- Dutch
- Frisian
- Afrikaans
-
Dutch
-
Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological processes
- Phonology-morphology interface
-
Word stress
-
Primary stress in simplex words
- Monomorphemic words
- Diachronic aspects
- Generalizations on stress placement
- Default penultimate stress
- Lexical stress
- The closed penult restriction
- Final closed syllables
- The diphthong restriction
- Superheavy syllables (SHS)
- The three-syllable window
- Segmental restrictions
- Phonetic correlates
- Stress shifts in loanwords
- Quantity-sensitivity
- Secondary stress
- Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Stress in complex words
-
Primary stress in simplex words
- Accent & intonation
- Clitics
- Spelling
-
Morphology
-
Word formation
-
Compounding
- Nominal compounds
- Verbal compounds
- Adjectival compounds
- Affixoids
- Coordinative compounds
- Synthetic compounds
- Reduplicative compounds
- Phrase-based compounds
- Elative compounds
- Exocentric compounds
- Linking elements
- Separable complex verbs (SCVs)
- Gapping of complex words
- Particle verbs
- Copulative compounds
-
Derivation
- Numerals
- Derivation: inputs and input restrictions
- The meaning of affixes
- Non-native morphology
- Cohering and non-cohering affixes
- Prefixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixation: person nouns
- Conversion
- Pseudo-participles
- Bound forms
-
Nouns
- Nominal prefixes
-
Nominal suffixes
- -aal and -eel
- -aar
- -aard
- -aat
- -air
- -aris
- -ast
- Diminutives
- -dom
- -een
- -ees
- -el (nominal)
- -elaar
- -enis
- -er (nominal)
- -erd
- -erik
- -es
- -eur
- -euse
- ge...te
- -heid
- -iaan, -aan
- -ief
- -iek
- -ier
- -ier (French)
- -ière
- -iet
- -igheid
- -ij and allomorphs
- -ijn
- -in
- -ing
- -isme
- -ist
- -iteit
- -ling
- -oir
- -oot
- -rice
- -schap
- -schap (de)
- -schap (het)
- -sel
- -st
- -ster
- -t
- -tal
- -te
- -voud
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Univerbation
- Neo-classical word formation
- Construction-dependent morphology
- Morphological productivity
-
Compounding
- Inflection
- Inflection and derivation
- Allomorphy
- The interface between phonology and morphology
-
Word formation
-
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
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
-
3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
-
3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
-
3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
-
5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. 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)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 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
- 1 Characterization and classification
-
2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
-
3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
-
3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
-
4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
-
5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
-
7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
-
Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
-
Adpositions and adpositional phrases
-
1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
-
1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
-
1 Characteristics and classification
-
Phonology
-
Frisian
- General
-
Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
-
Phonological Processes
- Assimilation
- Vowel nasalization
- Syllabic sonorants
- Final devoicing
- Fake geminates
- Vowel hiatus resolution
- Vowel reduction introduction
- Schwa deletion
- Schwa insertion
- /r/-deletion
- d-insertion
- {s/z}-insertion
- t-deletion
- Intrusive stop formation
- Breaking
- Vowel shortening
- h-deletion
- Replacement of the glide w
- Word stress
- Clitics
- Allomorphy
- Orthography of Frisian
-
Morphology
- Inflection
-
Word formation
-
Derivation
- Prefixation
- Infixation
-
Suffixation
- Nominal suffixes
- Verbal suffixes
- Adjectival suffixes
- Adverbial suffixes
- Numeral suffixes
- Interjectional suffixes
- Onomastic suffixes
- Conversion
-
Derivation
-
Syntax
-
Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Unergative and unaccusative subjects
- Evidentiality
- To-infinitival clauses
- Predication and noun incorporation
- Ellipsis
- Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo
- Expression of irrealis
- Embedded Verb Second
- Agreement
- Negation
-
Nouns & Noun Phrases
- Classification
- Complementation
- Modification
-
Partitive noun constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Nominalised quantifiers
- Kind partitives
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Bare nominal attributions
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers and (pre)determiners
- Interrogative pronouns
- R-pronouns
- Syntactic uses
-
Adjective Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification and degree quantification
-
Comparison by degree
- Comparative
- Superlative
- Equative
-
Attribution
- Agreement
- Attributive adjectives vs. prenominal elements
- Complex adjectives
- Noun ellipsis
- Co-occurring adjectives
- Predication
- Partitive adjective constructions
- Adverbial use
- Participles and infinitives
-
Adposition Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Intransitive adpositions
- Predication
- Preposition stranding
-
Verbs and Verb Phrases
-
Afrikaans
- General
-
Phonology
- Afrikaans phonology
-
Segment inventory
-
Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
- The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
- The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
- The rounded high back vowel /u/
- The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
- The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
- The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
-
Overview of Afrikaans consonants
- The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
