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- Phonology
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
This section discusses alternations between PPs with various functions and the subject of the clause, subsection I starts with cases in which the PP functions as a complementive, and show that the options are limited compared to similar cases discussed in Subsection 3.3.2, in which the predicative PP alternates with an accusative phrase, subsection II continues with alternations that involve locational PPs that seem to function as the logical subject of the verb, and Subsection III concludes with alternations that involve adverbial PPs.
Section 3.3.2 has discussed the alternation between the examples in (494a&b) and suggested that the prefix be- performs a similar function as the adjective vol'full' in (494c); be- and vol both function as a complementive, and the only difference is that the prefix must incorporate into the verb in order to satisfy the requirement that it be supported by some other morpheme.
a. | Jan plakt | de posters | op de muur. | |
Jan pastes | the posters | on the wall |
b. | Jan be-plakt | de muur | (met de posters). | |
Jan be-pastes | the wall | with the posters |
c. | Jan plakt | de muur | vol (met posters). | |
Jan pastes | the wall | full with posters |
In (494a) the located object is realized as an accusative object, but the examples in (495) show that the located object can also be realized as the subject of the clause with positional verbs like zitten'to sit', liggen'to lie', staan'to stand' and hangen'to hang'. Since these verbs are unaccusative, we may assume that the subject of the clause functions as the logical subject of the complementive PP, and therefore originates in the same position as the accusative noun phrase in (494a).
a. | Er | zitten | fouten | in de tekst. | |
there | sit | errors | in the text | ||
'There are errors in the text.' |
b. | Er | liggen | kleren | op de bank. | |
there | lie | clothes | on the couch | ||
'Clothes are lying on the couch.' |
c. | Er | staan | veel supporters | op de tribune. | |
there | stand | many fans | on the stand | ||
'Many fans are on the stand.' |
d. | Er | hangen | slingers | in de kamer. | |
there | hang | festoons | in the room |
This, in turn, leads to the expectation that the examples in (495) will exhibit similar alternations as example (494a). Given that the positional verbs are unaccusative, this means that we expect that the nominal part of the complementive PP can be realized as a nominative noun phrase with the concomitant effect that the subject of the clause (that is, the subject of this complementive PP) surfaces as the nominal part of a met-PP. The examples in (496) shows that this expectation is not borne out.
a. | * | De tekst | zit | met fouten. |
the text | sits | with errors |
b. | * | De bank | ligt | met kleren. |
the couch | lies | with clothes |
c. | * | De tribune | staat | met veel supporters. |
the stand | stands | with many fans |
d. | * | De kamer | hangt | met slingers. |
the room | hangs | with festoons |
However, the expected alternation with the adjectival complementive vol does occur, as shown by (497). The adjective vol adds the meaning aspect that the reference object (location) is affected by the located object; cf. Section 3.3.2, sub IIA1. The extent of the effect can be specified by adding an attributive modifier like heel to the locational noun phrase or a degree modifier like helemaal to the adjective vol.
a. | De (hele) tekst | zit | vol | met fouten. | |
the whole text | sits | full | with errors | ||
'The text is full of errors.' |
b. | De (hele) bank | ligt | vol | met kleren. | |
the whole couch | lies | full | with clothes | ||
'The couch is full of clothes.' |
c. | De tribune | staat | (helemaal) | vol | met supporters. | |
the stand | stands | completely | full | with fans | ||
'The stand is full of fans.' |
d. | De kamer | hangt (helemaal) | vol | met slingers. | |
the room | hangs completely | full | with festoons | ||
'The room is full of festoons.' |
For completeness' sake, note that the examples in (497) in turn alternate with the examples in (498). This shows that the location denoting subjects in (497) can (at least marginally) be replaced by an expletive related to a locative PP. Alternations of this type are the topic of Subsection II.
