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    Complete infinitival clause
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    The adjective is followed by a complete infinitival clause, that is, without any object gap. An example is given below:

    1
    Hy wie sa dom om tsjin har yn te gean
    he was so foolish for against her in to go
    He was so foolish to speak up against her
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    The high degree limit of an adjective is that high degree at which or above which the proposition described in the non-finite clause becomes true. In the example below, the argument of which the adjective is predicated is identical to the subject of the embedded clause:

    2
    Hoe koest' sa dom wêze en gean tsjin dy frou yn
    how could.2SG so foolish be and go against that woman in
    How could you be so foolish to speak up against that woman

    In the example above, the non-finite clause has the form of an Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo (IPI), featuring a clause-initial verb that has the morphological shape of an imperative. The same example can also be construed with an om-te for to infinitive with the verb at the end of the clause:

    3
    Hoe koest' sa dom wêze om tsjin dy frou yn te gean
    how could.2SG so foolish be for against that woman in to go
    How could you be so foolish to speak up against that woman

    The infinitival clause may form a constituent with the Noun Phrase (NP) containing sa so and the attributive adjective:

    4
    a. [Sa dom en gean tsjin har yn] wie ik net
    so foolish and go against her in was I not
    I was not that foolish to speak up against her
    b. [sa dom om tsjin har yn te gean] wie ik net
    so foolish for against her in to go was I not
    I was not that foolish to speak up against her

    The complementiser en and can never be dropped. The complementiser om for can be dropped depending on the construction type. In the following construction it can be dropped:

    5
    Hy wie sa dom (om) tsjin har yn te gean
    he was so foolish for against her in to go
    He was so foolish to speak up against her

    The infinitival clause cannot be replaced by an Adposition Phrase (PP):

    6
    *Hy wie dêr sa dom foar/fan/..
    he was R so foolish for/of/..
    He was so foolish for/of/..

    The construction is subject to an alternation: ir comes in two varieties, depending on whether the adjective is predicated of a person, as in (a) below, or a proposition, as in (b) below. The person argument of the adjective may show up in a PP introduced by the preposition fan of, in case the adjective is predicated of a proposition, as in (b) below. In that case, the propositional argument is usually expressed by the anticipatory pronoun it it, which is coreferential with the following clause:

    7
    a. Hy wie sa dom (om) har út te laitsjen
    he was so foolish as her out to laugh
    He was so foolish to make fun of her
    b. It wie sa dom fan him (om) har út te laitsjen
    it was so foolish of him for her out to laugh
    It was so foolish of him to make fun her

    The complementiser om for is optional in these examples. These two sentences do not mean the same thing. In the first sentence, the infinitival clause is true at or above the high degree limit of the adjective predicated of the person. In the second sentence, the truth of the infinitival clause does not seem to depend on the degree of foolishness of the person involved.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Joke Weening
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: complete infinitival clauseImperativus-pro-participioperson argumentpropositional argument
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Joke Weening December 2015
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