- The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
- The bilabial nasal /m/
- The alveolar nasal /n/
- The velar nasal /ŋ/
- The trill /r/
- The lateral liquid /l/
- The alveolar fricative /s/
- The velar fricative /x/
- The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
- The approximants /ɦ/, /j/ and /ʋ/
-
Overview of Afrikaans vowels
-
Word stress
- The phonetic properties of stress
- Primary stress on monomorphemic words in Afrikaans
- Background to primary stress in monomorphemes in Afrikaans
- Overview of the Main Stress Rule of Afrikaans
- The short vowels of Afrikaans
- Long vowels in monomorphemes
- Primary stress on diphthongs in monomorphemes
- Exceptions
- Stress shifts in place names
- Stress shift towards word-final position
- Stress pattern of reduplications
-
Phonological processes
- Vowel related processes
- Consonant related processes
- Homorganic glide insertion
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Phonotactics
- Morphology
-
Syntax
- Afrikaans syntax
-
Nouns and noun phrases
- Characteristics of the NP
- Classification of nouns
- Complementation of NPs
- Modification of NPs
-
Binominal and partitive constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Partitive constructions with nominalised quantifiers
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Binominal name constructions
- Binominal genitive constructions
- Bare nominal attribution
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- Syntactic uses of the noun phrase
-
Adjectives and adjective phrases
- Characteristics and classification of the AP
- Complementation of APs
- Modification and Degree Quantification of APs
- Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative degree
- Attribution of APs
- Predication of APs
- The partitive adjective construction
- Adverbial use of APs
- Participles and infinitives as adjectives
-
Verbs and verb phrases
- Characterisation and classification
- Argument structure
- Verb frame alternations
- Complements of non-main verbs
- Verb clusters
- Complement clauses
- Adverbial modification
- Word order in the clause: Introduction
- Word order in the clause: position of the finite Verb
- Word order in the clause: Clause-initial position
- Word order in the clause: Extraposition and right-dislocation in the postverbal field
- Word order in the middle field
- Emphatic constructions
- Adpositions and adposition phrases
There is a wide range of constructions in which a part of a clausal constituent occurs in postverbal position. Prototypical cases of such extraposed phrases are relative clauses and postnominal clauses/PPs (both modifiers and complements). Examples are provided in (73), in which the italicized parts clearly form a clausal constituent semantically. We refer to cases like these as split extraposition constructions (by analogy to the notion of split topicalization, which refers to cases in which a part of a clausal constituent is topicalized). Italics will be used throughout this subsection to indicate the split clausal constituents.
a. | Hij | heeft | de man | bezocht | die | hier | gisteren | was. |
relative clause
|
|
he | has | the man | visited | who | here | yesterday | was | |||
'He has visited the man who was here yesterday.' |
b. | dat | Jan de vraag | stelde | of | het | regende. |
complement clause
|
|
that | Jan the question | put | whether | it | rained | |||
'that Jan asked the question whether it rained.' |
c. | dat | Jan een boek | gekocht | heeft | uit de 16e eeuw. |
PP-modifier
|
|
that | Jan a book | bought | has | from the 16th century | |||
'that Jan has bought a book from the 16th century.' |
For a long time, generative grammar has taken it for granted that split extraposition constructions are derived by movement from underlying structures in which the italicized parts are syntactic units; cf. Baltin (2006) for a review, subsection I will show that there are reasons for rejecting such a movement approach, subsection II continues by showing that split extraposition is not limited to relative clauses and complements/modifiers of noun phrases, but that it is a more general phenomenon. We illustrate this in (74) by cases in which an adjectival complementive is split: in (74a) the PP-complement op Peter of the adjective boos'angry' is extraposed, and in (74b), the extraposed clause is part of a complex modifier phrase of the adjective klein'small'.
a. | dat | Marie | erg boos | is op Peter. | |
that | Marie | very angry | is at Peter | ||
'that Marie is very angry with Peter.' |
b. | dat | de computer | zo klein | is | dat | hij | overal | past. | |
that | the computer | so small | is | that | he | everywhere | fits | ||
'that the computer is so small that it fits everywhere.' |
The conclusion that split extraposition cannot be derived by movement may give rise to the idea that we are not dealing with extraposition but with some form of right dislocation; cf. Section 12.1, sub IV, where it is shown that extraposition and right dislocation are sometimes difficult to distinguish, subsection III will argue against this hypothesis by showing that the postverbal parts of split extraposition constructions differ from right-dislocated phrases in that the former cannot be stranded under VP-topicalization; Kaan (1992) has in fact shown that both parts of the split constituent must be pied piped in order to obtain an acceptable result. We illustrate this in the (a)-examples in (75) for the extraposed relative clause in (73a); example (75b) is added to show that the full noun phrase can be stranded under VP-topicalization but in this case the relative clause is simply not extraposed, as is clear from the fact that it precedes the sentential negation niet'not', which cannot occur in postverbal position. Kaan’s generalization will be used as a test for distinguishing the postverbal part in split extraposition constructions from right-dislocated phrases.