a. | ? | Het | zit | vol met fouten | in de tekst. |
it | sits | full with errors | in the text |
b. | ?? | Het | ligt | vol met kleren | op de bank. |
it | lies | full with clothes | on the couch |
c. | ? | Het | staat | vol | met supporters | op de tribune. |
it | stands | full | with fans | on the stand |
d. | ?? | Het | hangt | vol | met slingers in de kamer. |
it | hangs | full | with festoons in the room |
This subsection discusses the alternation illustrated in (499) and (500), in which the nominal part of a non-predicative locational PP in one clause surfaces as the subject of another clause. The point of departure of our discussion will be the hypothesis that the subject pronoun het in the primeless examples is an anticipatory pronoun and that the locational PP functions as the logical subject of the construction; cf. Bennis & Wehrmann (1987).
a. | Het | is | erg warm/gezellig | in de kamer. | |
it | is | very warm/cozy | in the room |
a'. | De kamer | is erg warm/gezellig. | |
the room | is very warm/cozy |
b. | Het stinkt | in de kamer. | |
it stinks | in the room |
b'. | De kamer | stinkt. | |
the room | stinks |
The subsections below will not extensively discuss the copular examples in (499) given that these are discussed in more detail in Section A6.6, but focus more specifically on the constituent parts of the two alternants in (500), which have a number of peculiar semantic and syntactic properties on top of those found in (499).
a. | Het | krioelt | in de tuin | van de mieren. | |
it | crawls | in the garden | of the ants | ||
'The garden is swarming with ants.' |
b. | De tuin | krioelt | van de mieren. | |
the garden | swarms | of the ants | ||
'The garden is swarming with ants.' |
An important property of the constructions in (499a&b) and (500a) is that they are impersonal in the sense that the subject pronoun het is non-referential in nature. That this is the case is clear from the fact that this pronoun cannot be replaced by any referential element (with preservation of the intended meaning); this is illustrated in (501) for the demonstrative pronouns dit'this' and dat'that'
a. | Dit/Dat | is erg | *warm/#gezellig | in de kamer. | |
this/that | is very | warm/cozy | in the room |
b. | * | Dit/Dat stinkt | in de kamer. |
this/that stinks | in the room |
c. | * | Dit/Dat | krioelt | in de tuin | van de mieren. |
this/that | crawls | in the garden | of the ants |
The fact that the subject pronoun het is non-referential may be problematic for the copular constructions in (499a) given that the adjectival complementives warm'warm' and gezellig'cozy' should be predicated of some entity. This problem can perhaps be solved for the adjective warm by saying that it resembles weather verbs like vriezen'to freeze' in that it takes a quasi-referential subject, but this seems less likely for adjectives like gezellig'cozy'. It has therefore been proposed that the pronoun het actually functions as an anticipatory pronoun that is coindexed with the locational PP, which acts as the logical subject of the adjective. When we extend the proposal to impersonal constructions like (499b) and (500), we arrive at the representations in (502).
a. | Heti | is [SCti | erg warm/gezellig] | [in de kamer]i. | |
it | is | very warm/cozy | in the room |
b. | Heti | stinkt | [in de kamer]i. | |
it | stinks | in the room |
c. | Heti | krioelt | [in de tuin]i | van de mieren. | |
it | crawls | in the garden | of the ants |
These representations not only solve the question of what the adjective/verbs in (499a&b) and (500a) are predicated of, but perhaps also make intuitive sense in light of the fact that the nominal parts of the locational PPs surface as the subject of the alternate constructions in the primed examples in (499) and in (500b). However, we should not to jump to conclusions given that the two alternants are not semantically equivalent, which is clear from the examples in (503) taken from Janssen (1976:69): whereas (503a) unequivocally refers to the space within the car, (503a') can also be use to refer to the car itself (its engine may need fine-tuning, for example); similarly, whereas the PP in (503b) may refer to some meeting organized by the family Janssen, the subject in (503b') must refer to the people themselves.
