- Dutch1
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- 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
-
- 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
- Compositions
- 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
-
- General
- Morphology
- Morphology
- 1 Word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 1.1.1 Compounds and their heads
- 1.1.2 Special types of compounds
- 1.1.2.1 Affixoids
- 1.1.2.2 Coordinative compounds
- 1.1.2.3 Synthetic compounds and complex pseudo-participles
- 1.1.2.4 Reduplicative compounds
- 1.1.2.5 Phrase-based compounds
- 1.1.2.6 Elative compounds
- 1.1.2.7 Exocentric compounds
- 1.1.2.8 Linking elements
- 1.1.2.9 Separable Complex Verbs and Particle Verbs
- 1.1.2.10 Noun Incorporation Verbs
- 1.1.2.11 Gapping
- 1.2 Derivation
- 1.3 Minor patterns of word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 2 Inflection
- 1 Word formation
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
- 0 Introduction to the AP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of APs
- 2 Complementation of APs
- 3 Modification and degree quantification of APs
- 4 Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative
- 5 Attribution of APs
- 6 Predication of APs
- 7 The partitive adjective construction
- 8 Adverbial use of APs
- 9 Participles and infinitives as APs
- Nouns and Noun Phrases (NPs)
- 0 Introduction to the NP
- 1 Characteristics and Classification of NPs
- 2 Complementation of NPs
- 3 Modification of NPs
- 3.1 Modification of NP by Determiners and APs
- 3.2 Modification of NP by PP
- 3.3 Modification of NP by adverbial clauses
- 3.4 Modification of NP by possessors
- 3.5 Modification of NP by relative clauses
- 3.6 Modification of NP in a cleft construction
- 3.7 Free relative clauses and selected interrogative clauses
- 4 Partitive noun constructions and constructions related to them
- 4.1 The referential partitive construction
- 4.2 The partitive construction of abstract quantity
- 4.3 The numerical partitive construction
- 4.4 The partitive interrogative construction
- 4.5 Adjectival, nominal and nominalised partitive quantifiers
- 4.6 Kind partitives
- 4.7 Partitive predication with a preposition
- 4.8 Bare nominal attribution
- 5 Articles and names
- 6 Pronouns
- 7 Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- 8 Interrogative pronouns
- 9 R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive
- 10 Syntactic functions of Noun Phrases
- Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases (PPs)
- 0 Introduction to the PP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of PPs
- 2 Complementation of PPs
- 3 Modification of PPs
- 4 Bare (intransitive) adpositions
- 5 Predication of PPs
- 6 Form and distribution of adpositions with respect to staticity and construction type
- 7 Adpositional complements and adverbials
- Verbs and Verb Phrases (VPs)
- 0 Introduction to the VP in Saterland Frisian
- 1 Characteristics and classification of verbs
- 2 Unergative and unaccusative subjects and the auxiliary of the perfect
- 3 Evidentiality in relation to perception and epistemicity
- 4 Types of to-infinitival constituents
- 5 Predication
- 5.1 The auxiliary of being and its selection restrictions
- 5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
- 5.3 The auxiliary of continuation and its selection restrictions
- 5.4 The auxiliary of coming and its selection restrictions
- 5.5 Modal auxiliaries and their selection restrictions
- 5.6 Auxiliaries of body posture and aspect and their selection restrictions
- 5.7 Transitive verbs of predication
- 5.8 The auxiliary of doing used as a semantically empty finite auxiliary
- 5.9 Supplementive predication
- 6 The verbal paradigm, irregularity and suppletion
- 7 Verb Second and the word order in main and embedded clauses
- 8 Various aspects of clause structure
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
-
- 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
Verbs can often be recognized by their inflection. This certainly holds for the finite forms and to a certain extent also for the non-finite forms. In the latter case, however, various complications may arise: infinitives, for example, can also be used as nouns, and participles can also be used as adjectives. This section provides an overview of the various forms of inflection and will briefly discuss the syntactic uses of these forms. The discussion in Subsections II and III will mainly focus on the regular paradigms of inflection; the irregular paradigms will be discussed separately in Subsection IV. However, before we can start discussing inflection, we first have to introduce the more abstract notion of verbal stem.