a. | [De man | bezocht | die | hier | gisteren | was] | heeft | hij | niet. | |
the man | visited | who | here | yesterday | was | has | he | not |
a'. | * | [De man bezocht] heeft hij niet die hier gisteren was. |
a''. | * | [Bezocht die hier gisteren was] heeft hij de man niet. |
b. | Bezocht heeft hij [de mandie hier gisteren was] niet. |
The (a)-examples clearly show that the postverbal part in split extraposition constructions is clearly clause-internal, subsection IV concludes by discussing a fairly recent alternative for the movement approach initiated by Koster (2000), according to which split extraposition is a form of juxtaposition of the VP and some other phrase.
Prototypical cases of split extraposition involve nominal arguments with a relative clause or a postnominal clause/PP. We illustrate this again in the examples in (76): the primeless examples indicate the structures of the noun phrases in the non-split pattern, while the primed examples illustrate the split extraposition pattern.
a. | dat | hij | [de man | [die | dit boek | geschreven | heeft]] | kent. | |
that | he | the man | who | this book | written | has | knows | ||
'that he knows the man who has written this book.' |
a'. | dat | hij | de man | kent | die | dit boek | geschreven | heeft. | |
that | he | the man | knows | who | this book | written | has |
b. | dat | hij | [de bewering | [dat | Marie gelogen | had]] | niet | kon | weerleggen. | |
that | he | the contention | that | Marie lied | had | not | could | rebut | ||
'that he couldnʼt rebut the claim that Marie had lied.' |
b'. | dat | hij | de bewering | niet | kon | weerleggen | dat | Marie gelogen | had. | |
that | he | the contention | not | could | rebut | that | Marie lied | had |
c. | dat | hij | [de man | [met het aapje]] | gezien | heeft. | |
that | he | the man | with the monkey | seen | has | ||
'that he has seen the man with the monkey.' |
c'. | dat | hij | de man | gezien | heeft | met het aapje. | |
that | he | the man | seen | has | with the monkey |
For completeness’ sake, we add the examples in (77) in order to show that split extraposition is not only possible with prepositional phrases but also with post- and circumpositional phrases; cf. Veld (1993:section 4.3).
a. | dat | ze | een weg | <de berg op> | bouwden <de berg op>. | |
that | they | a road | the mountain up | built | ||
'that they built a road up the mountain.' |
b. | dat | ze | een gang | <onder de weg door> | groeven < onder de weg door>. | |
that | they | a tunnel | under the road door | dug | ||
'that they dug a tunnel underneath the road.' |
Until the mid 1990’s many generative grammarians assumed that the split patterns in (76) and (77) are derived by movement. One reason was that a movement analysis immediately accounts for the fact that the postverbal phrase obeys selection restrictions imposed by the presumed selecting head, as well as the fact that the pre- and postverbal PP are in complementary distribution: cf. Corver (1991).
dat | Jan de hoop | <op/*voor hulp> | verloor <op/*voor hulp>. | ||
that | Jan the hope | on/for help | lost | ||
'that Jan lost all hope of help.' |
The nature of the movement is not entirely clear, however. One generally accepted derivation involved the postulation of an extraposition transformation (which in the case of PPs was sometimes referred to as PP-over-V), which optionally moves the postnominal clause/PP rightwards into some postverbal position, as illustrated by structure (79a). Another view, which originates from the 1970’s and became quite popular after the publication of Kayne (1994), is the so-called raising (or promotion) analysis. According to this analysis, the noun phrase is generated to the right of the verb and subsequently moved into some position to left of the verb, while optionally stranding its post-nominal part; this is indicated by structure (79b), in which NP* stands for a somewhat larger nominal projection than the moved NP-projection.
a. | [... [NP ... N ti ] ... V [rel-clausei/clause/PP]i] |
extraposition/PP-over-V
|
b. | [... [NP ... N]i ... V [NP*ti [rel-clausei/clause/PP]]] |
raising/promotion
|
Despite the popularity of the two proposals there are many theoretical and empirical
problems with them; we will provide some of the most important issues below and refer
the reader to Koster (1973/1995/2000), Kaan (1992), De Vries (2002:ch.7), Boef (2013:ch.3), and references cited there for more detailed discussions.