a. | Het | stinkt | in de auto. | |
it | stinks | in the car |
a'. | De auto | stinkt. | |
the car | stinks |
b. | Het | was | leuk | bij de Janssens. | |
it | was | fun | with the Janssens |
b'. | De Janssens | waren | leuk. | |
the Janssens | were | fun |
The claim in (502) that the locational PPs function as logical subjects of the clauses not only provides an answer to the question pertaining the semantic properties discussed in the previous subsection, but is in fact supported by their syntactic behavior. Let us start by eliminating two potential alternative analyses. That the locational PP in (500a) is not a complementive is clear from the fact illustrated in (504a) that it can be placed after the clause-final verb as well as from the fact illustrated in (504b) that it can readily be separated from the clause-final verbs by other phrases in the middle field of the clause.
a. | dat | het | <in de tuin> | krioelt | van de mieren <in de tuin>. | |
that | it | in the garden | crawls | of the ants |
b. | dat | het | <in de tuin> | vaak <in de tuin> | krioelt | van de mieren. | |
that | it | in the garden | often | crawls | of the ants |
The examples in (505) show further that the locational PP differs from unsuspected PP-complementives in that it does not allow R-pronominalization; pronominalization is possible only by means of locational pro-forms like hier'here' and daar'there'.
a. | * | dat | het | er | vaak | in | krioelt | van de mieren. |
that | it | there | often | in | crawls | of the ants |
b. | dat | het | hier/daar | vaak | krioelt | van de mieren. | |
that | it | here/there | often | crawls | of the ants |
A possible conclusion would be that the locational PP functions as an adverbial phrase. However, this seems at odds with the fact that it cannot be omitted; example (506a) is only acceptable if the neuter pronoun is referential, that is, if it functions as the pronominalized counterpart of an example such as (506b).
a. | # | Het | krioelt | van de mieren. |
it | crawls | of the ants |
b. | Dat deel van de tuin | krioelt | van de mieren. | |
that part of the garden | crawls | of the ants |
The conjecture in (502) that the locational PP functions semantically as the logical subject of the clause is compatible with these facts. A potential problem for this conjecture is that the (a)-examples in (507) show that the PP cannot be placed in the regular subject position of the clause; it can only be placed in clause-initial position if it is topicalized, in which case the non-referential pronoun het must appear in the subject position right-adjacent to the finite verb in second position. This is compatible with the proposed analysis, however, if we assume that the regular subject position can only be occupied by a noun phrase and that this is precisely the reason why the anticipatory pronoun is used in this construction.
a. | * | In de tuin | krioelt | van de mieren. |
in the garden | crawls | of the ants |
b. | In de tuin | krioelt | het | van de mieren. | |
in the garden | crawls | it | of the ants |
In fact, this also explains why het is not needed in the alternants of (507) in (508); since the reference objects are syntactically realized as noun phrases in these constructions, they can of course be placed in regular subject position, and insertion of the anticipatory pronoun het is therefore unnecessary (hence blocked).
a. | De tuin | krioelt | van de mieren. | |
the garden | crawls | of the ants |
b. | * | De tuin | krioelt | het van de mieren. |
the garden | crawls | it of the ants |
The syntactic status of the van-PP is not immediately clear. A first observation is that this PP seems to prefer a position after the verb in clause-final position, which excludes an analysis according to which the PP functions as a complementive.
a. | dat | het | in de tuin | <?van de mieren> | krioelt <van de mieren>. | |
that | it | in the garden | of the ants | crawls |
b. | dat | de tuin | <?van de mieren> | krioelt <van de mieren>. | |
that | the garden | of the ants | crawls |
The examples in (510) show that R-pronominalization of the van-PP is possible; this favors an analysis according to which the PP functions as a complement of the verb; it is not conclusive, however, given that certain adverbial phrases also allow R-pronominalization.
a. | dat | het | er | in de tuin | van | krioelt. | |
that | it | there | in the garden | of | crawls | ||
'that it is crawling with them in the garden.' |
b. | dat | de tuin | er | vaak | van | krioelt. | |
that | the garden | there | often | of | crawls | ||
'that the garden is often crawling with them.' |
Another argument in favor of assuming that the van-PP is a PP-complement and not an adverbial phrase is that omission of this PP gives rise to a severely degraded result: this is expected of PP-complements but not of adverbial phrases.