The term verbal stem is a theoretical construct that refers to the underlying phonological form of the verb, as listed in the mental lexicon. For example, the stems of the verbs schoppen'to kick' and schrobben'to scrub' have the phonemic representations /sxɔp/ and /sxrɔb/, with respectively a voiceless and a voiced final plosive, despite the fact that, when no morphological material is attached to the stem, these strings would both be phonetically realized with a voiceless plosive as result of the Dutch rule that word-final consonants be devoiced; see Booij (1995) for details. Table (111) shows this for all Dutch obstruents, which, with the exception of the velar plosive /k/, all form systematic phonemic oppositions with respect to voice. The table also provides the orthographic representations that can be found; we will return to these in what follows.
verbal stem | phonemic representation | phonetic realization | orthographic representation |
schop-'kick' | /sxɔp/ | [sxɔp] | schop- |
schrob-'scrub' | /sxrɔb/ | [sxrɔp] | schrob- |
groet-'greet' | /ɣrut/ | [ɣrut] | groet- |
baad-'bathe' | /bad/ | [bat] | baad- |
lok-'entice' | /lɔk/ | [lɔk] | lok- |
no stem ending in /ɡ/ | — | — | — |
straf-'to punish' | /strɑf/ | [strɑf] | straf- |
kliev-'cleave' | /kliv/ | [klif] | klief- or kliev- |
kus-'kiss' | /kœs/ | [kœs] | kus |
looz-'drain away' | /loz/ | [los] | loos- or looz- |
juich-'cheer' | /jœyx/ | [jœyx] | juich- |
zaag-'saw' | /zaɣ/ | [zax] | zaag- |
The postulation of the phonemic representations in the second column of Table (111) is motivated by the fact that these play an important role in the pronunciation (as well as the spelling) of plural present-tense forms, regular past-tense forms, infinitives and participles. Table (112) illustrates this for infinitives, which are homonymous to plural present-tense forms, but we will postpone discussion of the other cases to the relevant sections below.
infinitive | phonetic representation | infinitive | phonetic representation |
schoppen'to kick' | [sxɔpə] | straffen'to punish' | [strɑfə] |
schrobben'to scrub' | [sxrɔbə] | klieven'to cleave' | [klivə] |
groeten 'to greet' | [ɣrutə] | kussen'to kiss' | [kœsə] |
baden'to bathe' | [badə] | lozen'to drain away' | [lozə] |
lokken'attract' | [lɔkə] | juichen'to cheer' | [jœyxə] |
no stem ending in /ɡ/ | — | zagen'to saw' | [zaɣə] |
The final column in Table (111) shows that in the case of plosives, the spelling is fully determined by the postulated phonemic representations; the underlying voiced /b/ and /d/ are represented by the letters "b" and "d", even if they are devoiced in speech, as in the (a)-, (b)- and (e)-examples in (113).
a. | schrob [sxrɔp] |
a'. | baad [bat] | 1sg |
b. | schrobt [sxrɔpt] |
b'. | baadt [bat] | 2/3sg |
c. | schrobde(n) [sxrɔbdə] |
c'. | baadde(n) [bade] | past |
d. | schrobben [sxrɔbə] |
d'. | baden [badə] | infinitive |
e. | geschrobd [ɣəsxrɔpt] |
e'. | gebaad [ɣəbat] | past participle |
f. | schrobbend [sxrɔbənt] |
f'. | badend [badənt] | present participle |
This does not hold for the fricatives /v/ and /z/, which are only represented by the letters "v" and "z" if they are in intervocalic position, that is, followed by the suffix -en (in infinitives and present plural forms) or -end (in present participles), as in the (d)- and (f)-examples in (114). In all other cases they are represented by the letters "f" and "s"; this includes cases in which they are voiced in speech, such as the past tenses kliefde'cleaved' and loosde'drained away' in the (c)-examples, which are pronounced as, respectively, [klivdə] and [lozdə].
a. | klief [klif] |
a'. | loos [los] | 1sg |
b. | klieft [klift] |
b'. | loost [lost] | 2/3sg |
c. | kliefde(n)[klivdə] |
c'. | loosde(n)[lozdə] | past |
d. | klieven [klivə] |
d'. | lozen [lozə] | infinitive |
e. | heb gekliefd [ɣəklift] |
e'. | geloosd [ɣəlost] | past participle |
f. | klievend [klivənt] |
f'. | lozend [lozənt] | present participle |
Verbal stems, of course, need not end in an obstruent but can also end in a nasal (/n/, /m/ and /ŋ/), a liquid (/l/ and /r/) or a glide (/ʋ/ and /j/).
