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8.3.2.VP adverbials

quickinfo

VP adverbials can be adjectival, prepositional, nominal or clausal, as was already illustrated for temporal adverbials in example (136) in the introduction to Section 8.3. It is not the case, however, that all semantic subtypes discussed in Section 8.2 are as versatile in this respect as temporal adverbials: the following subsections will discuss the restrictions on the manifestation of the various subtypes.

I. Process Adverbials
II. Agentive adverbials
III. Spatio-temporal adverbials
IV. Contingency: cause, reason, purpose, result, concession
V. Predicate-degree: erg'very'; een beetje'a bit'

[+] I. Process Adverbials

Manner adverbials are prototypically APs, although example (140a) shows that it is sometimes also possible to realize them as PPs. The (b)-examples show that there are two proforms that can be used as manner adverbs: deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how'.

140

a.	Jan heeft	het hek	zorgvuldig/met veel zorg	geschilderd.	manner
	Jan has	the gate	carefully/with great care	painted
	'Jan has painted the gate carefully/with great care.'

b.	Met veel zorg,	zo	heeft	hij	het hek	geschilderd.	deictic
	with great care	so	has	he	the gate	painted
	'With great care, in this way he has painted the gate.'

b'.	Hoe heeft	hij	het hek	geschilderd?	Met veel zorg.	interrogative
	how has	he	the gate	painted	with great care
	'How has he painted the gate? With great care.'

Adverbials indicating instrument or means are prototypically realized as a met-PP, as in (141a), although Section 8.2.1, sub I, has shown that other prepositions are occasionally used as well. The (b)-examples in (141) show that the pronominal counterpart of these adverbials is normally a pronominal PP like deictic daarmee'with that' or interrogative/relative waarmee'with what', but it is also possible to use the interrogative proform hoe'how'. Deictic zo seems occasionally to be possible as well but this is clearly a marked option.

141

a.	Jan heeft	het gat	met een schep/zand	gevuld.	instrument/means
	Jan has	the hole	with a shovel/sand	filled
	'Jan has filled the hole with a shovel/sand.'

b.	Jan heeft	het gat	daarmee	gevuld.	deictic
	Jan has	the hole	with.that	filled
	'Jan has filled the hole with that.'

b'.	Waarmee/Hoe	heb je	dat gat	gevuld?	Met een schep/zand.	interrogative
	with.what/how	have you	that hole	filled	with a shovel/sand
	'With what/how have you filled that hole? With a shovel/sand.'

Volitional adverbials are again prototypically APs, although (142a) shows that they occasionally may surface as PPs as well. The (b)-examples show once more that deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how' can be used as adverbial proforms.

142

a.	Jan	heeft	zijn bekentenis	gedwongen/onder dwang	afgelegd.	volitional
	Jan	has	his confession	forced/under pressure	prt.-reported
	'Jan has confessed under pressure.'

b.		Onder dwang,	zo	heeft	Jan zijn bekentenis	afgelegd.	deictic
		under pressure	so	has	Jan his confession	prt.-reported

b'.		Hoe	heeft	Jan zijn bekentenis	afgelegd?	Onder dwang.	interrogative
		how	has	Jan his confession	prt.-reported	under pressure

Domain adverbials such as syntactisch'syntactically' in (143a) are APs. The (b)-examples show that deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how' are used as adverbial proforms in this case.

143

a.	Jan beschrijft	de adverbia	syntactisch/morfologisch.	domain
	Jan describes	the adverbs	syntactically/morphologically
	'Jan is describing the adverbs syntactically/morphologically.'

b.		Syntactisch,	zo	beschrijft	Jan	de adverbia.	deictic
		syntactically	so	describes	Jan	the adverbs

b'.	Hoe	beschrijft	Jan de adverbia,	syntactisch of morfologisch?	interrogative
	how	describes	Jan the adverbs	syntactically or morphologically
	'How does Jan describe the adverbs: syntactically or morphologically?'

This subsection has shown that process adverbials are normally adjectival or prepositional in nature. The adverbial proforms corresponding with the adjectival forms are deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how'. These proforms can generally also be used to refer to or to question process adverbials in the form of a PP, although daarmee'with that' and waarmee'with what' are clearly the preferred forms for adverbial met-PPs.

