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4.4.1.Spatial PPs

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Adverbially used spatial adpositional phrases are generally prepositional. Sometimes it is not easy to determine whether a spatial PP is used adverbially or not. Example (76), for instance, is ambiguous between a reading in which the PP is used as a complementive and a reading in which it is used as an adverbial phrase.

		Jan springt	in de sloot.
		Jan jumps	in/into the ditch
		Complementive reading: 'Jan jumps into the ditch.'
		Adverbial reading: 'Jan is jumping in the ditch.'

The two readings of (76) can be distinguished by putting the clause in the perfect tense, as in (77): if the PP acts as a complementive, the verb is unaccusative and the auxiliary zijn is used; if the PP is an adverbial phrase, the verb is intransitive and the auxiliary hebben is used. Taking the two examples in (77) as our point of departure, we can investigate the differences between the two uses of the PP.

a.	Jan is in de sloot	gesprongen.
	Jan is into the ditch	jumped
	Complementive reading only: 'Jan jumped into the ditch.'

b.	Jan heeft	in de sloot	gesprongen.
	Jan has	in the ditch	jumped
	Adverbial reading only: 'Jan has jumped in the ditch.'

I. Topicalization
II. Word order in the middle field of the clause
III. PP-over-V
IV. R-extraction
V. Conclusion

[+] I. Topicalization

The two uses of the spatial PPs do not seem to differ with respect to topicalization; both (78a) and (78b) are acceptable. The examples perhaps differ in that the complementive requires contrastive accent, while this is not necessary in the case of the adverbial phrase.

a.		In de sloot	is Jan gesprongen.	complementive
		into the ditch	is	Jan jumped

b.		In de sloot	heeft	Jan gesprongen.	adverbial
		in the ditch	has	Jan jumped

[+] II. Word order in the middle field of the clause

The examples in (79) show that a complementive PP must be left-adjacent to the verb(s) in clause-final position, whereas the adverbially used PP can occur in several positions in the middle field.

a.	dat	Jan vaak	in de sloot	sprong.
	that	Jan often	in/into the ditch	jumped
	Complementive reading: 'that Jan often jumped into the ditch.'
	Adverbial reading: 'that Jan often jumped in the ditch.'

b.	dat	Jan in de sloot	vaak	sprong.
	that	Jan in the ditch	often	jumped
	Adverbial reading only: 'that Jan often jumped in the ditch.'

From the fact that the verb springen takes the auxiliary zijn if the PP is a complementive and the fact that complementives must be left-adjacent to the verbs in clause-final position, it correctly follows that (80a') is excluded: the auxiliary zijn forces a complementive reading, so that the PP must be left-adjacent to the clause-final verbs. Since adverbial PPs can occur in other positions in the middle field, (80b') is of course predicted to be possible.

a.		dat	Jan vaak	in de sloot	is gesprongen.	complementive
		that	Jan often	into the ditch	is jumped

a'.

dat Jan in de sloot vaak is gesprongen.

b.		dat	Jan vaak	in de sloot	heeft	gesprongen.	adverbial
		that	Jan often	in the ditch	has	jumped

b'.

dat Jan in de sloot vaak heeft gesprongen.

Note that we have avoided the use of the term scrambling in the discussion above. The reason for this is that scrambling is generally taken to be movement across the adverbs in the clause; it is not clear whether we are dealing with movement here or whether the adverbial phrases are simply base-generated in different positions. The latter possibility is supported by the fact that there can be more than one spatial adverbial phrase in a single clause. Observe that the adverbial phrases in (81) are strictly ordered: the more general one ( in Amsterdam/de tuin) must precede the more specific one ( bij Peter/onder de boom).

a.	dat	Jan in Amsterdam vaak	bij Peter	logeert.
	that	Jan in Amsterdam often	with Peter	stays
	'that Jan often stays with Peter in Amsterdam.'

a'.

dat

Jan bij Peter vaak in Amsterdam

logeert.

b.	dat	Jan in de tuin	vaak	onder de boom	speelt.
	that	Jan in the garden	often	under the tree	plays
	'that, in the garden, Jan often plays under the tree.'

b'.

dat Jan onder de boom vaak in de tuin speelt

Note that example (82a) does not refute the claim that the more general spatial phrase must precede the more specific one: example (82b) shows that these two PPs may be part of a larger constituent, in which the PP in de tuin functions as an attributive modifier of the noun boom: [PPonder [NP de boom [PP in de tuin]]].

a.	dat	Jan onder de boom	in de tuin	graag	speelt.
	that	Jan under the tree	in the garden	gladly	plays
	'that Jan likes to play under the tree in the garden.'