a. | Nasals: ren-'run' (/rεn/), neem-'take' (/nem/), breng-'bring' (/brεŋ/) |
b. | Liquids: til-'lift' (/tIl/), hoor-'hear' (/hor/) |
c. | Glides: geeuw-'yawn' (/ɣeʋ/), aai-'stroke' (/aj/) |
Verbs that end in a short vowel do not occur, which need not surprise us because Dutch has a general ban on short vowels in open syllables. Stems that end in a long vowel do occur but are relatively rare; there is a small number of commonly used verbs like gaan'to go', staan'to stand', slaan'to hit', zien'to see', and doen'to do' (and other formations like verslaan'to beat' that seem to be morphologically derived from these simple verbs). In addition to these simple verbs, the Van Dale dictionary gives an extremely small number of other cases like sleeën'to sledge', spieën'to fix with a pin', shampooën'to clean with shampoo', fonduen'to eat fondue', boeën'to yell boo', heuen'to rush', and keuen'to play billiards', which all seem to be denominal. The first set of verbs we will call contraction verbs, given that they form their infinitive/plural present-tense form by means of a reduced version of the suffix -en: -n. The denominal verbs differ from the simple verbs that end in a vowel in that they take the full form -en.
end vowel | contraction verb | denominal verb | ||
stem | phonetic realization | stem | phonetic realization | |
/a/ | ga-'go' sta-'stand' sla-'hit' | [ɣa] [sta] [sla] | — | |
/e/ | — | slee-'sledge' | [sle] | |
/i/ | zie-'see' | [zi] | spie-'fix with a pin' | [spi] |
/o/ | — | shampoo-'shampoo' | [sjɑmpo] | |
/y/ | — | fondu-'eat fondue' | [fɔndy] | |
/u/ | doe-'do' | [du] | boe-'boo' | [bu] |
/ø/ | — | heu-'rush' keu-'play billiards' | [hø] [kø] |
The discussion above has shown that, apart from the small set of contraction verbs, simple verbs never end in a short or long vowel. There are however, many cases in which the stem ends in a diphthong; some examples are given in (117). That diphthongs are easily possible need not surprise us because (115c) has shown that stems may also end in a glide.
a. | /εi/: vlei-'flatter' (/vlεi/); vrij-'snog' (/vrεi/) |
b. | /œy/: krui-'push' (/krœy/); spui-'spout' (/spœy/) |
c. | /ɔʋ/: rouw-'mourn' (/rɔʋ/), kauw-'chew' (/kɔʋ/) |
Finite verbs are characterized by the fact that they agree in person and number with the subject of their clause and can be marked for past tense. Table 7 provides the finite inflection of the so-called regular (or weak) verbs. The final column shows that the past tense morpheme precedes the plural marker.
present | past | |||
singular | plural | singular | plural | |
1st person | Ik huil-Ø 'I am crying' | Wij huil-en 'We are crying' | Ik huil-de 'I was crying' | Wij huil-de-n 'We were crying' |
2nd person | Jij huil-t 'You are crying' | Jullie huil-en 'You are crying' | Jij huil-de 'You were crying' | Jullie huil-de-n 'You were crying' |
3rd person | Hij huil-t 'He is crying' | Zij huil-en 'They are crying' | Hij huil-de 'He was crying' | Zij huil-de-n 'They were crying' |
The second person honorific pronoun u is special in that it has the -t ending both in the singular and the plural: U huiltsg/pl'you are crying'. Note that non-pronominal noun phrases are always third person, even if they refer to the speaker or the addressee; Haeseryn et al. (1997:62).
a. | Ondergetekende | verklaart | dat ... | formulaic language | |
undersigned | declares | that | |||
'The undersigned declares that ...' |
b. | Mijnheer | heeft | zich | zeker | weer | verslapen? | ironic address | |
mister | has | refl. | there | again | overslept | |||
'Did you oversleep again, mister?' |
The subsections below will discuss the present and past-tense forms in more detail while focusing on the regular paradigm; the irregular paradigms will be discussed separately in Subsection IV. Although the imperative and subjunctive forms of the verbs can also be considered finite forms, we will postpone discussion of these forms to Section 1.4.