[+] II. Agentive adverbials

Agentive adverbials always have the form of a PP, such as the passive door-PP in (144a) or the comitative met-PP in (144b). There are no specialized proforms; pronominalization is done by replacing the nominal complement of the preposition by a pronoun.

144

a.	Het pakket	wordt	door Jan/ hem	bezorgd.	agentive
	the parcel	is	by Jan/him	delivered
	'The parcel is delivered by Jan/him.'

a'.		Door wie	wordt	het pakket	bezorgd?
		by whom	is	the parcel	delivered

b.	Jan heeft	met Els/haar	het museum	bezocht.	comitative
	Jan has	with Els//her	the museum	visited
	'Jan has visited the museum with Els/her.'

b'.		Met wie	heeft	Els het museum	bezocht?
		with whom	has	Els the museum	visited

[+] III. Spatio-temporal adverbials

Locational and temporal adverbials may take various forms: temporal adverbials especially are quite free in this respect. The possible manifestations of these adverbials will be discussed in separate subsections.

[+] A. Locational adverbials

Locational adverbial phrases are prototypically PPs. The prepositions in these adverbial phrases typically function as two-place predicates locating the event in a specific place. The adverbial phrase in de tuin'in the garden' in (145a), for instance, expresses that event e of Jan playing takes place in the garden, while onder de boom'under the tree' in (145b) expresses that it takes place under the tree; this can be expressed in logical notation by, respectively, in(e,garden) and under(e,tree). We will not discuss here the various spatial relations expressible by prepositions, but refer the reader to Section P.1.3 for a detailed discussion of this. Observe that prepositional phrases like buiten/binnen'outside/inside' and boven/beneden'upstairs/downstairs' can be (pseudo-)intransitive and therefore surface as particles; we will not discuss this here but refer the reader to P1.2.4 for extensive discussion.

145

a.		Jan heeft	in the tuin gespeeld.
		Jan has	in the garden played

b.		Jan heeft	onder de boom	gespeeld.
		Jan has	under the tree	played

The proforms associated with place adverbials are typically R-words: see P5.1 for discussion. All forms in (146) can be used to replace the adverbial PPs in (145). It should be noticed, however, that these forms are not specifically used as adverbials, but can also be used as complementives; referring to these R-words as adverbs would therefore not do justice to their actual use.

146

Referential: er'there'

Demonstrative: hier'here', daar'there'

Interrogative/relative: waar'where'

Quantificational: overal'everywhere', ergens'somewhere', nergens'nowhere'

A special proform-like element is the somewhat bookish form elders'elsewhere', which is not part of the set of R-words. The fact that this form can also be used as the complement of a directional preposition such as naar suggests that it is actually nominal.

147

De piraat heeft	de schat	naar elders	gebracht.
the pirate has	the treasure	to somewhere/else	taken
'The pirate took the treasure to some other place.'

The R-words in (146) are also used in the formation of pronominal PPs, which can likewise be used as locational adverbials, so that we may find the two examples in (148) next to each other with virtually the same meaning. Again it would be wrong to call the pronominal PPs adverbs because they can also be used as complementives.

148

a.		Jan heeft	daar	gespeeld.	daar = onder de boom
		Jan has	there	played

b.		Jan heeft	daaronder	gespeeld.	daar = de boom
		Jan has	under.it	played

[+] B. Temporal adverbials (punctual)

Time adverbials are probably the most versatile adverbials when it comes to their categorial form. The examples in (149), repeated from the introduction to Section 8.3, show that they can be adjectival, prepositional, nominal or clausal. We will not digress on these forms here as these are extensively discussed in Sections A8.2.1, sub IV, P.1.3.2, N8.3.1, and P2.4.1.

