- Dutch
- 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
This section discusses subject clauses. That subject clauses are possible is strongly suggested by the fact that the primeless examples in (215), in which the verbs zeggen'to say' and vragen'to ask' take a direct object clause, can be passivized; the resulting primed examples are likely to have a subject clause.
a. | Jan zei | [dat | de bank | beroofd | was]. | |
Jan said | that | the bank | robbed | was | ||
'Jan said that the bank had been robbed.' |
a'. | Er | werd | gezegd | [dat | de bank | beroofd | was]. | |
there | was | said | that | the bank | robbed | was | ||
'It was said that the bank had been robbed.' |
b. | Marie vroeg | [of | de buit | groot | was]. | |
Marie asked | whether | the catch | big | was | ||
'Marie asked whether the catch was big.' |
b'. | Er | werd | gevraagd | [of | de buit | groot | was]. | |
there | was | asked | whether | the catch | big | was | ||
'It was asked whether the catch was big.' |
The acceptability of the primed examples in (215) raises the question as to whether subject clauses can also be selected by active main verbs, subsection I shows that although subject clauses do not occur with intransitive and transitive verbs, they do occur with unaccusative verbs, that is, verbs with a derived DO-subject; from this we may safely conclude that subject clauses are always internal arguments of the matrix verb, subsection II and III discuss, respectively, the position of subject clauses and the use of the anticipatory subject pronoun het.
Generally speaking, subject clauses do not occur with intransitive and transitive verbs. The reason is that such verbs normally take an external argument with the function of agent. Given that clauses refer to propositions/questions/etc., and not to agentive entities, it is expected on semantic grounds that subject clauses cannot occur with such verbs. The examples in (216) show that using subject clauses with (in)transitive verbs indeed gives rise to complete gibberish.
a. | Jan lacht. | |
Jan laughs |
a'. | $ | Het | lacht | [dat | Peter zingt]. |
it | smiles | that | Peter sings |
b. | Jan eet | spinazie. | |
Jan eats | spinach |
b'. | $ | Het | eet | spinazie | [dat Marie | honger | heeft]. |
it | eats | spinach | that Marie | hungry | is |
There are potential counterexamples to the claim that transitive verbs do not take subject clauses. Example (217a), for instance, shows that the transitive verb bewijzen'to prove' can easily be combined with a clausal subject. Such cases are special, however, in that they involve factive clauses, that is, clauses the truth of which is presupposed by the speaker. Section 5.1.2.3 has shown that normally such clauses can be paraphrased by means of a noun phrase het feit dat ...'the fact that ...', as in (217b), and that they exhibit a number of nominal properties.
a. | Het | bewijst | niets | [dat | Peter geen alibi | heeft]. | |
it | proves | nothing | that | Peter no alibi | has | ||
'It proves nothing that Peter has no alibi.' |
b. | Het feit [dat Peter geen alibi heeft] | bewijst | niets. | |
the fact that Peter no alibi has | proves | nothing | ||
'The fact that Peter has no alibi proves nothing.' |
Subject clauses are possible if they are internal arguments of the verb, as is clear from the fact that a transitive sentence such as (218a) is easy to passivize. The (b)-examples show that the passive counterpart of this sentence may either contain the expletiveer or the anticipatory pronounhet: this is a reflex of the fact that the anticipatory pronoun is optional in (218a).
a. | dat | Jan | (het) | zei | [dat | Peter een nieuwe auto | gekocht | had]. | |
that | Jan | it | said | that | Peter a new car | bought | had | ||
'that Jan said (it) that Peter had bought a new car.' |
b. | Er | werd | (door Jan) | gezegd | [dat | Peter een nieuwe auto | gekocht | had]. | |
there | was | by Jan | said | that | Peter a new car | bought | had | ||
'It was said (by Jan) that Peter had bought a new car.' |
b'. | Het | werd | (door Jan) | gezegd | [dat | Peter een nieuwe auto | gekocht | had]. | |
it | was | by Jan | said | that | Peter a new car | bought | had | ||
'It was said by Jan that Peter had bought a new car.' |
Since the examples in (218) show that DO-subjects may be clausal, it should not come as a surprise that we also find subject clauses with unaccusative verbs. The examples in (219) show that this is quite common with nom-dat verbs; cf. Section 2.1.3. We illustrate this in the (a)-examples by means of a nom-dat verb that takes zijn in the perfect tense, and in the (b)-examples by means of a nom-dat verb that takes hebben.