a. | * | dat | het | in de tuin | krioelt. |
that | it | in the garden | crawls |
b. | * | dat | de tuin | krioelt. |
that | the garden | crawls |
Note in passing that the examples in (511) are semantically incoherent; the verb is taken in its literal sense as a verb denoting undirected motion, whereas the (logical) subject does not seem to be able to satisfy the selection restrictions imposed by this verb. The addition of the van-PP apparently lifts the selection restriction imposed by the verb on its subject.
The fact that the (logical) subject need not satisfy the selection restriction that a verb like krioelen'to crawl' imposes on its agentive argument may suggest that the meaning of the constructions in (500) is non-compositional. One way of avoiding this conclusion is to assume that the predicative relationships in the clause are expressed in a non-canonical way. We will consider one option here, which we will show to be untenable in the light of a wider set of data.
First consider the examples in (512), which show that the verb krioelen requires its agentive subject to be plural or to be headed by a noun denoting a collection of entities; use of a singular noun phrase like de mier'the ant' gives rise to an unacceptable result.
a. | De mieren | krioelen | in de tuin. | |
the ants | crawl | in the garden | ||
'The ants are teeming in the garden.' |
b. | Het ongedierte/*De mier | krioelt | in de tuin. | |
the vermin/the ant | crawls | in the garden | ||
'The vermin are teeming in the garden.' |
The examples in (513) show that the verb krioelen imposes restrictions on the nominal part of the van-PP similar to those on the subject in (512); the nominal part of the PP must be plural or refer to a collection.
a. | Het | krioelt | in de tuin | van | de mieren/het ongedierte/*mier. | |
it | crawls | in the garden | of | the ants/the vermin/ant |
b. | De tuin | krioelt | van | de mieren/het ongedierte/*mier. | |
the garden | crawls | of | the ants/the vermin/ant |
This may suggest that the van-PP semantically functions as the logical subject of the verb. If so, this means that we are dealing with a rather complex set of predication relations, which are schematized in the figures in (514). The two constructions are identical in that the verb is predicated of the nominal part of the van-PP. The complex verbal phrase krioelen van de mieren functions as a predicate which is subsequently predicated of the reference object, de tuin'the garden', directly if the latter is realized as the subject of the clause or via the anticipatory pronoun het if it is realized as a locational PP.
a. | ![]() |
b. | ![]() |
There are several potential problems with analyses of this sort. The first one is that predication relationship I between a verb and its internal argument is normally not syntactically encoded by means of the preposition van'of'. This does not a priori mean that an analysis along this line would be untenable given that it has been argued in Section N4.2.1 that this preposition can establish such a relationship in metaphorical N-van-een-N constructions like een schat van een kat'a treasure of a cat', in which the noun schat is predicated of the second noun; cf. die kat is een schat'that cat is a treasure'. A second, semantic, problem is that establishing predication relationship I should give rise to a proposition; since propositions are saturated predicates they normally cannot be predicated of some other argument, and this means that we have to make additional stipulations to make predication relationship II possible. The third and probably most problematic aspect of the analyses in (514) is that it is predicted that in constructions of this type the verb is always predicated of the nominal part of the van-PP. The examples in (515) show, however, that this need not be the case.
a. | Het | barst/stikt/sterft | *(van de toeristen) | in de stad. | |
it | barst/stikt/sterft | of the tourists | in the town | ||
'It is swarming with tourists in town.' |
b. | De stad | barst/stikt/sterft | *(van de toeristen). | |
the town | barst/stikt/sterft | of the tourists | ||
'The town is swarming with tourists.' |
The verbs barsten'to burst', stikken'to suffocate' and sterven'to die' are clearly not predicated of the noun phrase de toeristen. Instead, the original meaning of the verb has bleached and the construction as a whole simply assumes a quantitative meaning aspect; there is an extremely high number of tourists in town. It can further be noted that the syntactic properties of the verbs barsten, stikken and sterven in the constructions in (515) also differ considerably from their properties in their more regular uses. This is shown in (516) and (517) for the verb stikken. Example (516) shows that this verb, being a telic unaccusative verb, cannot be combined with durative adverbial phrases like een uur lang'for an hour' and forms the perfect tense by means of the auxiliary zijn'to be'.