149

a.	Jan gaat	erg vroeg	weg.	adjective phrase
	Jan goes	very early	away
	'Jan is leaving very early.'

b.		Jan gaat	voor zonsopgang	weg.	prepositional phrase
		Jan goes	before sunrise	away

c.		Jan gaat	volgende week	weg.	noun phrase
		Jan goes	next week	away

d.		Jan gaat	weg	voordat	de zon	opkomt.	clause
		Jan goes	away	before	the sun	prt.-rises

The examples in (150) show that the interrogative proform wanneer'when' is used in questions, while dat is used in relative clauses; in the latter case, it is often also possible to use a pronominal PP.

150

a.	Wanneer	gaat	Jan weg?	interrogative
	when	goes	Jan away
	'When is Jan leaving?'

b.	Els denkt	aan de tijd	dat/waarin	ze	in Utrecht werkte.	relative
	Els thinks	of the time	that/where.in	she	in Utrecht worked
	'Els is thinking of the time when she worked in Utrecht.'

There are various specialized deictic forms which locate eventuality k expressed by the clause with respect to some syntactically specified or contextually determined time, which we will loosely refer to as anchor time t: (151) shows that k can be (virtually) simultaneous with t, or be anterior or posterior to it.

151

Simultaneous (k ≈ t): direct'at once', nu/ nou'now', onmiddellijk'immediately', etc.

Anterior (k < t): net'only just', pas'only just', toen'then', zoëven/ zojuist'just now', vroeger'in earlier times', etc.

Posterior (k > t): aanstonds'presently', binnenkort'before long', dadelijk'in a moment', dan'then', gauw'soon', spoedig'soon', straks'later', etc.Posterior (k > t): aanstonds'presently', binnenkort'before long', dadelijk'in a moment', dan'then', gauw'soon', spoedig'soon', straks'later', etc.

The discussion of the deictic forms in (151) takes as its point of departure the claim from binary tense theory that present-tense interval i includes speech time n, while past-tense interval i includes a virtual speech-time-in-the-past n', where n' precedes n; cf. Section 1.5.1. Furthermore, the discussion encompasses the conclusion from Section 1.5.4 that the default interpretation of the present/past tense is that the so-called present j of eventuality k also includes n/n', and that k is located at n/ n' in the simple present/past while it precedes n/ n' in the present/past perfect. That these default readings can be overridden by, e.g., adverbial modification shows that we are dealing with pragmatics, not semantics. The default readings can be observed most easily in the simple-present tense: without an indication to the contrary, (152a) is interpreted such that eventuality k of Jan reading the book occurs at n. This default reading is overridden by temporal adverbials such as morgen'tomorrow' in (152b), which locates j in a position following n, as a result of which eventuality k is also located after n.

152

a.	dat	Jan het boek leest.	default: j includes n
	that	Jan the book reads
	'that Jan is reading the book.'

b.	dat	Jan morgen	(waarschijnlijk)	het boek	leest.	j follows n
	that	Jan tomorrow	probably	the book	reads
	'that Jan will (probably) read the book tomorrow.'

Similar effects can be observed in the examples in the present-perfect tense in (153). Without an indication to the contrary, (153a) will be interpreted such that eventuality k of Jan reading the book was completed before n so that the resulting state of Jan having read the book occurs at n. Again, the temporal clause adverbial morgen'tomorrow' overrides this default reading and locates the present j of k in a position following n; as a result, (153b) cannot be used to express that eventuality k was completed before n so that the resulting state can only occur after n. We refer the reader to Section 8.2.3 for a more detailed summary and further discussion.

153

a.	dat	Jan het boek	heeft	gelezen.	default: j precedes n
	that	Jan the book	has	read
	'that Jan has read the book.'

b.	dat	Jan morgen	(waarschijnlijk)	het boek	heeft	gelezen.	j follows n
	that	Jan tomorrow	probably	the book	has	read
	'that Jan (probably) will have read the book tomorrow.'

The mechanisms determining the default and non-default readings of the present/past tenses outlined above also play a role in the interpretation of the deictic adverbial forms in (151). We start by illustrating this for the forms in (151a), which express that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with anchor time t. The default reading of the simple-present example in (154a) is that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with speech time n. We therefore expect that its past tense counterpart in (154b) expresses that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with virtual speech-time-in-the-past n', but this is only partly borne out: while direct'directly' and onmiddellijk ‘immediatelyindeed meet this expectation, nu'now' does not. This contrast suggests that we should distinguish between tense-sensitive and speaker-oriented adverbials: while tense-sensitive adverbials like direct and onmiddellijk locate k relative to n or n' depending on the tense of the clause, the speaker-oriented adverbial nu always locates k relative to n.