a. | Het | viel | Marie erg | tegen | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | disappointed | Marie a.lot | prt. | that | Jan about.it | complained | ||
'It disappointed Marie terribly that Jan was complaining about it.' |
a'. | Het | is Marie | erg | tegengevallen | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | is Marie | a.lot | prt.-disappointed | that | Jan about.it | complained |
b. | Het | bevreemde | Marie zeer | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | surprised | Marie much | that | Jan about.it | complained | ||
'It surprised Marie greatly that Jan was complaining about it.' |
b'. | Het | heeft | Marie zeer | bevreemd | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | has | Marie much | surprised | that | Jan about.it | complained |
Subject clauses are also common with psychological predicates that take an object experiencer; cf. Section 2.5.1.3. This holds both for (220a) with the psych-verb ergeren'to annoy' and for (220b) with the periphrastic expression kwaad maken'to make angry'.
a. | Het | ergerde | Peter/hem | [dat | Els er | niet | was]. | |
it | annoyed | Peter/him | that | Els there | not | was | ||
'It annoyed Peter/him that Els wasnʼt present.' |
b. | Het | maakte | Peter/hem | erg kwaad | [dat | Els er | niet | was]. | |
it | made | Peter/him | very angry | that | Els there | not | was | ||
'It made Peter very angry that Els wasnʼt present.' |
Note in passing that psych-verbs such as ergeren'to annoy' and many nom-datverbs are object experiencer verbs; consequently, they can be combined successfully with conditional als-clauses; see the examples in (221). Since Section 5.1.2.1, sub VI, has shown on the basis of similar examples with subject experiencer verbs that such als-clauses are not arguments of the verb, we need not elaborate on this here; as illustrated in the primed examples, the fact that preposed als-phrases can be followed by the resumptive element dan'then' suggests that we are dealing with conditional adverbial clauses.
a. | Het | valt | me op | als | Jan erover | klaagt. | nom-dat verb | |
it | is.conspicuous | me prt. | if | Jan about.it | complains | |||
'I notice it when Jan complains about it.' |
a'. | Als | Jan | erover | klaagt | (dan) | valt | me dat | op. | |
if | Jan | about.it | complains | then | is.conspicuous | me that | prt. |
b. | Het | staat | me erg | tegen | als | Jan erover | klaagt. | nom-dat verb | |
it | palls | me much | on | if | Jan about.it | complains | |||
'It disgusts me if he complains about it.' |
b'. | Als | Jan | erover | klaagt | (dan) | staat | me dat | erg | tegen. | |
if | Jan | about.it | complains | then | palls | me that | much | on |
c. | Het | ergert | me | als | Els er | niet | is. | psych-verb | |
it | annoys | me | if | Els there | not | is | |||
'It annoys me if Els isnʼt present.' |
c'. | Als | Els er | niet | is, | (dan) | ergert | me dat. | |
if | Els there | not | is | then | annoys | me that |
A conclusive argument for assuming that the als-phrases in (221) are not subject clauses is that the subject pronoun dat in the primed examples cannot be dropped when they occupy the sentence-initial position (that is, when dan'then' is not present). The examples in (222) show that this is compulsory when run-of-the-mill subject clauses introduced by the complementizer dat'that' occupy the initial position, for the simple reason that inclusion of the pronoun dat leads to a clause with two subjects.
a. | Dat | Jan | erover | klaagt | valt | me | (*dat) | op. | |
that | Jan | about.it | complains | is.conspicuous | me | that | prt. |
b. | Dat | Jan erover | klaagt | staat | me | (*dat) | erg | tegen. | |
that | Jan about.it | complains | stands | me | that | much | counter |
c. | Dat | Els er | niet | is, | ergert | me | (*dat). | |
that | Els there | not | is | annoys | me | that |
Subject clauses are also very common if they function as the subject of copular constructions, as in (223a). This is expected because such subjects are not the external arguments of the copular, for the same reason that the direct object in the vinden-construction in (223b) is not an internal argument of vinden. In these two cases we are dealing with subjects of the complementive; cf. Section 2.2.2.