a. | De jongen | stikte | binnen een minuut/*een uur lang. | |
the boy | suffocated | within a minute/one hour long |
b. | De jongen | is/*heeft | gestikt. | |
the boy | is/has | suffocated |
The constructions in (517), on the other hand, exhibit properties of atelic predicates: they can be combined with durative adverbial phrases like de hele zomer'all summer' and they form their perfect tense with the auxiliary hebben'to have'.
a. | Het | heeft/*is | in Amsterdam | de hele zomer | gestikt | van de toeristen. | |
it | has/is | in Amsterdam | the whole summer | gestikt | of the tourists | ||
'It has swarmed with tourists in Amsterdam all summer.' |
b. | Amsterdam heeft/*is | de hele zomer | gestikt | van de toeristen. | |
Amsterdam has/is | the whole summer | gestikt | of the tourists | ||
'Amsterdam has swarmed with tourists in Amsterdam all summer.' |
To sum up the discussion so far, we can conclude that the meaning of the constructions under discussion cannot be determined in a compositional way. The verbs in this construction further have the property that their meaning has bleached; they do not denote the same state of affairs as they do in their more regular uses, a semantic change that is also reflected in their syntactic behavior.
An essential meaning aspect of the two constructions under discussion seems to be that there is a high concentration of entities at a certain location. It has further been claimed that the two alternants differ with respect to the spreading of these entities. Constructions with a nominative subject, like (500b) and (515b), receive a holistic interpretation: example (515b), for instance, expresses that wherever you go in town, there will be many tourists. Impersonal constructions, like (500a) and (515a), on the other hand, have been claimed to be consistent with a partial interpretation: example (515b) may be true if there are high concentrations of tourists in certain restricted areas of town.
The nominative/PP alternation under discussion seems to be highly productive, and many verb types can enter the construction. Example (499) has already shown that the alternation may occur in copular constructions. The examples in (497) and (498) in Subsection I have further shown that positional verbs with the complementive adjective vol'full' also enter in this alternation; one example is repeated here as (518).
a. | De tekst | zit | vol | met fouten. | |
the text | sits | full | with errors |
b. | Het | zit | vol met fouten | in de tekst. | |
it | sits | full with errors | in the text | ||
'The text has errors everywhere.' |
The examples in (519) provide a number of other potential cases with an adjectival complementive, although these are somewhat harder to judge given that they have a more or less idiomatic flavor. The examples in (519) are similar to the ones in (500) with the verb krioelen and (515) with the verbs barsten'to burst', stikken'to suffocate' and sterven'to die' in that they contain an obligatory van-PP and likewise express that there is a high concentration of entities denoted by the nominal part of the van-PP at the location denoted by the reference object die krant'that newspaper'/de stad'the city'.
a. | ? | Het | staat | bol | van de fouten | in die krant. |
it | stands | full | of the errors | in that newspaper |
a'. | Die krant | staat | bol | van de fouten. | |
that newspaper | stands | full | of the errors | ||
'That newspaper bulges with errors.' |
b. | Het | zag | zwart | van de toeristen | in de stad. | |
it | saw | black | of the tourists | in the city |
b'. | De stadnom | zag | zwart | van de toeristen. | |
the city | saw | black | of the tourists | ||
'The city was swarming with tourists.' |
Another set that allows the alternation consists of verbs denoting light and sound emission. Observe that the van-PP in (520a') is optional, but this may be due to the fact that schitteren'to glitter' can also be used as a monadic verb: De diamant schitterde'The diamond sparkled'. These constructions again express that there is a high concentration of entities denoted by the nominal part of the van-PP at the location denoted by the reference object de lucht'the sky'/de tuin'the garden'.
