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Introduction

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This chapter takes as its point of departure the discussion in Section 9.2, which has shown that finite verbs can be found in basically two positions: the clause-final position in embedded clauses and the verb-first/second position in main clauses; the latter position is normally occupied by a complementizer in embedded clauses.

a.	Marie zegt	[dat	Jan	het boek	op dit moment	leest].
	Marie says	that	Jan	the book	at this moment	reads
	'Mary says that Jan is reading the book at this moment.'

b.	Op dit moment	leest	Jan het boek.
	at this moment	reads	Jan the book
	'At this moment, Jan is reading the book.'

On the basis of these two positions, the clause can be divided into various “topological” fields: the clause-initial position, the middle field and the postverbal field; cf. representation (2).

Chapter 11 has shown that the C-position can be preceded by at most one constituent. Nevertheless there are cases, like those given in example (3), in which this position is preceded by a second phrase. If the structure of the clause postulated in (2) is indeed correct, we have to conclude that the italicized phrases preceding the clause-initial position are clause-external. This seems supported by the fact that these phrases can be set apart from the sentence by a distinct intonation break.

a.	Ja,	dat	wist	ik	al.	polar yes/no
	yes	that	knew	I	already
	'Yes, I already knew that.'

b.	Jan,	er	is telefoon	voor je.	vocative
	Jan	there	is phone.call	for you
	'Jan, thereʼs a phone call for you.'

c.	Lieve help,	hij is ziek.	interjection
	good grief,	he is ill
	'Good grief, heʼs ill!'

That the italicized phrases in (3) are clause-external is also suggested by the fact that they occur in root contexts only; cf. Riemsdijk & Zwarts (1997). The examples in (4), for instance, are excluded on the intended reading; the number signs indicate that vocatives and interjections can sometimes be used as parentheticals (if preceded and followed by an intonation break) but such cases are equivalent to cases in which they precede the full sentence, which shows that they should be construed with the main and not with the embedded clause.

a.	Hij	hoorde	<*ja>	dat <*ja>	ik	dat	al	wist.
	he	heard	yes	that	I	that	already	knew
	'He heard that I knew that already.'

b.	Ik	vermoed	<#Jan>	dat <*Jan>	er	telefoon	voor je	is.
	I	suspect	Jan	that	there	phone.call	for you	is
	'I suspect that thereʼs a phone call for you.'

c.	Marie ontkende	<#lieve help>	dat <*lieve help>	hij	ziek	is.
	Marie denied	good grief	that	he	ill	is
	'Marie denied that he is ill.'

The examples in (3) and (4) suggest that polar ja/nee, vocatives and interjections are not only extra-clausal but even extra-sentential: they can also occur without an accompanying clause under the proper extra-linguistic circumstances: ja/nee suffices as an answer to a yes/no-question, vocatives can simply be used to attract attention, and interjections such as Lieve help! can be used in response to the occurrence of eventualities with certain undesirable qualities.

a.	Heb	je	even	tijd	voor me?	Nee.	answer to yes/no-question
	have	you	a.moment	time	for me	no
	'Do you have a moment for me? No.'

Jan!

call for attention

Lieve help!

exclamation

Since the italicized phrases in (3) may be extra-sentential, it is not clear whether they should be dealt with in a work on syntax. These elements instead seem to play an important role in discourse, e.g., by drawing the attention of discourse participants (vocatives and certain interjections) and by expressing emotions (the interjection Lieve help!). Discourse chunks such as (6) further show that such elements play an important role in structuring discourse by regulating turn-taking; the extra-sentential element toch is used for requesting feedback and ja provides a response to this request. The extra-sentential elements discussed so far are often referred to as pragmaticmarkers in order to express that they are generally assumed to be the subject matter of theories on language use.

Jan is	al	weg,	toch?	Ja,	dat	klopt.	turn-taking
Jan is	already	away	prt	yes	that	is.right
'Jan has left, hasnʼt he? Yes, thatʼs right.'

It should be noted, however, that certain extra-sentential elements have been considered by syntacticians for a long time. This holds especially for so-called left-dislocation constructions as illustrated in the (a)-examples in (7), in which a sentence-external phrase is resumed by a demonstrative in clause-initial position or a referential pronoun in the middle field of the clause; the intended reading is indicated by means of indices. For phrases following the clause the same holds: these are often not discussed in syntactic work with the exception of right-dislocated phrases such as given in (7b), which have a correlate in the preceding clause.

a.	Peteri,	diei	heb	ik	gisteren	gezien.	left dislocation
	Peter	dem	have	I	yesterday	seen
	'Peter, I saw him yesterday.'

a'.	Peteri,	ik	heb	hemi	gisteren	gezien.	left dislocation
	Peter	I	have	him	yesterday	seen
	'Peter, I saw him yesterday.'

b.	Ik	heb	hem	gisteren	gezien,	Peter.	right dislocation
	I	have	him	yesterday	seen	Peter
	'I saw him yesterday, Peter.'

Left- and right-dislocated phrases differ from the extra-sentential phrases of the type mentioned earlier in that they do not primarily have a pragmatic function, but instead play an important role in shaping the information structure of utterances. Given that this work is not concerned with the actual use of utterances, the focus of this chapter will be on left- and right-dislocated phrases, which will be discussed in Section 14.2 and 14.3, respectively. For completeness’ sake, however, Section 14.1 briefly addresses a number of extra-sentential pragmatic markers.

References:

Riemsdijk, Henk van & Zwarts, Frans1997Left 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

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: FieldPragmatic Marker

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