/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch1
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    5.2 Transitive predication
    quickinfo

    Transitive complementive predication involves the copular use of a transitive verb with an Adposition Phrase (PP). The transitive verb may be of the folloan aspectual verb of being, an aspectual verb of becoming, a modal verb, a resultative verb of motion or an evidential verb.

    Transitive predication features the following classes of copulas:

    • Aspectual verbs of being such as häbe ‘have’ or of becoming such as kriege ‘get’.
    • Modal verbs such as moute ‘must’.
    • Resultative verbs of motion such as fiere ‘drive’ and joagje ‘drive’.
    • Evidential verbs with as ‘as’.

    These will be discussed in turn below.

    readmore
    [+]1. Transitive predication with aspectual verbs of being and becoming

    The transitive verb häbe ‘to have’ is able to provide a complementive structure for a direct object and an Adposition Phrase (PP) predicated of it. This verb involves a relation of being between its direct object and the PP predicate. The external argument of the PP is thus realised as the direct object, wheras it is realised as the structural subject in an intransitive predication.

    The following two examples involve the verb häbe ‘to have’. In such cases, the direct object must frequently be an expletive noun, as in the first example, or a measure noun, as in the second example:

    1
    Ju häd ‘t mäd dän Rääch.
    she has it with the back
    She has pain in her back.
    2
    Hie häd ook wät fon sien Moaljen.
    he has also something of his painting
    He has some money from his painting.

    The first example establishes a locational containment relation between the pain and the back, and the containee is realised in the external position, which here is the direct object position. The subject denotes the possessor of both locations. The container is realised as the prepositional complement. The second example does not involve location but causation. The money is the causee, and it is realised in the external position, here the direct object position. The subject again denotes the possessor, in this case the possessor of the cause and the causee. There are also examples in which the direct is a normal argument:

    3
    Aal wät hie hiede, dät hied hie uum un oane.
    all which he had that had he about and on
    Everything he had he wore on his body.

    A peculiar example is the following:

    4
    Dät häbe iek niks in Rekenge.
    that have I nothing in charge
    I consider that a small matter.

    There are three NPs in this clause, apart from the prepositional complement. One of them is a measure phrase, which may perhaps be analysed as a modifier of the PP. In that case, the PP is predicated of the direct object, as in the earlier examples.

    Häbe ‘to have’ is a transitive verb of being, as far as its direct object and its predicate are concerned. The unmarked transitive verb of becoming is kriege ‘get’, which likewise mediates in establishing a predication relation between its direct object and a PP. An example is provided below:

    5
    Ju kreech him bie do Hiere.
    she got him at the hair
    She grabbed his hair.

    Here the direct object is the inherent possessor of the body part realised as the prepositional complement. The subject is the non-inherent possessor of this body part. Some more examples are given below:

    6
    Koast du do Oaiere uut’t Nääst kriege?
    can you the eggs out.the nest get
    Can you get the eggs out of the nest?
    7
    Wie häbe dät Jeeld bietou kriegen.
    we have the money at.to got
    We got the money on the side.
    8
    Iek häbe deer ‘n Doodsleek fon kriegen.
    I have R.it a death.fright of got
    I got a tremendous fright from it.

    The last example illustrates that the preposition changes into a postposition because its complement is realised as a R-pronoun. The second example illustrates that a complex of two bare adpositions is predicated of the direct object. The first example is a straightforward locative example.

    [+]2. Transitive predication with modal verbs

    Modal verbs include moute ‘must’, wolle ‘want’ and hougje ‘need to’. Examples could not be found.

    [+]3. Transitive predication with resultative verbs of motion

    Prototypical transitive verbs of caused motion such as sätte ‘to put’ involve a change of location initiated by a cause or an agent. They can be considered the motional-locational equivalent of the concept of becoming. The example below involves temporal placement:

    9
    Iek häbe ju Uutflucht ap Sundai sät.
    I have the trip on Sunday put
    I put the trip down for Sunday.

    Here there is a temporal containment relation between the direct object and the prepositional complement. The temporal complement denotes the container, the direct object the containee. The subject is the possessor of both temporal stretches and the events contained in them. Transitive predication may also involve a reflexive object:

    10
    Dät Sound sät sik in’t Woater.
    the sand sets REFL in.the water
    The sand settles down in the water.

    Another example is given below:

    11
    Jo wollen bäte ju Wede ‘n Skäin sätte.
    they want behind the meadow a barn put
    They want to put up a barn behind the meadow.

    Here the preposition specifies the spatial relation of relative orientation between the prepositional complement and the direct object. The following example is interesting as it involves two verbal objects, one of which is a reflexive:

    12
    Ju Kroankhaid sätte sik hier ap do Ogene.
    the illness set REFL her on the eyes
    The illness directed itself against her eyes.

    The external argument of the preposition is the illness, which is realised as the reflexive object. The other object hier ‘her’ is the affected object, the possessor of the body part denoted by the prepositional complement. Consider next the following example, which is a classic locational case:

    13
    Hie sätte dät Finster in dän epene Rome oun.
    he put the window in the open frame in
    He installed the window in the open frame.

    These examples together illustrate both the basis case of a subject causing an object to change its location and the more difficult cases involving reflexives and more abstract or idiomatic interpretations.

    [+]4. Transitive predication

    Adposition Phrases (PPs) participating in an evidential construction are characteristically formed with the word as ‘as’. An example of a supplementive phrase is given below, involving the verb moakje ‘make’:

    14
    Häbe jie nit lezen, dät die Skäpper do Moanskene as Mon un Wieuw moaked häd?
    have you net read that the creator the people as man and woman made has
    Haven’t you read that the creator made the people as man and woman?

    The PP is predicated of the direct object, and then verb moakje ‘make’ functions as a transitive verb of becoming. However, a verb may select a different adposition, as in the following example, involving the preposition foar ‘for’:

    15
    Iek hoolde hier foar ’n goude Jufferske.
    I hold her for a good teacher
    Consider he to be a good teacher.

    Apart from evidentials, the word as ‘as’ is freely used to establish a predication relation. As such it may be selected, but it may also function as a supplementive predicated of the subject or object.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X