a. | Het | schitterde | van de sterren | in de lucht. | |
it | glittered | of the stars | in the sky |
a'. | De lucht | schitterde | (van de sterren). | |
the sky | glittered | of the stars | ||
'The sky was glittering with stars.' |
b. | Het gonst | van de bijen | in de tuin. | |
it buzzes | of the bees | in the garden |
b'. | De tuin | gonst | van de bijen. | |
the garden | buzzes | of the bees | ||
'The garden is alive with bees.' |
The examples in (521) provide a number of examples of bodily sensation/function, which seem to especially favor the construction in which the reference object is realized as the subject of the clause.
a. | Het | kriebelde | op mijn rug | van de vlooien. | |
it | tickled | on my back | of the fleas |
a'. | Mijn rug | kriebelde | van de vlooien. | |
my back | tickled | of the fleas |
b. | ? | Het | duizelde | door zijn hoofd | van de nieuwe ideeën. |
it | reeled | through his head | of the new ideas |
b'. | Zijn hoofd | duizelde | van de nieuwe ideeën. | |
his head | reeled | of the new ideas |
c. | ?? | Het | droop | langs zijn gezicht | van het zweet. |
it | dripped | along his face | of the sweat |
c'. | Zijn gezicht | droop | van het zweet. | |
his face | dripped | of the sweat |
The discussion of subject-PP alternations discussed in the previous subsections probably only scratches the surface of a much broader range of facts. PPs that alternate with nominative phrases may not only be predicative or function as the logical subject of the clause but may also function as adverbial phrases of various types. The subjects of the adjunct middle constructions in the primed examples in (522) all have a function similar to that of the adverbial phrases in the regular primeless examples; see Section 3.2.2.3 for extensive discussion. Interestingly, the doubly-primed examples show that adjunct middles also have impersonal counterparts.
a. | Els snijdt | altijd | met dat mes. | instrument | |
Els cuts | always | with that knife |
a'. | Dat mes | snijdt | lekker/prettig. | |
that knife | cuts | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to cut with that knife.' |
a''. | Het | snijdt | lekker/prettig | met dat mes. | |
it | cuts | nicely/pleasantly | with that knife | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to cut with that knife.' |
b. | Peter rijdt | graag | op deze stille wegen. | location | |
Peter drives | readily | on these quiet roads | |||
'Peter likes to drive on these quiet roads.' |
b'. | Deze stille wegen | rijden | lekker/prettig. | |
these quiet roads | drive | nicely/pleasantly | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.' |
b''. | Het rijdt lekker prettig op deze stille wegen. | |
it drives nicely/pleasantly on these quiet roads | ||
'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.' |
c. | Jan werkt | het liefst | op rustige middagen. | time | |
Jan works | preferably | on quiet afternoons | |||
'Jan prefers to work on quiet afternoons.' |
c'. | Rustige middagen | werken | het prettigst. | |
quiet afternoons | work | the most pleasant | ||
'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.' |
c''. | Het werkt | het prettigst | op rustige middagen. | |
it works | most.pleasantly | on quiet afternoons | ||
'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.' |
But it is not only in adjunct middle constructions that we find that adverbial PPs alternate with subjects. Section 2.5.1.3 has shown for instance that object experiencer psych-verbs allow expression of the cause either by means of a met-PP or by means of a nominative noun phrase; this is illustrated again in the examples in (523).
a. | De clownCauser | amuseerde | de kinderenExp | met zijn grapjesCause. | |
the clown | amused | the children | with his jokes |
a'. | Zijn grapjesCause | amuseerden | de kinderenExp. | |
his jokes | amused | the children |
b. | JanCauser | overtuigde | de rechterExp | met dat nieuwe bewijsCause. | |
Jan | convinced | the judge | with that new evidence |
b'. | Dat nieuwe bewijsCause | overtuigde | de rechterExp. | |
that new evidence | convinced | the judge |
The examples in (524) show that adverbial met-PPs exhibit the alternation more generally. We will not attempt to characterize the semantic function of the adverbial phrases and their corresponding subjects, but refer the reader to Levin (1993:ch.3), who does try to do this for similar English examples.
