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3.1.2.Locational PPs that denote a set of vectors

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This section is concerned with adpositions like voor'in front of' and achter'behind', which denote a set of vectors. It will be shown that the denoted set can be delimited by making use of modifiers that restrict the orientation or the magnitude of the vectors.

I. Modifiers of orientation
II. Modifiers of distance
- A. Adjectival modifiers and adverbs
- B. Nominal measure phrases
III. Summary

[+] I. Modifiers of orientation

Modifiers that indicate the orientation of the located object with respect to the reference object are limited in number. The modifier recht in (6a) and the modifiers schuin/links/rechts in (6b) are in a sense complementary: whereas the former restricts the set of vectors to those in which x = 0, the latter exclude these. Note that we have topicalized the modified PPs in these examples to unambiguously show that the modifier and the PP form a constituent; cf. the constituency test.

a.		Recht	voor/achter	Jan zit	Marie.
		straight	in.front.of/behind	Jan sits	Marie

b.		Schuin/Links/Rechts	voor/achter	Jan zit	Marie.
		diagonally/left/right	in.front.of/behind	Jan sits	Marie

The modifiers in the primed examples could be called approximative modifiers given that they all express that the y-value of the vectors is smaller than some contextually determined norm n, that is, that the vectors in the denotation set stay close to the y-axis. The modifiers precies/exact stress that there is no deviation (the y-value is precisely 0), whereas the modifiers ongeveer/zowat express that the deviation is small (y < n).

a.		Precies/Exact	voor/achter	Jan zit	Marie.
		precisely/exactly	in.front.of/behind	Jan sits	Marie

b.		Ongeveer/Zowat	voor/achter	Jan zit	Marie.
		approximately/more or less	in.front.of/behind	Jan sits	Marie

The primeless examples in (8) show that modifiers of orientation cannot be extracted from the adpositional phrase by means of wh-movement, and we will see in Subsection II that they differ in this respect from modifiers of distance.

a.	#	Hoe recht	zit	Marie voor/achter	Jan?
		how straight	sits	Marie in.front.of/behind	Jan

b.	#	Hoe schuin	zit	Marie voor/achter	Jan?
		how diagonally	sits	Marie in.front.of/behind	Jan

It seems likely that this ban on extraction is related to the fact that, in contrast to modifiers of distance, modifiers of orientation are not gradable; cf. the primeless examples in (9). It is therefore not the extraction but the modification by the interrogative degree modifier hoe that is excluded, as will also be clear from the primed examples in (9), in which the PPs are pied-piped by wh-movement of the modifiers.

a.	#	Marie	zit	erg recht	voor/achter	Jan.
		Marie	sits	very straight	in.front.of/behind	Jan

a'.

Hoe recht voor/achter Jan zit Marie?

b'.	#	Marie	zit	erg schuin	voor/achter	Jan.
		Marie	sits	very diagonally	in.front.of/behind	Jan

Hoe schuin zit Marie voor/achter Jan?

The number signs in (8) and (9) indicate that the examples are acceptable if recht/schuin refers to the posture of Marie; under this reading it acts as an adjectival supplementive modifying Marie; cf. the discussion of the examples in (14) and (15) below. In this connection it can also be noted that it is not surprising that the adjectives recht and schuin are used as modifiers of orientation, since they also denote orientations if they are used attributively or predicatively. Consider the examples in (10a&b): if we use recht'upright', the orientation of the tower is parallel to the vertical axis in the three-dimensional space diagram in Figure 4 below, while the orientation diverges from it if we use schuin'leaning'. Something similar holds for the adjectives links and rechts in (10c), although in these cases a reference object is always implied, which can be made explicit by adding a modifying van-PP.

a.		De toren	staat	recht/schuin.
		the tower	stands	upright/leaning

b.		een	rechte/schuine	toren
		a(n)	upright/leaning	tower

c.	Jan staat	links/rechts	(van de auto).
	Jan stands	left/right	of the car
	'Jan is standing to the left/right of the car.'

Not all locational PPs that denote a set of vectors can be combined with the three types of modifiers illustrated in the examples in (6). Table 1 provides a list of the relevant prepositions and indicates whether modification by these modifiers is possible or not; the percentage sign expressesthat modification is blocked due to pragmatic factors and the number sign that modification is possible but does not give rise to the intended reading.

