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5.1.4.Prepositional object clauses?

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This section on finite prepositional object (PO-)clauses is relatively short given that many of their properties and of the anticipatory pronominal PPs introducing them have been discussed in Section 2.3. PO-clauses never have the form of main clauses and come in two types: declarative clauses introduced by the complementizer dat'that' or interrogative clauses introduced by the complementizer of'whether' or some wh-phrase. Some examples are given in (240). The question as to whether a declarative or an interrogative clause will be used depends on the verb: a verb like klagen (over)'to complain (about)' in (240a) selects a declarative clause, whereas the verb twijfelen (over) in the (b)-examples selects an interrogative clause.

240

a.	dat	Jan (erover)	klaagde	[dat	Marie hem	steeds	plaagt].	declarative
	that	Jan about.it	complained	that	Marie him	always	teases
	'that Jan complained about it that Marie teases him all the time.'

b.	dat	Jan (erover)	twijfelt	[of	hij	het boek	zal lezen].	interrogative
	that	Jan about.it	is.in.doubt	whether	he	the book	will read
	'that Jan is in doubt about whether heʼll read the book.'

b'.	dat	Jan (erover)	twijfelt	[welk boek	hij	zal lezen].	interrogative
	that	Jan about.it	is.in.doubt	which book	he	will read
	'that Jan is in doubt about which book heʼll read.'

The examples in (240) show that clause-final PO-clauses can be introduced by an anticipatory pronominal PP in the middle field of the clause. Depending on the verb in question, this PP can be optional or obligatory. The former holds for the verbs in (240) and the latter for the verbs in (241). An extensive sample of PO-verbs that can or cannot drop the anticipatory pronominal PP can be found in Section 2.3.1, sub VI.

241

a.	dat	Jan	*(ervan)	geniet	[dat	hij	rijk	is].
	that	Jan	of.it	enjoys	that	he	rich	is
	'that Jan enjoys it that heʼs rich.'

b.	dat	Jan	*(erop)	rekent	[dat	Marie	zal	komen].
	that	Jan	on.it	counts	that	Marie	will	come
	'that Jan counts on it that Marie will come.'

PO-clauses can be left-dislocated, in which case the anticipatory pronoun is replaced by a resumptive pronominal PP in the form of daar + P. This is illustrated in (242) for the examples in (240); the (discontinuous) resumptive PP is in italics.

242

a.		[Dat Marie hem	steeds	plaagt],	daar	klaagde	Jan over.
		that Marie him	always	teases	there	complained	Jan about

b.	[Of	hij het boek	zal lezen],	daar	twijfelt	Jan over.
	whether	he the book	will read	there	is.in.doubt	Jan about
	'Whether heʼll read the book, that Jan is in doubt about.'

b'.		[Welk boek	hij	zal lezen],	daar	twijfelt	Jan over.
		which book	he	will read	there	is.in.doubt	Jan about

Although some speakers seem to allow omission of the pronominal part of the resumptive PP, most people reject this. This is indicated in (243), in which pro stands for the empty/deleted resumptive pronominal part, by means of a percentage sign.

243

a.	%	[dat	Marie hem	steeds	plaagt] pro	klaagde	Jan over.
		that	Marie him	always	teases	complained	Jan about

b.	%	[of	hij het boek	zal lezen] pro	twijfelt	Jan over.
		whether	he the book	will read	is.in.doubt	Jan about
		'Whether heʼll read the book, Jan doubts.'

b'.	%	[Welk boek	hij	zal lezen] pro	twijfelt	Jan over.
		which book	he	will read	is.in.doubt	Jan about

Note in passing that the fact that most speakers do not accept examples such as (243) may be a potential problem for Koster's proposal discussed in Section 5.1.2.2, sub III and Section 5.1.3, sub II, the substance of which was that apparent sentence-initial object and subject clauses are actually left-dislocated and that the first position of the sentence is in fact filled by an empty pronominal element pro. If the resumptive pronoun can be phonetically empty in the case of subject and object clauses, why is this excluded for most speakers in the case of PO-clauses? Note also that the examples in (243) do not improve if the prepositional part of the resumptive pronominal PP is left out. Although some speakers may perhaps marginally accept examples such as (244), they contrast sharply with the examples without an anticipatory PP in (240), which are fully grammatical.

