jan heb ik [ti en Marie] niet gezien]. |
The fact that for at least some speakers RD of a prepositional object does not require the preposition to be present is another potential problem for the minimal clause restriction: because preposition stranding is not possible in the case of topicalization (cf. *Mijn vaderi wacht ik op ti) example (143a) is predicted to be unacceptable without the preposition. But this problem is not new, as Merchant (2001:ch.3, fn.6) already found that Dutch speakers exhibit a great deal of variation with respect to preposition stranding in ellipsis constructions. The fact that we find this variation in the case of RD as well can therefore be construed as an argument in favor of unifying the analyses of fragment clauses, LD and RD. We refer the reader to Section 5.1.5, sub IB, and Section 14.2, sub VIII, for more relevant discussion.
a. | % | Ik | wacht | op hem, | mijn vader. |
I | wait | for him | my father | ||
'I am waiting for him, my father.' |
b. | [Ik | wacht | op hem] &: [mijn vaderiwacht ik op ti]. |
Recent research has made great progress in describing the properties of RD by attempting to develop a unifying account of fragment clauses, LD and RD. We have also seen that there are still a number of questions to be answered, but we have to leave these to future research.
- 2001The syntax of silence: sluicing, islands and the theory of ellipsisOxford/New YorkOxford University Press
- 2001The syntax of silence: sluicing, islands and the theory of ellipsisOxford/New YorkOxford University Press
- 2006SluicingEveraert, Martin & Riemsdijk, Henk van (eds.)The Blackwell companion to syntax4Malden, Ma/OxfordBlackwell Publishing271-291
- 2014An ellipsis approach to contrastive left dislocationLinguistic Inquiry45269-303
- 1997Left dislocationAnagnostopoulou, Elena, Riemsdijk, Henk van & Zwarts, Frans (eds.)Materials on left dislocationAmsterdam/PhiladephiaJohn Benjamins Publishing Company1-10
- 1997Left dislocation in Dutch and the status of copying rules [originally written in 1974]Anagnostopoulou, Elena, Riemsdijk, Henk van & Zwarts, Frans (eds.)Materials on left dislocationAmsterdam/PhiladephiaJohn Benjamins Publishing Company13-54
- 1993Postverbal constituents in Dutch and TurkishUniversity of AmsterdamThesis
- 2002The syntax of relativizationAmsterdamUniversity of AmsterdamThesis
- 2009The right and left periphery in DutchThe Linguistic Review26291-327
- 2009The right and left periphery in DutchThe Linguistic Review26291-327
- 2009The right and left periphery in DutchThe Linguistic Review26291-327
- 2009The right and left periphery in DutchThe Linguistic Review26291-327
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2015Right dislocation as deletionNatural Language & Linguistic Theory33
- 2011The syntax of DutchCambridgeCambridge University Press
- 2011The syntax of DutchCambridgeCambridge University Press