A quite problematic aspect of the extraposition analysis in (79a) is that it presupposes that relative clauses and postnominal PPs can be extracted
from noun phrases, while there is actually no independent evidence to support that
claim. For example, while virtually any clausal constituent can be moved into clause-initial
position, topicalization of relative clauses and postnominal clauses/PPs is excluded,
as is illustrated by the primed examples in (80). The number sign in (80c') indicates that this example is acceptable if the
met-PP is interpreted as a comitative adverbial phrase; this reading is irrelevant here.
a. | Hij | kent | [de man | [die | dit boek | geschreven | heeft]]. | |
he | knows | the man | who | this book | written | has | ||
'He knows the man who has written this book.' |
a'. | * | Die | dit boek | geschreven | heeft | kent | hij | de man. |
who | this book | written | has | knows | he | the man |
b. | Hij | kon | [de bewering | [dat | Marie gelogen | had]] | niet | weerleggen. | |
he | could | the contention | that | Marie lied | had | not | rebut | ||
'He couldnʼt rebut the claim that Marie had lied.' |
b'. | * | Dat | Marie gelogen | had | kon | hij | de bewering | niet | weerleggen. |
that | Marie lied | had | could | he | the contention | not | rebut |
c. | Hij | heeft | [de man | [met het aapje]] | gezien. | |
he | has | the man | with the monkey | seen | ||
'He has seen the man with the monkey.' |
c'. | # | Met het aapje | heeft | hij | de man | gezien. |
with the monkey | has | he | the man | seen |
The unacceptability of the primed examples follows from the hypothesis that noun phrases are islands for movement (cf. Section 11.3.1.1, sub VB), but this hypothesis would make the extraposition analysis in (79a) highly implausible anyway. Of course, there are also arguments in favor of the extraposition analysis but these do not seem very strong. For example, it has been argued that noun phrases such as het debuut van Hella Haasse do allow topicalization of their postnominal PP. However, topicalization of this sort is possible only if the PP is headed by van or over, and Section N2.2.1, sub VC, has shown that such topicalized PPs can be analyzed as restrictive adverbial phrases.
a. | Hij | heeft | [het debuut | van Hella Haasse] | gelezen. | |
he | has | the debut | of Hella Haasse | read | ||
'He has read Hella Haasseʼs debut novel.' |
b. | Hij | heeft | het debuut | gelezen | van Hella Haasse. |
extraposition
|
|
he | has | the debut | read | of Hella Haasse |
b'. | Van Hella Haasse | heeft | hij | het | debuut | gelezen. |
topicalization
|
|
of Hella Haasse | has | he | the | debut | read |
A more convincing argument in favor of the analysis in (79a) might be that scrambling of the object across a clausal adverb has a deteriorating effect on extraposition; this may follow from the so-called freezing effect, according to which moved phrases are islands for extraction. It should be noted, however, that Guéron (1980) has argued on the basis of English that extraposition is possible only from noun phrases that are part of the focus (new information) of the clause, while scrambled nominal arguments are typically part of the presupposition.
a. | Hij | heeft | waarschijnlijk | die man | <met het aapje> | gezien <met het aapje>. | |
he | has | probably | that man | with the monkey | seen | ||
'He has probably seen that man with the monkey.' |
b. | Hij | heeft | die man | <met het aapje> | waarschijnlijk | gezien <*met het aapje>. | |
he | has | that man | with the monkey | probably | seen |
Another potential argument against the freezing approach and in favor of Guéron’s proposal is that De Vries (2002:244) claims that split extraposition is possible in the case of topicalized phrases. It is not so clear, however, whether examples such as (83) indeed involve extraposition or whether we are dealing with right dislocation; the percentage signs in these examples indicates that according to some speakers an intonation break is preferred, which would suggest that we are dealing with right dislocation. Unfortunately, the VP-topicalization test from Section 12.1, sub IV, cannot be used to help us out in this case because the clause-initial position is already filled by the topicalized noun phrase itself; we therefore have to leave this issue for future research.
a. | Dat boek | heb | ik | de man | gegeven %(,) | dat | hij | graag | wilde | hebben. | |
that book | have | I | the man | given | which | he | gladly | wanted | have | ||
'I have given that man the book which he liked to have.' |
b. | Twee boeken | heeft | Jan hem gegeven %(,) | met mooie foto’s. | |
two books | has | Jan him given | with beautiful pictures | ||
'Jan has given the man two books with beautiful pictures.' |
Guéron’s claim may also tally with the fact that extraposition from noun phrases with definite articles is difficult and perhaps even impossible in English; cf. Baltin (2006). It should be noted, however, that replacing the demonstrative die'that' by the definite article de'the' in Dutch examples such as (82a) does not have the same far-reaching effect on acceptability judgments as in English, as is clear from the full acceptability of the examples in (76); see also Koster (2000). Whatever accounts for this conspicuous difference between English and Dutch, the main conclusion for the moment is that it is not a priori clear that an appeal to the syntactic notion of freezing is needed to account for the acceptability contrast indicated in the two examples in (82). This conclusion seems supported by the acceptability judgments on the examples in (84), which show that split extraposition becomes more difficult in general if more material intervenes between the extraposed phrase and its intended associate, which is given in italics; cf. Corver (1991:134).