The paradigm for the present tense involves two morphologically realized affixes: the invariant plural affix -en(which is pronounced as schwa), and the affix -t, which is used to mark the second and third person singular; the first person singular is not morphologically marked, which is indicated in Table 7 by means of the zero marking -Ø. Dutch does not exhibit gender agreement. The relevant examples are repeated here in a slightly different form as (119).
a. | Ik | huil-Ø | |
I | cry-1sg |
a'. | Wij huil-en | |
we cry-pl |
b. | Jij | huil-t | |
you | cry-2sg |
b'. | Jullie huil-en | |
you cry-pl |
c. | Hij | huil-t | |
he | cry-3sg |
c'. | Zij huil-en | |
they cry-pl |
Compared to languages like Italian, the present tense inflection in (119) is relatively poor. This fact is often taken to be related to the fact that, whereas in Italian the subject can be dropped if it refers to shared information of the speaker and the addressee, this is normally not possible in Dutch; argument drop only arises with first person subject pronouns in so-called diary contexts such as (120a), and with third person pronouns if they refer to the discourse topic in contexts such as (120b).
a. | Lief dagboek, | (ik) | ben | weer | erg dom | geweest. | |
dear diary | I | am | again | very stupid | been | ||
'Dear diary, Iʼve been very stupid again.' |
b. | Q: | Is Peter hier? A: | Nee, | (hem) | heb | ik | nog | niet | gezien. | |
Q: | Is Peter here | no | him | have | I | yet | not | seen | ||
'Is Peter around? No, I havenʼt seen him yet.' |
The (a)-examples in (121) show that the agreement marker -t in (119b) can only be used to express second person, singular agreement if the colloquial subject pronoun je/jij precedes the verb; if it follows the verb the agreement marker must be dropped. The (b)-examples show that this does not hold for the politeness (honorific) form u'you'. The difference between the regular and politeness form may be due to the fact that, synchronically, the politeness form behaves as a third person pronoun, given that it can be the antecedent of the reflexive pronoun zich(zelf) which normally takes a third person antecedent; see Section N5.2.1.5 for examples.
a. | Straks | huil/*huilt | je. | |
later | cry | you | ||
'Youʼll cry later.' |
a'. | Huil/*Huilt | je? | |
cry | you | ||
'Are you crying?' |
b. | Straks | huilt/*huil | u. | |
later | cry | you | ||
'Youʼll cry later.' |
b'. | Huilt/*Huil | u? | |
cry | you | ||
'Are you crying?' |
Note in passing that more elaborate double agreement systems comparable to the Standard Dutch one for the pronoun je/jij can be found in various West-Germanic languages including some Dutch dialects; See Zwart (1997:136ff.), Postma (2011) and Barbiers (2013) for relevant discussion and references.
The examples in (122) show the spelling of plosives in the coda of the stem. We see here again that the spelling is fully determined by the underlying form: /p/, /t/, and /k/ are represented by "p", "t", and "k", respectively; similarly, /b/ and /d/ are always represented by "b" and "d", even if they occur word-finally and are thus devoiced.
a. | schop, schopt, schoppen | stem: schop- /sxɔp/ |
b. | schrob, schrobt, schrobben | stem: schrob- /sxrɔb/ |
c. | groet, groet, groeten | stem: groet- /ɣrut/ |
d. | baad, baadt, baden | stem: baad- /bad/ |
e. | lok, lokt, lokken | stem: lok- /lɔk/ |
Observe also that the -t ending is not expressed in the spelling if the stem ends in a -t; this is not due to the fact that the phoneme sequence /tt/ will be reduced to [t] in speech, since the same thing holds for the phoneme sequence /dt/; it is simply that Dutch orthography does not allow two identical letters adjacent at the end of a word. For completeness' sake, note that the use of a single letter "a" in baden is due to the general orthographic rule that long vowels are represented by a single letter in open syllables: pra-ten versus praat; ba-den versus baad.
The examples in (123) show the spelling of fricatives in the coda of the stem. In this case, the spelling is not fully determined by the underlying form. Although voiceless /f/, /s/, and /x/ and voiced /ɣ/ are always represented by, respectively, "f", "s", "ch" and "g", the realization of the phonemes /v/ and /z/ depends on the morphological context; they are represented by "v" and "z" in the plural present-tense form marked by -en, where they are also pronounced with voice, but by "f" and "s" in the singular forms, where they are devoiced. Note that the use of a single "o" and "a" in lozen and zagen is again due to the general orthographic rule that long vowels are represented by a single letter in open syllables.
