/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    Restriction to main clauses
    quickinfo

    By and large the B-construction is restricted to main clauses.

    readmore

    By and large the B-construction is restricted to main clauses. This is nicely illustrated by the following fragment from a play, in which a B-construction in a main clause is repeated as an A-construction in an embedded clause:

    1
    a. Dan moasten jo har mar earder fuortstjoerd ha
    then must you her DcP earlier away.sent have
    Then you should have sent her away earlier
    b. Mar wêrom sizze jy dan dat ik har mar fuortstjoere moatten hie?
    but why say you DcP that I her DcP away.sent must had
    But why do you say that I should have sent her away earlier?

    The same remarks apply to the following fragment:

    2
    a. Do koest der wol bleaun ha, Simk!
    you could there DcP stayed have Simk
    You could have stayed there, Simk!
    b. Ik ha niis alsa al sein dat Simk der wol bliuwe kinnen hie
    I have just so already said that Simk there DcP stay.OI can.PfP had
    I just said that Simk could have stayed there

    Nevertheless, there are a few instances in which a B-construction occurs in an embedded clause. Three examples are given in (3), (4) and (5). The first example involves the modal kinne can:

    3
    Moolk tinkt er der wol om dat er sa lokkich west ha koe mei har oan syn side
    possibly thinks he R DcP about that he so lucky been have could with her on his side
    He may think of it that he could have been so lucky with her at his side

    The example in (4) involves the modal hoeve need:

    4
    Dat se de slach net ferlern hoefden te hawwen
    that they the battle not lost needed to have
    That they need not have lost the battle

    The third example involves the modal sille shall, which here occurs in a construction in which the semantics of going is involved, although the verb gean go is not used:

    5
    Twa útfanhuzers dy't ek nei Frjentsjer ta west ha soene
    two guests who also to Frjentsjer to been have would
    Two guests who also would have gone to Frjentsjer

    Verb Phrase (VP)-ellipsis may occur quite generally if the semantics of going is involved, see also verb ellipsis and B-construction and verb-ellipsis. Nowadays, the meaning of the sentence above would be expressed as an A-construction with two verbs only:

    6
    Twa útfanhuzers dy't ek nei Frjentsjer ta sild hiene
    two guests who also to Frjentsjer to should.PfP had
    Two guests who also would have gone to Frjentsjer

    It is not clear what to conclude from the scarce occurrence of B-constructions in embedded clauses. It should also be investigated whether these examples are characteristically found when the B-construction was going out of use, say, in the early twentieth-century.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: main clause
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X