Table 1: Modifiers of orientation

preposition	translation	recht 'straight'	ongeveer 'approximately'	schuin 'diagonally'

achter voor	behind in front of	+	+	+
boven onder	above under	+	+	+
naast links/rechts van	next to to the left/right of	%	%	%
buiten bij	outside near	—	—	—
om rond	around around	—	—	—
tegenover	opposite	+	+	+
langs	along	—	+	—
tussen	between	—	#	—

If we assume the Cartesian-style coordinate system in Figure 4 (cf. Section 1.3.1.2.2), we may conclude that at least the modifiers of orientation recht and schuin can only modify prepositions that are related to one single axis, that is, to one single dimension in space. We will discuss this below.

Figure 4: The division of space (repeated)

The proposed constraint on the use of modifiers of orientation immediately accounts for the fact that voor/achter and onder/boven are eligible for modification, since they are related to only a single axis (the z- and the y-axis, respectively). We would also expect modification of naast to be possible, but the judgments on such examples are less clear. The primed examples in (11) have been given as grammatical in the literature, but according to us they are certainly not as felicitous as the primeless examples involving voor/achter and onder/boven: (11a') seems to be unacceptable, (11b') is at least marked, and the same thing holds for (11c').

a.		Jan zit	recht	voor/achter	Marie.
		Jan sits	straight	in.front.of/behind	Marie

a'.	%	Jan zit	recht	naast	Marie.
		Jan sits	straight	next.to	Marie

b.		Jan zit	schuin	voor/achter	Marie.
		Jan sits	diagonally	in.front.of/behind	Marie

b'.	%	Jan zit	schuin	naast	Marie.
		Jan zits	diagonally	next.to	Marie

c.		Jan zit	links/rechts	voor/achter	Marie.
		Jan sits	left/right	in.front.of/behind	Marie

c'.	%	Jan zit	links/rechts	naast	Marie.
		Jan sits	left/right	next.to	Marie

We have assigned the primed examples a percentage sign given that their infelicitousness may be due to pragmatic rather than to syntactic factors. This holds especially for the examples in (11b'&c'); the intended meaning of these examples can in principle also be expressed by means of the corresponding primeless examples. Given that the latter are more precise in the sense that they denote a smaller set of vectors, we may be dealing with a pragmatic blocking effect; in accordance with Griceʼs Maxim of Quantity, the more precise and therefore more informative assertion is preferred over the less informative one.
The proposed constraint on the distribution of modifiers of orientation straightforwardly accounts for the fact indicated in Table 1 that modification of buiten and bij is excluded given that they involve two axes (dimensions), viz. the x- and the y-axis; cf. Figure 21 in Section 1.3. Similarly, modification of om and rond is excluded since they also involve at least two axes; cf. the discussion of Figure 13C&D in Section 1.3.1.2.2, sub I. Modification of tegenover is possible since it refers to a subset of situations in which voor is applicable, and hence involves just a single axis; see the discussion of Figure 19 in Section 1.3.

		Het café	staat	recht/schuin	tegenover de kerk.
		the bar	stands	straight/diagonally	opposite the church

The preposition langs'along' is special in that the vectors it denotes do not have the same starting point (which actually also holds for the prepositions buiten and bij but in a less conspicuous way). Instead, the vectors are more or less parallel; see the discussion of Figure 20 in Section 1.3. Therefore, langs also involves more than one dimension, and modification by recht and schuin is correctly predicted to be excluded in (13a). Nevertheless, the use of the modifiers precies and ongeveer is possible (13b); the two modifiers differ in that the former expresses that the garbage cans are placed in a neat line, whereas the latter expresses that their arrangement is a bit sloppier.

a.	*	De vuilnisbakken	staan recht/schuin	langs de rand van de stoep.
		the garbage.cans	stand straight/diagonally	along the edge of the sidewalk

b.		De vuilnisbakken	staan precies/?ongeveer	langs de rand van de stoep.
		the garbage.cans	stand exactly/approximately	along the edge of the sidewalk

The preposition tussen deserves special discussion. As can be seen in (14a), the PP seemingly can be modified by the modifier recht. However, the meaning of recht seems to differ from the intended meaning. It does not modify the position of the located object Jan with respect to the reference objects de twee agenten, but refers to Janʼs posture: the example expresses that Jan is standing between the two agents, and that his posture is straight. In other words, recht seems to be predicated of Jan rather than modifying the PP; it is equivalent to the supplementive rechtop'upright', which can never be used as a modifier. That we are really dealing with a supplementive, not a modifier, is also clear from the fact that the AP can appear if the PP is not present, and from the fact illustrated in (14b) that the adjective can be topicalized in isolation.

a.		Jan staat	recht/rechtop	(tussen de agenten).
		Jan stands	upright	between the cops

Recht/Rechtop staat Jan tussen de agenten.

