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The number of AV compounds is moderate, although it cannot be said that the pattern is unproductive. Examples of such combinations of an adjective and a verb are grutbringe to raise (a child) (from grut big and bringe to bring or klearmeitsje to prepare (from klear ready and meitsje to make). The stress in these formations is on the first constituent, and they are all separable.

We also find combinations of an adjective and a participial form of the verb, as in de leechdronken flesse the emptied bottle. However, the participial part is probably better analysed as having been converted to an adjective. Hence, they are considered here as complex adjectives, and are therefore treated under the heading of AA compounds.

Examples of AV compounds are listed below:

Table 1

first constituent (A)	second constituent (V)	compound (AV)
goed good	sizze to say	goedsizze to stand sure
bleat naked	lizze to lay	bleatlizze to reveal
klear ready	komme to come	klearkomme to finish
leech low	lizze to lay	leechlizze to belittle
fêst fixed	nimme to take	fêstnimme to grip
sûn healthy	freegje to ask	sûnfreegje to inquire after well-being

All AV formations are separable. They can therefore be classified as particle verbs, comparable to separable combinations of adpositions and verbs. This means that in certain syntactic configurations the first constituent of the compound does not need to be adjacent to the second constituent. For instance, the formation bleatlizze naked-lay to reveal is separated in the main clause, in contrast to the situation in the sub-clause:

Hy lei de feiten bleat

he laid the facts naked

He revealed the facts

... dat er de feiten bleatlei

... that he the facts naked-laid

... that he revealed the facts

Another construction in which adjective and verb are separated is the om + te-infinitival, as in ... om de feiten bleat te lizzen ... CONJ the facts naked PTCL lay ... in order to reveal the facts. The particle te to separates the adjective from the verb in this construction.

Note that this property implies that to a certain extent these AV compounds resemble resultative constructions as in eat grien fervje something green paint paint something green. A difference is the fact that the adjective in such constructions is phrasal. One effect is that it can be modified, for example in eat hielendal grien fervje paint something completely green. This is odd if the adjective is part of a word: ??de feiten hielendal bleatlizze the facts completely reveal. Furthermore, these AV formations can be the basis for further word formation, for example suffixation with -ing (as in goedsizzing surety) or with -erich as in hy is net sa sûnfregerich he is not so healthy-ask-SUFF he is not so much inclined to inquire after someone.

The partial parallelism with resultative constructions makes it reasonable to assume that these AV formations have a source as univerbations. A further parallel is the property that the stress is on the adjective: goedsizze to stand sure, bleatlizze to reveal, etc.

AV compounds can be used adjectively when the V constituent is a participle, for example de leechdronken flesse the emptied bottle. It is assumed here that such participles have been converted to an adjective, and such formations are therefore dealt with under the heading AA.

extra

Literature

The pattern treated in this topic is mentioned in Hoekstra (1991) and Hoekstra (1998:61).

References

Hoekstra, Jarich1991Nijmakke en eigenoanretFriesch Dagblad21-09Taalsnipels 201
Hoekstra, Jarich1998Fryske wurdfoarmingLjouwertFryske Akademy

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About this article

Author(s): Siebren Dyk, Gerbrich de Jong

Category: Frisian Morphology

Keywords: compoundparticle verb

Version: 1.0, December 2023

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Siebren Dyk	December 2023

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