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    8.4 Modification of PPs by adverbial APs
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    Adjectives and adverbs may modify Adposition Phrases (PPs), provided that their meaning belongs to the same semantic category as the PPs which they are intended to modify. Two semantic categories are distinguished here, location and time. An example of modification of PP is given below:

    1
    Dan kuust bäte Schürmans Gerd fout gjuchts ou.
    then could.you behind Schürmans Gerd directly right off
    Then you could turn right immediately behind Schürman’s Gerd.

    In addition, the comparative and superlative of semantically compatible adjectives may be used to form the comparative and superlative forms of some adpositions. The sections below deal with some types of adverbial modification of PPs.

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    [+]1. PPs of location

    Certain adjectives and adverbs of distance and location may be used to modify adpositions of location. Adjectives which can refer to the locational notion of distance, such as ticht ‘close’, may modify locational adpositional phrases, as shown in the examples below:

    2
    Hie siet stieuw an mie.
    he sat tight to me
    He was sitting right next to me.
    3
    Iek kuud min Houd buppe ap‘t Skap nit ouräkke.
    I could my hat above on.the closet not off.reach
    I couldn’t reach my hat on top of the closet.

    Adjectives of distance functioning as adverbs can themselves be modified by NPs:

    4
    Dan kume wie aiske gau ‘n heel Eende färe.
    then come we very soon a whole stretch farther
    Then we'll make quite a bit of progress very quickly.
    5
    ‘n Aantje färe.
    a stretch.DIM farther
    A bit further.

    Measure NPs can also modify PPs:

    6
    Wie liegen fjauerhundert Meter unner dän Top.
    we laid four.hundred meter below the top
    We were four hundred meters below the top.
    [+]2. PPs of time

    Adjectives and adverbs of time may be used to modify Adposition Phrases (PPs) of time. Adjectives which can refer to temporal duration such as kuut ‘short’ en loange ‘long’ may be used to modify PPs with a temporal dimension.

    7
    Fluks deerätter.
    right it.after
    Right after that.
    8
    Et is kuut foar twelig.
    it is short before twelve
    It is almost twelve o’clock.
    [+]3. Using designated adjectives and adverbs for the comparative and superlative forms of PPs

    Some adpositions can be combined with designated adjectives having a similar meaning. In that case, the comparative of the adjective seems to function as the comparative of the combination of adjective and adposition, as in the following examples:

    9
    Fier wäch, färe wäch.
    far away farther away
    Far away, farther away.
    10
    Ticht bie‘t Huus, tichter bie‘t Huus.
    close to.the house closer to.the house
    Close to the house, closer to the house.

    This phenomenon is also found in West Frisian and Dutch.

    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
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