The same arguments can be repeated for the adjective schuin in (15), which performs a similar function as the supplementive gebogen'stooped'. Therefore, we may conclude that the modifiers recht and schuin cannot be used to modify a PP headed by tussen.

a.		Jan staat	schuin/gebogen	(tussen de agenten).
		Jan stands	diagonally/stooped	between the cops

Schuin/Gebogen staat Jan tussen de agenten.

Modification of tussen by means of precies'exactly' is possible, but then the modifier expresses that the distances from the located object and the relevant reference objects are all equal. Example (16a) expresses that the distance between the painting and candlestick 1 is equal to the distance between the painting and candlestick 2. Note that it is not necessarily the case that the painting is located on the straight line between the two candlesticks; the painting may be hanging in the region above the candlesticks. The same thing holds for ongeveer'approximately'; example (16b) only expresses that the distance between the painting and candlestick 1 is approximately the same as the distance between the painting and candlestick 2. We therefore conclude that PPs headed by tussen cannot be modified by modifiers of orientation; precies and ongeveer must have some other function.

a.		Het schilderij	hing	precies	tussen de twee kandelaars.
		the painting	hung	exactly	between the two candlesticks

b.		Het schilderij	hing	ongeveer	tussen de twee kandelaars.
		the painting	hung	approximately	between the two candlesticks

Example (17b) shows that the modifiers discussed in this subsection do not modify the preposition itself, but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition. Note that the R-word can also precede the modifier, but this is not relevant as this simply shows that the R-word can undergo R-extraction, that is, be moved further to the left.

a.		Recht/Schuin/Precies	achter die zuil	staat	een klein beeldje.
		straight/diagonally/exactly	behind that pillar	stands	a small statue

b.		[Recht/Schuin/Precies [PP	er	achter]]	staat	een klein beeldje.
		straight/diagonally/exactly	there	behind	stands	a small statue

Finally, it can be observed that the degree of appropriateness of the use of two prepositions can be compared; example (18a) expresses that, as far as the orientation of the vector is concerned, both boven'above' and naast'next to' seem to be applicable, but that boven is the more accurate term. Note that the set of vectors denoted by the adpositions must partly overlap; (18b) shows that antonymous adpositions, which do not satisfy this condition, cannot be used in this construction. Note that the number sign indicates that (18b) is acceptable if meer is interpreted as a frequency adverb meaning “more often”.

a.		De kogel	zit	meer	boven	dan	naast het hart.
		the bullet	sits	more	above	than	next.to the heart

b.	#	Jan zit	meer voor	dan achter	Marie.
		Jan sits	more in.front.of	than behind	Marie

[+] II. Modifiers of distance

Whereas modifiers of orientation are always adjectival in nature, modifiers of distance (the modifiers of the magnitude of the vectors in the denoted set) can be either adjectival or nominal. This is shown in (19), in which we have topicalized the modified PP in order to unambiguously show that the modifier and the PP form a constituent; cf. the constituency test. We will discuss the adjectival and nominal modifiers in separate subsections.

a.		Hoog	boven de deur	hangt	een schilderij.	adjectival distance phrase
		high	above the door	hangs	a painting

b.		Twee meter	boven de deur	hangt	een schilderij.	nominal measure phrase
		two meter	above the door	hangs	a painting

[+] A. Adjectival modifiers and adverbs

Adjectival modifiers are sensitive to the meaning of the modified PP. The adjectival modifier hoog'high' in (19a), for example, can only modify PPs headed by boven'above'. Since, to our knowledge, the modification possibilities of locational PPs have not been investigated thoroughly, we restrict ourselves to the discussion of a limited set of modifiers: the pair diep/hoog'deep/high', which may amplify the antonymous adpositions boven and onder, the more or less antonymous pair dicht-ver'close-far', which may amplify the adpositions bij'near' and buiten'outside', and the adverbial modifiers vlak/pal'close'. Table 2 gives an overview of the modification possibilities, which will be discussed in more detail in the following subsections.