a. | Het | is vreemd | [dat | Els er | niet | is]. | |
it | is strange | that | Els there | not | is | ||
'Itʼs odd that Els isnʼt present.' |
b. | Peter vindt | het | vreemd | [dat | Els er | niet | is]. | |
Peter considers | it | strange | that | Els there | not | is |
The copular constructions in (224) show that the adjective bekend may take either a declarative or an interrogative subject clause. The former is always possible, but the latter only occurs if the matrix clause is negative and/or interrogative. The complementizer of is used in the (b)-examples if the relevant decision has not been made public yet, the complementizer dat if the decision has been made public but has (not yet) reached the intended public.
a. | Het | is al | bekend | [dat/*of | Els de nieuwe voorzitter wordt]. | |
it | is already | known | that/whether | Els the new chairman becomes | ||
'It is already known that Els will be the new Chair.' |
b. | Het | is nog niet | bekend | [dat/of | Els de nieuwe voorzitter wordt]. | |
it | is yet not | known | that/whether | Els the new chairman becomes | ||
'It isnʼt known yet that/whether Els will be the new Chair.' |
b'. | Is het | al/nog niet | bekend | [dat/of | Els de nieuwe voorzitter wordt]? | |
is it | already/not yet | known | that/whether | Els the new chairman becomes | ||
'Is it already/not yet known that/whether Els will be the new Chair?' |
Again, it should be noted that we occasionally encounter als-clauses that can easily be misanalyzed as subject clauses. That we are not dealing with subject clauses here is clear from the fact, illustrated in (225), that such als-clauses differ from run-of-the-mill subject clauses introduced by the complementizer dat'that' in that a subject pronoun must be present if the als-clause occupies the sentence-initial position; we must therefore be dealing with conditional clauses.
a. | Dat Els | er | niet | is, | is | (*dat) | vreemd. | |
that Els | there | not | is | is | that | strange | ||
'that Els isnʼt present is strange.' |
b. | Als | Els | er | niet | is, | is | *(dat) | vreemd. | |
if | Els | there | not | is | is | that | strange | ||
'If Els isnʼt present, that is strange.' |
Finally, we want to point out subject clauses are possible with epistemic modal verbs; we will return to this in Section 5.2.2.2 and 5.2.3.2.
a. | Het | kan | [dat | Peter morgen | in Utrecht is]. | |
it | may.be.the.case | that | Peter tomorrow | in Utrecht is | ||
'It may be the case that Peter will be in Utrecht tomorrow.' |
b. | Het | schijnt | [dat | Peter morgen | in Utrecht is]. | |
it | seems | that | Peter tomorrow | in Utrecht is | ||
'It seems to be the case that Peter will be in Utrecht tomorrow.' |
Subject clauses normally follow the verbs in clause-final position, as shown by the primed examples in (219), which are repeated here for convenience as (227).
a. | Het | is Marie | erg | tegengevallen | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | is Marie | a.lot | prt.-disappointed | that | Jan about.it | complained | ||
'It has disappointed Marie terribly that Jan complained about it.' |
b. | Het | heeft | Marie zeer | bevreemd | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | has | Marie much | surprised | that | Jan about.it | complained | ||
'It has surprised Marie greatly that Jan was complaining about it.' |
Subject clauses may also occur in sentence-initial position, in which case they are optionally followed by the resumptive demonstrative pronoun dat'that'.
a. | [Dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | (dat) | is Marie | erg | tegengevallen. | |
that | Jan about.it | complained | that | is Marie | a.lot | prt.-disappointed | ||
'That Jan complained about it has disappointed Marie terribly.' |
b. | [Dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | (dat) | heeft | Marie | zeer | bevreemd. | |
that | Jan about.it | complained | that | has | Marie | much | surprised | ||
'That Jan complained about it has surprised Marie greatly.' |
The examples in (229) show that it is not possible to have the subject clause in the middle field of the clause; see De Haan (1974) and Koster (1978). The main clauses in the primeless examples have a non-subject in sentence-initial position and the subject clauses of (227) and (228) in the middle field; the primed examples provide the corresponding embedded clauses. Such examples are deemed ungrammatical.