a. | Els zei | dat | het zoontje | had opgebeld | van de buren. | |
Els said | that | the sondim. | had prt.-called | of the neighbors | ||
'Els said that the son of the neighbors had called.' |
b. | ?? | Els zei | dat | het zoontje | haar | had opgebeld | van de buren. |
Els said | that | the sondim. | her | had prt.-called | of the neighbors | ||
Intended reading: 'Els said that the son of the neighbors had called her.' |
c. | * | Els zei | dat | het zoontje | haar vriendin | had opgebeld | van de buren. |
Els said | that | the sondim. | her friend | had prt.-called | of the neighbors | ||
Intended reading: 'Els said that the son of the neighbors had called her friend.' |
Let us now turn to the raising analysis in (79b). A potential problem for this analysis is related to the fact that extraposition is not only possible from direct objects but also from indirect objects and subjects. In (85), we provide examples with extraposed relative clauses: the relative clauses and their antecedents are again in italics.
a. | Jan heeft | iemand | ontmoet | die | hem | wil | helpen. |
direct object
|
|
Jan has | someone | met | who | him | wants | help | |||
'Jan has met someone who wants to help him.' |
b. | Jan heeft | iemand | 10 euro | gegeven | die | hem wil | helpen. |
indirect object
|
|
Jan has | someone | 10 euro | given | who | him wants | help | |||
'Jan has given 10 euros to someone who wants to help him.' |
c. | Er | heeft | iemand | opgebeld | die | hem | wil | helpen. |
subject
|
|
there | has | someone | prt.-called | who | him | wants | help | |||
'Someone who wants to help him has telephoned.' |
The examples in (85) involve indefinite nominal arguments but the examples in (86) show that split extraposition is also possible with definite nominal arguments (although the result seems slightly marked in case of an indirect object), provided that the nominal arguments are part of the focus (new information) of the clause and thus follow clausal adverbs such as waarschijnlijk'probably' (if present); placement of de man further to the left gives rise to a degraded result. Note in passing that the examples in (86) refute De Haan’s (1974:176-7) claim that split extraposition is excluded in the case of (definite) indirect objects and subjects.
a. | Jan heeft | waarschijnlijk | de man | ontmoet | die | hem wil | helpen. | |
Jan has | probably | the man | met | who | him wants | help |
b. | (?) | Jan heeft | waarschijnlijk | de man | 10 euro | gegeven | die | hem wil | helpen. |
Jan has | probably | the man | 10 euro | given | who | him wants | help |
c. | Gisteren | heeft | waarschijnlijk | de man | opgebeld | die | hem wil | helpen. | |
yesterday | has | probably | the man | prt.-called | who | him wants | help |
Split extraposition with PPs is illustrated in (87). The case with an indirect object in (87b) is again somewhat marked but the case with a subject in (87c) is impeccable. Note that the acceptability of the (b)- and (c)-examples in (86) and (87) refutes De Haan’s (1974:176-7) claim that split extraposition is excluded in the case of (definite) indirect objects and subjects; the marked status of split extraposition with the indirect object in the (b)-examples should probably be attributed to the intervention effect noted in (84).
a. | Jan heeft | hier veel mensen | ontmoet | met financiële problemen | |
Jan has | here many people | met | with financial problems | ||
'Jan has met a lot of people with financial problems here.' |
b. | ? | Marie heeft | veel mensen | raad | gegeven | met financiële problemen. |
Marie has | many people | advice | given | with financial problems | ||
'Marie has given advice to many people with financial problems.' |
c. | Hier hebben | altijd | veel mensen | gewoond | met financiële problemen. | |
here have | always | many people | lived | with financial problems | ||
'Many people with financial problems have lived here over time.' |
The problem that the acceptability of the examples in (85) to (87) poses for the raising analysis is that this analysis presupposes that relative clauses
can appear postverbally only if the noun phrases they modify are base-generated in
a position following the surface position of the clause-final verbs. While this is
plausible for objects, this is quite unlikely for subjects: assuming that the subject
in (85c) is base-generated to the right of the surface position of the main verb is incompatible
with the standard assumption presented in Section 9.2 that the clause-final verb is located within VP and thus follows the base position
of the external argument (subject) of the main verb. The raising analysis therefore
makes it necessary to revise the standard analysis of Dutch clauses, which should
not be done light-heartedly; see also Koster (2000:8). Note in passing that the so-called scattered deletion approach proposed in Wilder
(1995) and Sheehan (2010), which we did not discuss here, has the same flaw (which is in fact presented as
a virtue by Sheehan on the basis of English data); we refer the reader to De Vries
(2002:ch.7) for a more extensive review of this approach.