Table 2: Adjectival modifiers of distance

preposition		diep 'deep'	hoog 'high'	dicht 'close'	ver 'far'	vlak 'close'	pal 'close'
achter voor	behind in front of	—	?	—	+	+	+
boven onder	above under	— +	+ —	—	%	+	+
naast links van rechts van	next to to the left of to the right of	—	—	— — —	% — —	+ —	+ —
buiten bij	outside near	—	—	— +	+ —	— +	+ —
om rond	around around	—	—	—	—	—	—
tegenover	opposite	—	—	—	—	—	— cf. (27)
langs	along	—	—	—	—	+	+
tussen	between	—	—	—	—	—	—

[+] 1. Adjectival modifiers

The examples in (20) provide some concrete examples of locational PPs modified by the adjectives diep/hoog and dicht/ver.

a.		Jan zat	ver	voor/achter/*naast	de anderen.
		Jan sat	far	in.front.of/next.to	the others

b.		De ballon	hing	hoog/?ver	boven het huis.
		the balloon	hung	high/far	above the house

b'.		Amsterdam	ligt	diep/?ver	onder de zeespiegel.
		Amsterdam	lies	deep/far	under the sea level

c.		Jan woont	ver/*dicht	buiten de stad.
		Jan lives	far/close	outside the city

c'.		Jan woont	dicht/*ver	bij de stad.
		Jan lives	close/far	near the city

The first percentage sign in the column headed by ver in Table 2 indicates that, although the (b)-examples are marked with the modifier ver, this modifier can sometimes readily be used in metaphorically used locational boven-PPs like dat gaat ver boven mijn macht'that is far beyond my power'. The examples in (21) illustrate the same point.

a.	Haar prestatie	steekt	ver/??hoog	boven	die van Jan	uit.
	her performance	sticks	far/high	above	that of Jan	out
	'Her performance is much better than Jan's.'

b.	De wolkenkrabber	steekt hoog/?ver	boven de andere huizen	uit.
	the skyscraper	sticks high/far	above the other houses	out
	'The skyscraper towers over the other houses.'

The second percentage sign indicates that although (20a) shows that ver normally cannot be used to modify locational PPs headed by naast, there are a number of more or less idiomatic constructions in which this is possible. One of the most common cases is the change of location construction in (22a) from sports jargon, in which naast can also be used as an intransitive adposition; note that the antonym dicht cannot replace the modifier ver in this construction. Example (22a') shows that ver cannot be used as a modifier of locational PPs headed by the phrasal adpositions links/rechts van. Example (22b) provides another more or idiomatic construction; note that the literal meaning “Jan sat next to it” is not available.

a.		Jan schoot	de bal	ver/*dicht	naast (het doel).
		Jan shot	the ball	far/close	next.to the goal

a'.	*	Jan schoot	de bal	ver/dicht	links/rechts	van het doel.
		Jan shot	the ball	far/close	left/right	of the goal

b.	Jan zat er	ver/*dicht	naast.
	Jan sat there	far/close	next.to
	'Jan was completely wrong.'

Ver can also modify naast-PPs if it is preceded by niet, as in (23a). Example (23a') shows that locational PPs headed by the phrasal adpositions links/rechts van do not have this modification possibility, however; (23b) shows that the idiomatic expression in (22b) can also be modified by niet ver.

a.	Niet ver/*dicht	naast de deur	zat de brievenbus.
	not far/close	next.to the door	sat the mailbox
	'The mailbox was close to the door.'

a'.	*	Niet ver/dicht	links/recht	van de deur	zat de brievenbus.
		not far/close	left/right	of the door	sat the mailbox

b.	Jan zat er	niet ver/*dicht	naast.
	Jan sat there	not far/close	next.to
	'Jan was nearly right.'

The fact that the adjectival modifiers in (20) are all used as amplifiers is consistent with the fact that adjectival downtoners are rare; cf. Section A3.1.2, sub IIB. The only seeming exception is the modifier dicht'close' in (20c'), but this is due to the fact that bij'near' itself already indicates that the distance is small, and it is the smallness of the distance that is emphasized by the modifier dicht. The other modifiers in (20) indicate that the distance between the located and the reference object is large; there are no antonyms that indicate that the distances are small.