a. | Jan bevestigde | de hypothese | met een nieuw experiment. | |
Jan confirmed | the hypothesis | with a new experiment |
a'. | Het nieuwe experiment | bevestigde | de hypothese. | |
the new experiment | confirmed | the hypothesis |
b. | Het leger | bluste | de bosbrand | met een helikopter. | |
the army | extinguished | the forest.fire | with a helicopter |
b'. | De helikopter bluste | de bosbrand. | |
the helicopter extinguished | the forest.fire |
c. | Jan vult het tochtgat | met kranten. | |
Jan fills the blow.hole | with newspapers |
c'. | De | kranten | vullen | het tochtgat. | |
the | newspapers | fill | the blow.hole |
d. | Marie versierde de kamer | met de nieuwe slingers. | |
Marie decorated the room | with the new festoons |
d'. | De nieuwe slingers | versierden | de kamer. | |
the new festoons | decorated | the room |
e. | Jan bedekte | de inktvlek | met zijn hand. | |
Jan covered | the inkblot | with his hand |
e'. | Zijn hand | bedekte | de inktvlek. | |
his hand | covered | the inkblot |
Levin (1993:ch.3) provides a number of other cases with adverbial phrases headed by prepositions other than met that are possible in English but give rise to unacceptable or at least very unnatural results in Dutch. We confine ourselves here to just giving a number of typical examples. The alternation exemplified in (525), in which the adverbial phrase/subject refers to natural forces, is often acceptable.
a. | Jan droogde | zijn haar | in de wind/zon. | |
Jan dried | his hair | in the wind/sun |
b. | De wind/zon | droogde | zijn haar. | |
the wind/sun | dried | his hair |
Alternations involving adverbial phrases denoting time, containers, prices, raw materials and sources comparable to the ones given by Levin, on the other hand, give rise to severely degraded results. However, we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions given that, to our knowledge, these kinds of alternations have not yet been investigated thoroughly for Dutch.
a. | De wereld | zag | het begin van een nieuw tijdperk | in het jaar 1492. | |
the world | saw | the begin of a new era | in the year 1492 |
a'. | * | Het jaar 1492 | zag | een nieuw tijdperk. |
the year 1492 | saw | a new era |
b. | Jan incorporeert | de kritiek | in de nieuwe versie van zijn proefschrift. | |
Jan incorporates | the critique | in the new version of his thesis |
b'. | * | De nieuwe versie van zijn proefschrift | incorporeert | de kritiek. |
the new version of his thesis | incorporates | the critique |
c. | Jan kocht | een kaartje | voor vijf euro. | |
Jan bought | a ticket | for five euros |
c'. | * | Vijf euro | koopt | (je) | een kaartje. |
five euros | buys | you | a ticket |
d. | Hij | bakt | heerlijke pannenkoeken | van dat biologische boekweitmeel. | |
he | bakes | lovely pancakes | from that organic buckwheat.flour |
d'. | * | Dat biologische boekweitmeel | bakt | heerlijk pannenkoeken. |
that organic buckwheat.flour | bakes | lovely pancakes |
e. | De middeninkomens | profiteren | van de belastingverlaging. | |
the middle.income.earners | profit | from the tax.reduction |
e'. | * | De belastingverlaging | profiteert | de middeninkomens. |
the tax.reduction | profits | the middle.income.earners |
- 1987Adverbial argumentsBeukema, Frits & Coopmans, Peter (eds.)Linguistics in the Netherlands 1987Dordrecht1-11
- 1976Hebben-konstrukties en indirekt-objektkonstructiesNijmegenUniversity of NijmegenThesis
- 1993English verb classes and alternationsChicago/LondonUniversity of Chicago Press