A problem for either proposal in (79) is that extraposition is also possible from a noun phrase that does not function
as a clausal constituent itself but is embedded in a clausal constituent. This is illustrated in (88) for cases in which the noun phrases function as the complement of a prepositional
object.
a. | Jan heeft | [op | [die man | [die | hem | wil | helpen]]] | gewacht. | |
Jan has | for | that man | who | him | wants | help | waited | ||
'Jan has waited for that man who wants to help him.' |
a'. | Jan heeft [op die man] gewacht die hem wil helpen. |
b. | Jan moet | [op | [de bevestiging | [dat | hij | mag | komen]]] | wachten. | |
Jan must | for | the confirmation | that | he | may | come | wait | ||
'Jan has to wait for the confirmation that he is allowed to come.' |
b'. | Jan moet [op de bevestiging] wachten dat hij mag komen. |
c. | Jan heeft | [op | [die man | <met het aapje>]] | gewacht. | |
Jan has | for | that man | with the monkey | waited | ||
'Jan has waited for that man with the monkey.' |
c'. | Jan heeft [op die man] gewacht met het aapje. |
The problem for the extraposition analysis in (79a) is that we must assume that the extraposed phrase is extracted, not just from a
noun phrase but also from the containing PP: cf. ... [PP P [NP ... N ti ]] ... V [rel-clause/clause/PP]i. The fact that examples such as *Wiei wacht je [PP op ti]?'Who are you waiting for?' are unacceptable shows that Dutch PPs normally behave as islands for movement, and
this makes the extraposition analysis quite implausible because the extraposed phrase
is not only extracted from a noun phrase but also from a PP. The problem with the
raising approach is of a different nature: the presumed leftward movement involves
the non-constituent
op die man (cf. [PPop [NPdie man [rel-clausedie ...]]]). Under normal circumstances we would expect that movement of this PP cannot
strand the postnominal phrase. It should be noted, however, that this argument only
applies to theories that assume that the PP is base-generated as a unit; if we assume
that complement-PPs are created in the course of the derivation, as suggested by Kayne
(2004), this problem need not arise.
It is also generally assumed that extraposition is possible from noun phrases that
are embedded in a postnominal PP, although there seem to be several restrictions on
this option that are not yet well understood. Example (89a) has two alternating versions with extraposition. The first version is given in
(89b) and simply involves extraposition of a postnominal PP from a direct object. The
second alternant, which is given in (89c), is the one that is relevant here: it involves extraposition of a relative clause
from a noun phrase that is embedded in a postnominal modifier (as is clear from the
fact that the relative pronoun
die cannot take the noun
boek as antecedent because it does not agree with it in gender (cf. Het boek dat ik gelezen heb'the book I have read'), and thus must be construed with the noun
plaatjes).
a. | dat | Jan | [een boek | [met plaatjes | [die ingekleurd zijn]]] | heeft | gekocht. | |
that | Jan | a book | with pictures | which colored are | has | bought | ||
'that Jan has bought a book with colored pictures.' |
b. | dat | Jan een boek | heeft | gekocht | met plaatjes | die ingekleurd zijn. | |
that | Jan a book | has | bought | with pictures | which colored are |
c. | (?) | dat | Jan een boekmet plaatjes | heeft | gekocht | die ingekleurd zijn. |
that | Jan a book with pictures | has | bought | which colored are |
Example (89c) is perhaps slightly marked compared to (89b), but seems fully acceptable; the contrast may be computational in nature in the sense that speakers simply tend to connect extraposed relative clauses to the (structurally) closest antecedent. In (89c), this is, of course, the nominal projection een boek met plaatjes, and not the more deeply embedded phrase plaatjes. For one reason or another, this effect seems stronger if the extraposed phrase is of the same category as the postnominal modifier. This is illustrated in (90) for PPs.
a. | dat | Jan | [een boek | [met plaatjes | [in kleur]]]] | heeft | gekocht. | |
that | Jan | a book | with pictures | in color | has | bought | ||
'that Jan has bought a book with colored pictures.' |
b. | dat | Jan een boek | heeft | gekocht | met plaatjes | in kleur. | |
that | Jan a book | has | bought | with pictures | in color |
c. | ? | dat | Jan een boekmet plaatjes | heeft | gekocht | in kleur. |
that | Jan a book with pictures | has | bought | in color |
Example (90c) is reasonably acceptable but there are cases with a similar structure that are judged infelicitous by at least some speakers: see Haeseryn et al. (1997:1381ff.) for a range of cases which they claim resist split extraposition of the kind under discussion; see Johnson (1991: section 3.3.4 for similar data from English. Examples such as (91c), for instance, are given as unacceptable, although some of our informants consider them fairly acceptable, which we have indicated by a percentage sign.
a. | dat | Jan | [een boek | [met foto’s | [van zijn hond]]] | heeft. | |
that | Jan | a book | with pictures | of his dog | has | ||
'that Jan has a book with pictures of his dog.' |
b. | dat | Jan een boek | heeft | met foto’s van zijn hond. | |
that | Jan a book | has | with pictures of his dog |
c. | % | dat | Jan een boekmet foto’s | heeft | van zijn hond. |
that | Jan a book with pictures | has | of his dog |
Although it is unclear to us
what determines whether extraposition of a more deeply embedded PP leads to
a generally accepted result or not, we conjecture that the restrictions are
not of a syntactic nature, but that considerations of processing, semantic
coherence, prosody, etc. are involved; because we are not aware of any
in-depth investigations of this, we have to leave this to future research.