244

a.	??	[Dat	Marie hem	steeds	plaagt]	klaagde	Jan.
		that	Marie him	always	teases	complained	Jan

b.	*?	[Of	hij het boek	zal lezen]	twijfelt	Jan.
		whether	he the book	will read	is.in.doubt	Jan
		'that Jan is in doubt whether heʼll read the book.'

b'.	*?	[Welk boek	hij	zal lezen]	twijfelt	Jan.
		which book	he	will read	is.in.doubt	Jan

PO-clauses cannot be placed in the middle field of the clause, irrespective of whether or not an anticipatory PP is present. PO-clauses normally do not occur as part of the PP-complement of the verb either; examples such as (245) are quite marked compared to examples such as (240), which is indicated here by means of a question mark (although Section P2.4.1, sub I, discusses a number of exceptional circumstances that do seem to license PPs of the type in (245)).

245

a.	?	dat	Jan klaagde [PP	over	[dat	Marie hem	steeds	plaagt]].
		that	Jan complained	about	that	Marie him	always	teases

b.	?	dat	Jan twijfelt [PP	over	[of	hij	het boek	zal	lezen]].
		that	Jan is.in.doubt	about	whether	he	the book	will	read

b'.	?	dat	Jan twijfelt [PP	over	[welk boek	hij	zal	lezen]].
		that	Jan is.in.doubt	about	which book	he	will	read

We want to conclude by noticing that there are als-clauses that can easily be erroneously analyzed as PO-clauses; We refer the reader to Paardekooper (1986:1.18.9, B2) for a concrete case of such a misanalysis, but we will use example (246a) for reasons of representation. The two examples in (246a) differ, however, in that the als-clause but not the dat-clause can be followed by dan'then' if the als-clause occurs on the first position of the utterance, suggesting that we are dealing with a conditional adverbial clause. This suggestion is supported by the fact that there is a sharp difference between the two variants of example (246c), in which the clauses appear as part of the PP-complement: whereas the dat-clause gives rise to a marked but interpretable result, the als-clause gives rise to an unacceptable and uninterpretable result.

246

a.	Jan klaagt	er	altijd	over	[dat/als	het	regent].
	Jan complains	there	always	about	that/if	it	rains
	'Jan always complains about it that/if it rains.'

b.	[Als/*dat	het regent],	dan	klaagt	Jan er	altijd	over.
	if/that	it rains	then	complains	Jan there	always	about
	'If it rains, Jan is always complaining about it.'

c.	Jan klaagt	altijd [PP	over	[?dat/*als	het	regent]].
	Jan complains	always	about	that/if	it	rains
	Literally: 'Jan always complains about that it rains.'

A final argument for assuming that the als-clause is a conditional adverbial clause is that it can occupy the sentence-initial position while the anticipatory pronominal PP erover is present; if the als-clause were a PO-clause, we would end up with two prepositional objects within a single clause. Analyzing the als-clause as a conditional adverbial phrase, on the other hand, is unproblematical given that we may then give (247a) a similar analysis as (247b).

247

a.	[Als	het regent]	klaagt	Jan er	altijd	over.
	if	it rains	complains	Jan there	always	about
	'If it rains, Jan is always complaining about it.'

b.	[Als	het regent]	klaagt	Jan altijd	over reuma.
	if	it rains	complains	Jan always	about rheumatism
	'If it rains, Jan is always complaining about rheumatism.'

For more discussion of the incorrect analysis of conditional als-clauses as argument clauses we refer the reader to Section 5.1.2.1, sub VI, to Section 5.1.3, sub I, for similar cases in the domain of object and subject clauses.

References:

Paardekooper, P.C1986Beknopte ABN-syntaksisEindhovenP.C. Paardekooper

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Argument ClauseClauseComplementizerDeclarativeFinite Argument ClauseInterrogativeLeft DislocationPrepositional ObjectPronominal

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver	January 2016

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