154

a.	Jan vertrekt	direct/onmiddellijk/nu.	k occurs approximately at n
	Jan leaves	at.once/immediately/now
	'Jan is leaving at once/immediately/now.'

b.	Jan vertrok	direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.	k occurs approximately at n'
	Jan left	at.once/immediately/now
	'Jan left at once/immediately.'

The readings of the examples in (154), according to which eventuality k is located approximately at n/n' are default readings, which can again be overridden by the use of temporal adverbials that shift anchor time t to some position on the time axis other than n/n'. This is illustrated by the examples in (155), in which eventuality k expressed by the matrix clause is located at approximately the same position on the time axis as eventuality k' expressed by the adverbial clause: the events of Jan leaving and Marie entering occur more or less simultaneously. The interpretative effect of this is clearest in the present-tense example (155a): because Marie’s entering follows n, Jan’s leaving will also be located after n. As a result, the speaker-oriented adverbial nu'now' also gives rise to an infelicitous result in (155a) unless, perhaps, the entering of Marie is expected to occur approximately at speech time n, too. From the resulting contrast between (154a) and (155a), we can conclude that the distribution of nu is not determined by past/present-tense marking as such but by the location of anchor time t on the time axis. Example (155b) illustrates essentially the same thing for the past tense.

155

a.	Wanneer	Marie binnenkomt,	vertrekt	Jan direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.
	when	Marie inside.comes	leaves	Jan at.once/immediately/now
	'When Marie enters, Jan will be leaving at once/immediately.'

b.	Toen	Marie binnenkwam,	vertrok	Jan direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.
	when	Marie inside.came	left	Jan at.once/immediately/now
	'When Marie entered, Jan left at once/immediately.'

Now consider the anterior adverbials in (151b), which express that eventuality k expressed by the clause is located before anchor time t: t is again taken by default as n/n' in simple-present/past tense clauses. The examples in (156) show that net'only just' and pas'only just' are clear cases of tense-sensitive adverbials: while k occurs immediately before n/n' in (156a), it is located before eventuality k' expressed by the adverbial clauses in the (b)-examples. The interpretative effect is again clearest in the present tense: because the event of Jan arriving follows n in (156b) the state of Jan being away is also located after n.

156

a.	Peter is/was net	weg.	k precedes n/n'
	Peter is/was just	away
	'Peter has/had just left.'

b.	Peter is net	weg	als	Jan	aankomt.	k precedes t
	Peter is just	away	when	Jan	prt.-arrives
	'Peter has just left when Jan arrives.'

b'.	Peter was net	weg	toen	Jan binnen	kwam.	k precedes t
	Peter was just	away	when	Jan came	in
	'Peter had just left when Jan came in.'

The examples in (157) show again that we should make a distinction between tense-sensitive and speaker-oriented adverbials. Contrary to net in (156), the adverbials zojuis t and zoëven in (157a) seem to be intrinsically anchored at speech time n: their interpretation is independent of the tense of the clause, as they simply locate eventuality k at some time just before n. That these adverbials cannot be used to locate k with respect to an anchor time other than n is clear from the fact illustrated in the (b)-examples that they cannot co-occur with adverbials introducing such an alternative anchor time t.

157

a.	Jan is zojuist/zoëven	vertrokken.	k precedes n
	Jan is just.now	left
	'Jan has just left.'

b.	Jan	was	zojuist/zoëven	hier	(*toen	Peter vertrok).	k precedes n
	Jan	was	just.now	here	when	Peter left
	'Jan was here just now.'

b'.	*	Jan is zojuist/zoëven	hier	(als	Peter vertrekt).	k does not precede n
		Jan is just.now	here	when	Peter leaves

That speaker-oriented adverbials cannot co-occur with adverbials introducing an anchor time other than n also accounts for the fact that zojuis t/ zoëven cannot occur in clauses in the simple present, as, for pragmatic reasons, such clauses do not allow k to be located in the actualized part of the present-tense interval. These adverbials thus behave like nominal modifiers such as gisteren'yesterday' and verleden week'last week'; this is illustrated in (158) for the speaker-oriented adverbial toen'then'.