If our provisional conclusion that all the (c)-examples in (89) to (91) are
syntactically well-formed turns out to be well-founded, it would lead to
problems of the kind that were already pointed out for the examples in
(88). This time we are not aware of any existing proposal that
can be utilized to solve the problem for the raising analysis. For
completeness’ sake, note that the scattered deletion approach, which we
dismissed earlier, would be able
to handle this problem; see De Vries (2002:ch.7) for this.
Finally, we
want to point out that the split extraposition pattern is also possible if
the noun phrase is the complement of a locational/temporal adverbial PP;
this is illustrated in (92) by means of a
relative clause. The acceptability of the primed examples is again a severe
problem for the movement analyses in (79), as such
adverbial phrases are often considered to be absolute islands for movement.
In addition, the raising approach is problematic because it requires the
adjunct PPs to be base-generated postverbally and to be moved into their
preverbal surface position, while there are good reasons for assuming the
opposite: that the adverbial phrase is base-generated in preverbal position
can be supported by the fact that this is the unmarked position for
non-prepositional adverbial phrases like
morgen'tomorrow' and
gisteren'yesterday'; see Section 12.3, sub IV. Note in passing that this problem also
holds for the scattered deletion approach mentioned earlier.
a. | Ik | heb | Els | [tijdens | [een workshop | [waar | zij | een lezing | gaf]]] | gezien. | |
I | have | Els | during | a workshop | where | she | a talk | gave | seen | ||
'I saw Els during a workshop where she gave a talk.' |
a'. | Ik | heb | Els tijdens een workshop | gezien | waar | zij | een lezing | gaf. | |
I | have | Els during a workshop | seen | where | she | a talk | gave |
b. | Ik heb Els voor het laatst | [in | [een park | [waar | ik | vaak | kom]]] | gezien. | |
I have Els for the last.time | in | a park | where | I | often | come | seen | ||
'The last time I saw Els was in a park I like to frequent.' |
b'. | Ik | heb | Els voor het laatst | in een park | gezien | waar | ik | vaak | kom. | |
I | have | Els for the last.time | in a park | seen | where | I | often | come |
All things considered, we may conclude from the data in this subsection that the split extraposition pattern cannot be accounted for by the two movement analyses in (79); these proposals can only be maintained if we allow the proposed movements to violate otherwise well-motivated island constraints on movement. The raising (as well as the scattered deletion) approach furthermore requires that we adopt the quite unorthodox claim that the external argument (≈ subject) of the verb has a base-position that is structurally lower than (or, in linear terms, to the right of) the surface position of the clause-final verb.
Subsection I has illustrated the split extraposition pattern for nominal phrases. Although this is the prototypical case, it has been known for a long time that the split also occurs with other categories; cf. Koster (1974). We illustrate this in (93a) for complementive adjectival phrases with a PP-complement. It should be noted that such cases cannot easily be used to argue against a movement analysis of extraposition because the PP-complements can also be moved leftwards, as is illustrated in the primed examples by means of topicalization.
a. | dat | Marie [AP | erg boos | <op Peter>] | is <op Peter>. | |
that | Marie | very angry | at Peter | is | ||
'that Marie is very angry with Peter.' |
a'. | [Op Peter]i | is Marie [AP | erg boos ti]. | |
at Peter | is Marie | very angry |
b. | dat | Jan [AP | erg dol | <op chocola>] | is <op chocola>. | |
that | Jan | very fond | of chocolate | is | ||
'that Jan is very fond of chocolate.' |
b'. | [Op chocola]i | is Jan [AP | erg dol ti]. | |
of chocolate | is Jan | very fond |
Things are different if the extraposed phrase is part of a modifier of the adjective. This is illustrated in (94) by means of the discontinuous degree phrase zo ... dat hij overal past'so .. that it fits everywhere'. Despite the fact that A3.1.3, sub IB, has shown that the finite degree phrase is part of the AP (they can be extraposed together), it is preferably in extraposed position; placing the clause in the position preceding the copular verb zijn gives rise to a quite marked result. Nevertheless, the fact illustrated by (94b) that the degree clause cannot be topicalized in isolation strongly suggests that it cannot be extracted from the AP; cf. Rijkhoek (1998).
a. | dat | de computer | zo klein | is | dat | hij | overal | past. | |
that | the computer | so small | is | that | he | everywhere | fits | ||
'that the computer is so small that it fits everywhere.' |
b. | * | Dat hij overal past is de computer zo klein. |
The unacceptability of (94b) thus suggests again that the split extraposition pattern in (94a) is not island-sensitive. This is further supported by the examples in (95), which show that the AP can easily be more deeply embedded: in (94b) the split AP is part of a direct object and in (94c) it is part of a PP-object.
