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    The noun kant side as a postpositional NP complement
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    The postposition út out normally refers to a source, which is expressed as its prepositional complement:

    1
    [Ta it rút] út
    to the window out
    Out of the window

    Nouns which denote a direction may also occur as the complement to this preposition. A case in point is the noun kant direction, side, area. When it combines with this noun, the postposition refers to a goal, rather than to a source:

    2
    De trein jaget [de Swolster kant] út
    the train rushes the Swol area out
    The train rushes into the direction of Swol
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    The meaning of the postposition interacts with the meaning of the elements in its syntactic context. A case in point is the noun kant side. This noun is a great deal used. It combines with geographical adjectives (of place names) to denote the area around a village or a town. The combination of a geographical adjective with this noun is often found preceding a postposition. Usually the postposition út out is involved, occasionally the postposition oer about. Some examples are given below:

    3
    a. In pear feinten, wat fammeguod reizgje, swier yn 'e sneinske toai de Dokkum-er kant út
    a couple guys some girl.stuff travel heavy in the Sunday finery the Dokkum-ADJ side out
    A few guys, some girls, are travelling in the direction of Dokkum in their best Sunday finery
    b. It lêste ljocht, de Dokkum-er kant oer, fertart yn 'e kimen
    the last light the Dokkum-ADJ side over digests in the horizons
    The last light, in the direction of Dokkum, dies away on the horizon

    It may be appreciated that the presence of the noun kant side makes a significant contribution to the meaning of the postpositional phrase. This is clear from a comparison of the two sentences:

    4
    a. De trein jaget Swol út
    the train rushes Swol out
    The train rushes out of Swol
    b. De trein jaget de Swolster kant út
    the train rushes the Swol area out
    The train rushes into the direction of Swol

    In the first example, the source of the path is given as Swol, so that the path compositionally arrived at, after the path has left Swol, is away from Swol. Mention of the source Swol so entails that the goal is outside Swol. In the second example, the noun kant side, direction, area occurs. So, the source of the path is given as the area around Swol. As a result, once the area around Swol has been diagnosed, the possibly pragmatic implication is that Swol has been reached. This (originally) pragmatic implication has become part and parcel of the compositional meaning of … kant út area around …. The net effect is that although the postpositional argument denotes a source (the area around Swol), it effectively entails a goal (Swol). Mention of the source, which is quite wide, so has come to entail a very specific goal.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: sourcegoalpostpositional phrase
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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