a. | straf, straft, straffen | stem: straf- /strɑf/ |
b. | klief, klieft, klieven | stem: kliev- /kliv/ |
c. | kus, kust, kussen | stem: kus- /kœs/ |
d. | loos, loost, lozen | stem: looz- /loz/ |
e. | juichen, juicht, juichen | stem: juich- /jœyx/ |
f. | zaag, zaagt, zagen | stem: zaag- /zaɣ/ |
For completeness' sake, it can be noted that the stems of verbs like rijden'to drive' and houden'to keep', in which the diphthongs /εi/ and /ɔʋ/ are followed by an underlying /d/, are often pronounced without the [d] if they surface with the first person singular zero marking -Ø or the plural marker -en. First and second person singular forms without "d" are also frequently found in written language; the spelling with and without "d" in the primeless and singly-primed examples in (124) seem to alternate freely. Spellings of the plural forms without "d", on the other hand, are far less common: the spellings rijen and houen in the doubly-primed examples do occur, but are not accepted in formal writing. If the stem is followed by the person marker -t, the stem is always written with "d": the spellings Hij rijt and Hij hout are normally not accepted.
a. | Ik | rij(d) | straks. | |
I | drive | later | ||
'Iʼll drive later.' |
b. | Ik hou(d) | het boek. | |
I keep | the book | ||
'Iʼll keep the book.' |
a'. | Straks rij(d) jij. | |
later drive you | ||
'Youʼll drive later.' |
b'. | Hou(d) | je | het boek? | |
Keep | you | the book | ||
'Will you keep the book?' |
a''. | Straks | rij(d)en | wij. | |
later | drive | we | ||
'Weʼll drive later.' |
b''. | We | hou(d)en | het boek. | |
we | keep the | book | ||
'We'll keep the book.' |
Past tense is normally expressed by means of the affix -de, which must be directly adjacent to the verbal stem. This marker has the allomorph -te, which appears if the verb stem ends in a voiceless consonant. It is interesting to note that the final consonant of the stems kliev- and looz- are written with, respectively, an "f" and an "s", despite the fact that they are not word-final and thus pronounced as [v] and [z].
stem | past | stem | past | ||
singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
schop- | schopte | schopten | straf- | strafte | straften |
schrob- | schrobde | schrobden | kliev- | kliefde | kliefden |
groet- | groette | groetten | kus- | kuste | kusten |
baad- | baadde | baadden | looz- | loosde | loosden |
lok- | lokte | lokten | juich- | juichte | juichten |
no stem ending in /ɡ/ | zaag- | zaagde | zaagden |
Table (125) shows that subject-verb agreement is even more limited in the past than in the present tense, given that there is no person agreement at all; there is just number agreement marked by the plural marker -en. In fact, this plural marker is observable in the spelling only, since the plural marker -en is pronounced as schwa, and therefore elided under identity with the schwa in the past suffix. Consequently, the forms schopte and schopten, strafte and straften, etc. are phonetically indistinguishable; the first two are both pronounced as [sxɔptə] and the latter as [strɑftə]. That past forms are marked for number can therefore only be established by appealing to irregular verbs like lopen'to walk', which do not express past tense by means of the suffix -te, but by means of vowel change; Ik loop'I walk' versus Ik liep'I walked'. An example such as Wij liepen'We walked', which is pronounced with a schwa ending, thus shows that past-tense forms are indeed marked for plural.
Dutch has three non-finite forms, illustrated in (126): infinitives, past/passive participles and present participles. These will be discussed in the given order in the following subsections. We will focus on the regular paradigms; the irregular paradigms will be discussed separately in Subsection IV.
a. | Peter wil | Jan kussen. | infinitive | |
Peter wants.to | Jan kiss | |||
'Peter wants to kiss Jan.' |
b. | Peter heeft | Jan gekust. | past participle | |
Peter has | Jan kissed | |||
'Peter has kissed Jan.' |
b'. | Jan | werd | door Peter | gekust. | passive participle | |
Jan | was | by Peter | kissed | |||
'Jan was kissed by Peter.' |
c. | Peter en Jan | liepen | kussend | over straat. | present participle | |
Peter and Jan | walked | kissing | in the.streets | |||
'Peter and Jan walked in the streets kissing.' |
Table (127) show that infinitives are derived from the verbal stem by addition of the suffix -en (which is pronounced as schwa). The left-hand side of the table also shows that, as in the case of the plural marker -en, the spelling of obstruents in the coda of the stem is fully determined by the underlying form, and thus corresponds with the actual pronunciation of the infinitive.
stem | infinitive | pronunciation | stem | infinitive | pronunciation |
schop- | schoppen | [sxɔpə] | straf- | straffen | [strɑfə] |
schrob- | schrobben | [sxrɔbə] | kliev- | klieven | [klivə] |
groet- | groeten | [ɣrutə] | kus- | kussen | [kœsə] |
baad- | baden | [badə] | looz- | lozen | [lozə] |