Onder de boom in de tuin speelt Jan graag.

[+] III. PP-over-V

PP-over-V can be also used to disambiguate the two constructions in (76): if PP-over-V does not apply, as in (83a), both readings are available; if PP-over-V does apply, as in (83b), only the adverbial reading survives.

a.	dat	Jan in de sloot	sprong.
	that	Jan in/into the ditch	jumped
	Complementive reading: 'that Jan jumped into the ditch.'
	Adverbial reading: 'that Jan was jumping in the ditch.'

b.	dat	Jan sprong	in de sloot.
	that	Jan jumped	in the ditch
	Adverbial reading only: 'that Jan was jumping in the ditch.'

From the fact that the verb springen takes the auxiliary zijn if the PP is a complementive and the fact that complementives cannot be in extraposed position, it correctly follows that (84a') is excluded: the auxiliary zijn forces a complementive reading, so that the PP must precede the clause-final verbs. Since adverbial PPs can be in extraposed position (84b') is correctly predicted to be possible. This fact was noted earlier in (80), but the examples are repeated her for convenience.

dat

Jan vaak

in de sloot

is gesprongen.

complementive

a'.

dat Jan in de sloot vaak is gesprongen.

dat

Jan vaak

in de sloot

heeft

gesprongen.

adverbial

b'.

dat Jan in de sloot vaak heeft gesprongen.

If the clause contains more than one (spatial) PP, PP-over-V reverses the order these PPs have in the middle field of the clause; cf. Koster (1974). This becomes clear by comparing the examples in (85) with those in (81). Note that example (85b) also allows an analysis in which in de tuin'in the garden' is an attributive modifier of the noun boom'tree'. Note also that the primed examples in (85) become acceptable if the PPs in Amsterdam and onder de boom are presented as an afterthought, in which case they must be preceded by an intonation break.

a.	dat	Jan vaak	logeert	bij Peter	in Amsterdam.
	that	Jan often	stays	with Peter	in Amsterdam
	'that Jan often stays with Peter in Amsterdam.'

a'.

dat Jan vaak

logeert in Amsterdam bij Peter.

b.		dat Jan vaak speelt onder de boom in de tuin.
		that Jan often plays under the tree in the garden

b'.

dat Jan vaak speelt in de tuin onder de boom.

[+] IV. R-extraction

It seems that R-extraction is not readily possible with spatial adverbial phrases. Whereas extraction of a relative R-pronoun is perfectly acceptable from the complementive PP in (86a), it leads to a marked status when applied to the spatial adverbial PP in (86b); see Section 5.3 for more discussion.

a.	de sloot	waar	Jan in	is gesprongen	complementive
	the ditch	where	Jan into	is jumped
	'the ditch into which Jan jumped'

b.	??	de sloot	waar	Jan in heeft	gesprongen	adverbial
		the ditch	where	Jan in has	jumped
		'the ditch in which Jan jumped'

There are, however, many unclear cases and speakers' judgments seem to differ considerably on R-extraction from spatial adverbial clauses, especially if we are dealing with relative clauses. Some speakers find examples such as (87a) quite acceptable, whereas others require pied piping of the preposition, as in (87b). Some speakers even object to both (87a) and (87b) and prefer the option of simply using the relative adverbial pro-form waar'where' in (87c).

a.	%	de tuin	waar	we een feest	in zullen	geven
		the garden	where	we a party	in will	give

b.	de tuin	waarin	we een feest	zullen	geven
	the garden	where.in	we a party	will	give
	'the garden in which we will give a party'

c.	de tuin	waar	we een feest	zullen	geven
	the garden	where	we a party	will	give
	'the garden where we will give a party'

[+] V. Conclusion

The previous subsections have shown that adverbially used PPs differ in various respects from complementive adpositional phrases. The differences have been summarized in Table 5. Recall from the discussion of (63) in Section 4.2.2 that spatial adpositional phrases can possibly also be used as supplementives. It seems, however, that the distinction between supplementive and adverbial adpositional phrases can only be made on the basis of their semantic relation to (the arguments of) the clause.

Table 5: Complementive versus adverbial spatial adpositional phrases

	complementives	adverbial phrases
topicalization	+	+
adjacency to clause-final verbs	obligatory	not necessary
PP-over-V	—	+
R-extraction	+	—/?

References:

Koster, Jan1974Het werkwoord als spiegelcentrumSpektator3601-618

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Adpositional PhrasePP-over-VR-extractionSpatial Adpositional phraseTopicalizationWord Order

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis	December 2015

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