158

a.	Jan was toen/gisteren/verleden week	hier.	simple past
	Jan was then/yesterday/last week	here
	'Jan was here then/yesterday/last week.'

b.	*	Jan is	toen/gisteren/verleden week	hier.	simple present
		Jan is	then/yesterday/last week	here

The posterior adverbials in (151c) are even more restricted in that they all seem to be anchored by speech time n: it is very hard to find or even construct examples in which they occur in past-tense clauses. These adverbials thus behave essentially the same as nominal modifiers such as morgen'tomorrow' and volgende week'next week'.

159

a.	Jan bezoekt	Marie binnenkort/morgen/volgende week.	present tense
	Jan visits	Marie soon/tomorrow/next week
	'Jan will visit Marie soon/tomorrow/next week.'

b.	*	Jan bezocht	Marie binnenkort/morgen/volgende week.	past tense
		Jan visited	Marie soon/tomorrow/next week

Now that we have discussed the deictic adverbial forms in (151), we can continue with the discussion of the various specialized subordinators in (160) which are used to introduce temporal clauses. These subordinators can again be divided into three semantic groups by the way in which they locate eventuality k with respect to some anchor time t, that is, the time at which eventuality k' introduced by the adverbial clause occurs: k can be simultaneous with t/k', or precede or follow it. We refer the reader to Section P2.4 for more information about the form of these subordinators.

160

Simultaneous (k ≈ t): als/wanneer'when', terwijl'while', toen'when', zolang'(for) as long as', nu'now (that)', zodra/zo gauw (als)'as soon as'Simultaneous (k ≈ t): als/wanneer'when', terwijl'while', toen'when', zolang'(for) as long as', nu'now (that)', zodra/ zo gauw (als)'as soon as'

Anterior (k < t): alvorens'before', eer(dat)'before', tot(dat)'until', voor(dat)'before'

Posterior (k > t): na(dat)'after', nu'now (that)', zodra/ zo gauw (als)'as soon as', sinds/sedert 'since', toen'when'

There are usually no restrictions on tense marking: the examples in (161a&b) show that all types of conjunctions can be used in present-tense and paste-tense clauses. The relevant factor is merely the chronological order of the eventualities expressed by the matrix and the embedded clause. This may also account for the phenomenon that main and adverbial clauses must agree in present/past tense marking (the so-called sequence-of-tense effect). The unacceptability of the (c)-examples in (161) may follow immediately from binary tense theory; by using non-agreeing tenses, the eventualities expressed by the main and the embedded clause are part of different tense intervals (namely, one in the present-tense interval and one in the past-tense interval), and this may make it impossible to linearize them. Note in passing that the adverbial clauses introduced by nadat sound somewhat marked but become perfectly natural in the perfect tense (nadat hij gedanst heeft/had'after he has/had danced').

161

a.	Jan speelt viool	terwijl/voordat/?nadat hij danst.	present tense
	Jan plays violin	while/before/after he dances
	'Jan plays the violin while/before/after he dances.'

b.	Jan speelde viool	terwijl/voordat/?nadat hij danste.	past tense
	Jan played violin	while/before/after he danced
	'Jan played the violin while/before/after he danced.'

c.	*	Jan speelt viool	terwijl/voordat/nadat hij danste.	no sequence-of-tense
		Jan plays violin	while/before/after he danced

c'.	*	Jan speelde viool	terwijl/voordat/nadat hij danst.	no sequence-of-tense
		Jan played violin	while/before/after he dances

The (a)-examples in (162) show that adverbial clauses introduced by toen'when' are exceptional in that they can occur in past tense sentences only. Since the adverbial nu'now' can only be used in present-tense clauses, we may expect something similar for adverbial clauses introduced by nu but the (b)-examples show that this is not borne out (although we should perhaps point out that examples such as (162b') are only fully felicitous in narratives).