[+] 2. Adverbs

The fact that all the adjectival modifiers in (20) can be seen as amplifiers does not imply, however, that downtoning is not possible. There is a small set of adverbs that can perform this function. Some examples are given in (24).

a.		vlak/pal	achter	de deur
		close	behind	the door

b.		net	buiten	de stad
		just	outside	the city

c.		direct	boven	de deur
		directly	above	the door

Below, we will focus our discussion on the adverbs vlak and pal. As is shown in (25), these adverbial modifiers can be used in virtually all examples in (20). The percentage sign in the (c)-examples indicate that, although we judge these examples as considerably marked, many cases of this sort can be found on the internet.

a.		Jan zat	vlak/pal	voor/achter/naast de anderen.
		Jan sat	close	in.front.of/behind/next.to the others

b.		De ballon	hing	vlak/pal	boven het huis.
		the balloon	hung	close	above the house

b'.		Leiden ligt	vlak/pal	onder de zeespiegel.
		Leiden lies	close	under the surface of the sea

c.		Jan woont	pal/%vlak	buiten de stad.
		Jan lives	close	outside the city

c'.		Jan woont	vlak/%pal	bij de stad.
		Jan lives	close	near the city

For those speakers who reject the forms marked by the percentage sign, lexical restrictions seem to play a role: buiten in (25c) can only be modified by pal, whereas bij can only be modified by vlak. An alternative approach to these restrictions may be to argue that the markedness of vlak buiten de stad is due to a blocking effect, since the intended meaning of vlak buiten can also be expressed by means of (vlak) bij. Such a blocking account may imply that the markedness of pal bij de stad in (25c') is due to the availability of dicht bij de stad, which is perhaps less plausible.
Table 2 shows that the adverbs vlak and pal can also modify locational PPs headed by langs, which cannot be amplified by means of adjectival amplifiers. An example is given in (26a). If we want to express that the distance between the waterside and the houses is large, we have to take recourse to the adjectival construction in (26b).

a.		De huizen	staan	vlak/pal	langs de waterkant.
		the houses	stand	close	along the waterside

b.		De huizen	staan	ver	van de waterkant.
		the houses	stand	far	from the waterside

It is not immediately clear whether tegenover'opposite' can be modified by means of the adverbs under discussion. As is shown in (27a), vlak gives rise to a severely degraded result, whereas pal seems to be more or less equivalent to the modifier of orientation recht'straight' in (12), an interpretation which is also possible in the case of voor. We therefore conclude that PPs headed by tegenover do not allow modification with respect to distance. The remaining prepositions om/rond and tussen are not eligible for modification by pal and vlak either.

a.		Het café	staat	#pal/*vlak	tegenover	de kerk.
		the bar	stands	frontally/close	opposite	the church

b.		Het café	staat	pal	voor	de kerk.
		the bar	stands	frontally	in.front.of	the church

[+] 3. Two additional remarks

A difference between the adjectival modifiers diep/hoog and dicht/ver and the adverbs vlak and pal is that the first are gradable (that is, eligible for modification and comparative/superlative formation), whereas the latter are not. This is shown for dicht bij and vlak bij in (28).

a.		Jan woont	heel	dicht/*vlak	bij de stad.
		Jan lives	very	close near	the city

b.		Jan woont	dichter/*vlakker	bij de stad	(dan Marie).
		Jan lives	closer	near the city	than Marie

c.		Jan woont	het	dichtst/*vlakst	bij de stad.
		Jan lives	the	closest	near the city

Like all gradable adjectives, dicht can also be questioned. As is illustrated in (29a), the modifier can then be extracted from the PP and be put in clause-initial position. Being non-gradable, questioning of the adverbs vlak and pal is impossible. This is shown in (29b) for vlak.

a.		Hoe dichti	woont	Jan ti	bij de stad?
		how close	lives	Jan	near the city

b.	*	Hoe vlaki	woont	Jan ti	bij de stad?
		how close	lives	Jan	near the city

Finally, it can be noted that the modifiers in (28a) do not modify the preposition itself but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition. In passing, note that this also shows that vlak bij cannot be considered a compound, contrary to what the orthographic convention of writing vlakbij as a single word suggests.

a.	Dicht/Vlak	bij het huis	stond	een boom.
	close	near the house	stood	a tree
	'A tree stood close to the house.'

b.		[Dicht/Vlak [PP	er	bij]]	stond	een boom.
		close	there	near	stood	a tree

[+] B. Nominal measure phrases

Any nominal phrase that can be used to measure distance can be used as a modifier to express the precise magnitude of the vectors involved. Some examples with the nominal measure phrase twee (kilo)meter'two (kilo)meters' are given in Table 3, which shows that the locational prepositions can be divided into two groups on the basis of whether they can or cannot be modified by such phrases.