a. | dat | Jan | [een | zo kleine | computer] | wil | hebben | dat hij overal past. | |
that | Jan | a | so small | computer | want | have | that he fits everywhere | ||
'that Jan wants to have such a small computer that it fits everywhere.' |
b. | dat | Jan | [naar | [een | zo kleine | computer]] | zoekt | dat hij overal past. | |
that | Jan | for | a | so small | computer | looks | that he fits everywhere | ||
'that Jan is looking for such a small computer that it fits everywhere.' |
That extraposition of degree clauses is not island-sensitive is also clear from the fact that they can be associated with modified manner adverbs such as hard'loud' in (96), despite the fact that such adverbial phrases are often considered to be absolute islands for movement.
dat | de band | zo hard | speelt | dat | je | elkaar | niet | kan | verstaan. | ||
that | the band | so loudly | plays | that | one | each.other | not | can | hear | ||
'that the band plays so loudly that you canʼt hear each other.' |
We find essentially the same with dan/als-phrases accompanying comparatives; see Section A4. The examples in (97) first show that despite the fact that the dan/als-phrases cannot be topicalized, the split extraposition pattern is possible (and perhaps even preferred). This again suggests that split extraposition is not island-sensitive.
a. | dat | zijn computer | minder snel | <dan de mijne> | is <dan de mijne>. | |
that | his computer | less fast | than the mine | is | ||
'that his computer is less fast than mine.' |
b. | * | Dande mijne is zijn computer minder snel. |
More support comes from the fact that the comparative can easily be more deeply embedded: in (98a) the split AP is part of a direct object and in (98b) it is part of a PP-object.
a. | dat | Jan | [een | snellere | computer] | wil | hebben | dande mijne. | |
that | Jan | a | faster | computer | wants | have | than the mine | ||
'that Jan wants to have a faster computer than mine.' |
b. | dat | Jan | [naar | [een | snellere computer]] | zoekt | dande mijne. | |
that | Jan | for | a | faster computer | looks | than the mine | ||
'that Jan is looking for a faster computer than mine.' |
That extraposition of dan/als-phrases is not sensitive to islands is also clear from the fact that they can be associated with modified manner adverbs such as sneller'faster' in (99), despite the fact that such adverbial phrases are often considered to be absolute islands for movement.
dat | Jans computer | sneller | werkt | dan de mijne. | ||
that | Janʼs computer | faster | works | than the mine | ||
'that Janʼs computer works more quickly than mine.' |
For completeness’ sake, observe that split extraposition is not possible in the case of attributively used adjectives. This is illustrated by means of the examples in (100); while the PP-complement of the adjective verliefd can be extraposed if the AP is used as a complementive, it cannot if it is used as an attributive modifier.
a. | dat | Jan verliefd | <op Marie> | is <op Marie>. | |
that | Jan in-love | with Marie | is | ||
'that Jan is in love with Peter.' |
b. | dat | ik | een | <op Peter> | verliefde | jongen | ontmoette <*op Peter>. | |
that | I | a | with Marie | in.love | boy | met | ||
'that I met a boy who is in love with Peter.' |
Subsections I and II have shown that split extraposition is not sensitive to islands for extraction, which suggests that we are not dealing with movement, which subsequently raises the question as to what extraposition is. One possibility is that we are dealing with right dislocation. This does not seem the correct solution, however, given that Section 12.1, sub IV, has shown that right-dislocated phrases have a tendency of stranding under VP-topicalization, while postverbal phrases in split extraposition constructions tend to be pied piped, as illustrated in (101) for extraposed postnominal phrases. Observe that the primed examples are acceptable with the typical intonation contour of an afterthought, that is, with an intonation break and an additional accent in the phrase following this break. This would suggest that while the dislocated phrases are external to the preposed verbal projection, the extraposed phrases in (101) are internal to it. Recall from the introduction to this section that the nominal phrase in preverbal position must also be pied piped in order to arrive at an acceptable result (Kaan’s generalization); this is, of course, expected given that Subsection I has shown that scrambling blocks the split extraposition pattern.
a. | [De man | kennen | die | dit boek | geschreven | heeft] | doet | hij | niet. | |
the man | know | who | this book | written | has | does | he | not | ||
'He doesnʼt know the man who has written this book.' |
a'. | [De man kennen] doet hij niet *(,) die dit boek geschreven heeft. |
b. | [De bewering | weerleggen | dat | Marie gelogen | had] | kon | hij | niet. | |
the contention | rebut | that | Marie lied | had | could | he | not | ||
'He couldnʼt rebut the claim that Marie had lied.' |
b'. | [De bewering weerleggen] kon hij niet *(,)dat Marie gelogen had. |
c. | [De man | gezien | met het aapje] | heeft | hij | niet. | |
the man | seen | with the monkey | has | he |