162

a.	Toen	Marie	vertrok,	kwam	Jan binnen.	past tense
	when	Marie	left	came	Jan inside
	'When Marie left, Jan came in.'

a'.	*	Toen	Marie	vertrekt,	komt	Jan binnen.	present tense
		when	Marie	leaves	comes	Jan inside

b.	Nu	hij	afgestudeerd	is,	kan	hij	gaan	werken.	present tense
	now.that	he	prt-graduated	is	can	he	go	work
	'Now that he has graduated, he can start working.'

b'.	Nu	hij	afgestudeerd	was,	kon	hij	gaan	werken.	past tense
	now.that	he	prt-graduated	was	could	he	go	work
	'Now that he was graduated, he could start working.'

A number of temporal subordinators are listed as simultaneous as well as posterior in (160). Haeseryn et al. (1997: section 10.3.3) noted that the interpretation of these elements is determined by the temporal properties of the adverbial clause. The examples in (163) show that the simultaneous reading arises when the adverbial clause is in simple present/past tense, while the posterior reading arises if the clause is in perfect tense.

163

a.	Zodra/Toen	zij	Peter zag,	liep	Els weg.	simultaneous
	as.soon.as/when	she	Peter saw	walked	Els away
	'As soon as/When she saw Peter, Els walked away.'

a'.	Zodra/Toen	zij	Peter gezien	had,	liep	ze	weg.	posterior
	as.soon.as/when	she	Peter seen	had	walked	she	away
	'As soon as/When she had seen Peter, she walked away.'

b.	Nu	Marie Plato leest,	vindt	ze	lezen	weer	leuk.	simultaneous
	now	Marie Plato reads	finds	she	reading	again	fun
	'Now that Marie reads Plato, she considers reading fun again.'

b'.	Nu	Marie Plato gelezen	heeft,	vindt	ze	lezen	weer	leuk.	posterior
	now	Marie Plato read	has	finds	she	reading	again	fun
	'Now that Marie has read Plato, she considers reading fun again.'

[+] C. Temporal adverbials (durational and frequentative)

Durational adverbials can be nominal, adjectival or prepositional.

164

a.	Jan heeft [NP	de hele dag]	gewerkt.	nominal
	Jan has	the whole day	worked
	'Jan has worked all day.'

b.	Jan heeft [AP	(drie uur)	lang]	gewerkt.	adjectival
	Jan has	three hours	long	worked
	'Jan has worked for three hours.'

c.	Jan heeft [PP	gedurende de vergadering]	geslapen.	prepositional
	Jan has	during the meeting	slept
	'Jan has slept during the meeting.'

There are many forms expressing frequency: nooit'never', eens'one time', soms'sometimes', vaak'often', meestal/doorgaans/telkens'generally', altijd'always'. It is often difficult to determine the categorial status of these forms: we can only say for certain that vaak'often' and veel'a lot' are adjectives given that they can also occur in comparative and superlative form: vaak - vaker - het vaakst; veel - meer - het meest). Note in passing that it is not obvious that these forms can indeed be used as VP adverbials: because examples such as (165a) do not easily allow the pronoun doet dat + adverb paraphrase but do allow the scope paraphrase, we are probably dealing with clause adverbials.

165

a.	Jan lacht	vaak/soms.
	Jan laughs	often/sometimes
	'Jan laughs often/sometimes.'

b.		Jan lacht	en	hij	doet	dat	?vaak/*soms.
		Jan laughs	and	he	does	that	often/sometimes

b'.		Het	is vaak/soms	zo dat Jan lacht.
		it	is often/sometimes	the.case that Jan laughs

The examples in (166) show that there are clear cases in which nominal phrases are used as VP adverbials: these adverbials are normally formed by means of the noun keer/maal'time(s)' preceded by a cardinal numeral n. The examples in (166b&c) show that (166a) can easily be paraphrased by means of a pronoun doet dat + adverb clause, while it does not allow the scope paraphrase.