Table 3: Nominal modifiers of distance

preposition	example	translation
achter voor	twee meter achter het doel twee meter voor het doel	two meters behind the goal two meters in front of the goal
boven onder	twee meter boven de deur twee meter onder de grond	two meters above the door two meters under the ground
naast links van rechts van	twee meter naast de paal ?twee meter links van de deur ?twee meter rechts van de deur	two meters next to the pole two meters to the left of the door two meters to the right of the door
buiten bij	twee kilometer buiten de stad *twee kilometer bij de stad	two kilometers outside of the town *two kilometers near the town
om rond	—
tegenover	—
langs	—
tussen	—

It should be noted that the primeless examples in (31) are acceptable, but in such examples the nominal phrase does not modify the magnitude of the vectors involved, which is clear from the fact that the locational PP can be dropped without changing the core meaning of the sentence. The noun phrase instead functions as the complement of the motion verb and refers to the distance that has been covered by the subject of the clause. That the noun phrase does not modify the PP but is selected by the motion verb is also clear from the fact that the primed examples involving a locational verb are not acceptable.

a.		Jan liep	twee kilometer	(rond de stad).
		Jan walked	two kilometer	around the city

a'.		De huizen	stonden	*(twee kilometer)	rond de stad.
		the houses	stood	two kilometers	around the city

b.		Jan liep	twee kilometer	(langs het kanaal).
		Jan walked	two kilometers	along waterway

b'.		Het huis	stond	*(twee kilometer)	langs het kanaal.
		the house	stood	two kilometer	along the waterway

The examples in (32) show that, like adjectival modifiers, nominal measure phrases can be extracted from the PP and be put in clause-initial position in interrogative clauses; cf. Corver (1990).

a.		Hoeveel kilometeri	ligt	jouw huis [PPti	buiten de stad]?
		how.many kilometers	lies	your house	outside the city

b.		Hoeveel meteri	ligt	Amsterdam [PPti	onder de zeespiegel]?
		how.many meters	lies	Amsterdam	under the surface of the sea

Further, the examples in (33) show that the measure phrases do not modify the preposition itself but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that in case of R-pronominalization, the R-word er can intervene between the modifier and the preposition.

a.		[Twee centimeter [PP	er	naast]]	lag	een klein doosje.
		two centimeter	there	next.to	lay	a small box

b.		[Drie meter [PP	er	voor]]	viel	hij	op de grond.
		three meter	there	in.front.of	fell	he	on the ground

[+] III. Summary

The previous subsections have discussed the modification possibilities of locational PPs headed by prepositions that denote vector sets and has shown that such PPs can be divided in three groups. The first group consists of PPs headed by prepositions that are related to one single axis of the coordinate system in Figure 4; the PPs in this group can readily be modified both by modifiers of orientation and by modifiers of distance. The second group consists of PPs headed by the prepositions buiten and bij, which can be modified by modifiers of distance (with a possible lexical restriction on the choice of the adverbs vlak and pal; cf. (25c&c')), but not by modifiers of orientation. The remaining locational PPs form the third group, which can be modified neither for orientation nor for distance; exceptions are PPs headed by tegenover, which can be modified by modifiers of orientation like recht'straight' and schuin'diagonally', and PPs headed by langs, which can be modified by adverbial modifiers of distance like vlak and pal. These findings are summarized in Table 4.

Table 4: Modifiers of locational PPs

preposition	translation	orientation	distance
		adjectival modification	adjectival modification	vlak/pal 'close'	nominal modification
achter voor	behind in front of	+	+	+	+
boven onder	above under	+	+	+	+
naast links van rechts van	next to to the left of to the right of	%	—	+ — —	+
buiten/bij	outside/near	—	+	+	+
om/rond	around	—	—	—	—
tegenover	opposite	+	—	—	—
langs	along	—	—	+	—
tussen	between	—	—	—	—

References:

Corver, Norbert1990The syntax of left branch extractionTilburgUniversity of TilburgThesis

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Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Adpositional PhraseAdpositionsBlockingLocational Adpositional PhraseMaximMaxim of QuantityModificationModification of Adpositional PhraseModifiers of distanceModifiers of orientationPhrasal PrepositionPrepositionachterbijbovenlangslinks/rechts vanmeer XP dan YPnaastrond

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis	December 2015

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