166

a.	Jan belt	(waarschijnlijk)	drie keer.
	Jan rings	probably	three times
	'Jan (probably) rings three times.'

b.		Jan belt	(waarschijnlijk)	en	hij	doet	dat	drie keer.
		Jan rings	probably	and	he	does	that	three times

b'.		Het	is waarschijnlijk	<*drie keer>	zo	dat	Jan <drie keer>	belt.
		it	is probably	three times	the.case	that	Jan	rings

[+] IV. Contingency: cause, reason, purpose, result, concession

Contingency adverbials prototypically are clauses introduced by one of the subordinators in (167); some of the subordinators are morphologically complex and we refer the reader to Section P2.4.1 for more information about their formation.

167

Cause and reason: omdat'because', doordat'because', aangezien'since'

Purpose and result: opdat'so that'; om'in order to', zodat'so that'

Concessive: ondanks dat'despite that'

Some concrete examples of adverbial contingency clauses are provided in (168). Contingency adverbials may also take the form of a PP: causes can be expressed by door-PPs, purposes/results by voor-PPs, reasons by vanwege-PPs, and concessions by ondanks-PPs. To avoid repetition, we refer the reader to Section 8.2.1, sub IV, for PP-examples.

168

a.	De computer	werkt	niet	doordat	de harde schijf	vol	is.	cause
	the computer	works	not	because	the hard disc	full	is
	'The computer doesnʼt work because the hard disc is full.'

b.	Jan zingt	omdat	hij	vrolijk	is.	reason
	Jan sings	because	he	merry	is
	'Jan is singing because heʼs merry.'

c.	Jan ruimt	zijn kamer	op	zodat	Els	daar	kan	werken.	purpose/result
	Jan clears	his room	prt.	so.that	Els	there	can	work
	'Jan is clearing up his room so that Els can work there.'

Jan heeft

de griep

ondanks

dat

hij

ingeënt

concession

Jan has

the flue

despite

that

prt.-vaccinated

has.been

'Jan has the flue despite the fact that he has been vaccinated.'

Interrogative and deictic contingency adverbials generally have the form of a pronominalized PP: waardoor/daardoor'as a result of what/that', waarom/daarom'for which/that reason' waartoe/daartoe'to what/that purpose', waarvoor/daarvoor'for which/that reason'. These forms may feel somewhat lexicalized, but their PP origin is still undeniable: this is especially clear in the case of causes, as these appear in the form of a regular PP if the cause is +human such as door wie/hem'by who/him'. Another fact illustrating this is that adverbials of concession do not appear in the form of a pronominalized PP due to the fact that ondanks'in spite of' never allows R-pronominalization; the interrogative form is ondanks wat'in spite of what', while the deictic form is the lexicalized form desondanks'in spite of that'.

[+] V. Predicate-degree: erg'very'; een beetje'a bit'

We can be brief on predicate-degree adverbials because Section 8.2.1, sub V, has already shown that a subset of the degree adverbs may also be used to modify verbal predicates: prototypical cases are erg'very' and een beetje'a bit'. Occasionally, degree adverbials may also occur in the form of a clause. These cases are all idiomatic, as can be seen in (169): the first two examples have a resultative ring about them, while the third is clearly based on a metaphor. For detailed discussion of degree modifiers we refer the reader to Klein (1997).

169

a.	Hij	liegt	dat	hij	barst.
	he	lies	that	he	cracks
	'He lies till he is black in the face.'

b.	Het	regent	dat	het	giet.
	it	rains	that	it	pours
	'Itʼs raining cats and dogs.'

c.	Hij	liegt	alsof	het	gedrukt	staat.
	he	lies	as.if	it	printed	is
	'He lies till he is black in the face.'

References:

Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
Klein, Henny1997Adverbs of degree in DutchUniversity of GroningenThesis

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: AdverbialAdverbial ProformAgentiveCauseComitativeConcessionDomain AdverbialFrequency AdverbialInstrument AdverbialLocational AdverbialManner AdverbialMeans AdverbialPredicate-degree AdverbialPurposeReasonTemporal AdverbialVolition Adverbial

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