a. | * | Waarschijnlijk | is | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | Marie erg | tegengevallen. |
probably | is | that | Jan about.it | complained | Marie a.lot | prt.-disappointed |
a'. | * | dat | [dat | Jan | erover | klaagde] | Marie erg | tegengevallen | is. |
that | that | Jan | about.it | complained | Marie a.lot | prt.-disappointed | is |
b. | * | Waarschijnlijk | heeft | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | Marie | erg | bevreemd. |
probably | has | that | Jan about.it | complained | Marie | a.lot | surprised |
b'. | * | dat | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | Marie | erg | bevreemd | heeft. |
that | that | Jan about.it | complained | Marie | a.lot | surprised | has |
We should note, however, that the examples seem at least marginally acceptable if the clause is interpreted as factive: (het feit) dat Jan erover klaagde. If this is the case, it would not be surprising, considering that Section 5.1.2.3 has shown that factive clauses are more generally used in nominal argument positions. Example (230) provides instances in which the subject clause is more clearly factive, and we believe that these cases are indeed possible (provided that the clause does not become too lengthy).
a. | Natuurlijk | bewijst | [(het feit) [dat Peter geen alibi | heeft]] | absoluut niets. | |
of.course | proves | the fact that Peter no alibi | has | absolutely nothing | ||
'Of course, the fact that Peter has no alibi proves absolutely nothing.' |
b. | dat | [(het feit) [dat Peter geen alibi | heeft]] | absoluut niets | bewijst. | |
that | the fact that Peter no alibi | has | absolutely nothing | proves | ||
'that the fact that Peter has no alibi proves absolutely nothing.' |
Koster (1978) concludes from the fact that subject clauses cannot occur in the regular subject position in the middle field of the clause that subject sentences do not exist. He also proposes that the clauses in (228) are not sentence-internal, but function as sentence-external satellites that bind a (possibly phonetically empty) subject pronoun; actually, according to Koster, we are dealing with a kind of left-dislocation constructions. If we assume that pronouns are moved from the regular subject position into sentence-initial position, examples such as (228a) are analyzed as in (231a) if the demonstrative pronoun is present, and as in (231b) if it is not.
a. | [Dat Jan erover klaagde]i | [sentence dati is ti Marie erg tegengevallen]. |
b. | [Dat Jan erover klaagde]i | [sentence proi is ti Marie erg tegengevallen]. |
Koster's proposal was challenged in Klein (1979). An important reason is that the prosody of the examples with and without the resumptive pronoun dat differ markedly: while in the former case the clause is normally separated from the sentence by an intonation break, the clause can be prosodically integrated in the sentence in the latter case, as indicated in (232), in which the comma indicates the obligatory intonation break.
a. | [Dat Jan erover klaagde], dat is Marie erg tegengevallen. |
b. | [Dat Jan erover klaagde] is Marie erg tegengevallen. |
If Klein's conclusion that the clause in (232b) is sentence-internal is correct, we should account for the fact that the clause cannot occur in the regular subject position in the examples in (229) by claiming that clauses cannot surface in nominal argument positions. This is in fact the same conclusion drawn for object clauses in Section 5.1.2.2, sub III, to which we refer the reader for further discussion. We will investigate the pros and cons of Koster's proposal in our discussion of topicalization in Section 11.3.2.
Like object clauses, subject clauses cannot be preposed in sentences that contain the anticipatory pronounhet, as shown in (233b). This would follow immediately from Koster's left-dislocation analysis as the object pronoun must be replaced by the resumptive pronoun dat or its phonetically empty counterpart pro. The structures in (231) show that the position of het in (233b) is already occupied by a trace.
a. | Het | is Marie | erg | tegengevallen | [dat | Jan erover | klaagde]. | |
it | is Marie | a.lot | prt.-disappointed | that | Jan about.it | complained | ||
'It has greatly disappointed Marie that Jan complained about it.' |
b. | [Dat | Jan erover | klaagde] | is | (*het) | Marie erg | tegengevallen. | |
that | Jan about.it | complained | is | it | Marie a.lot | prt.-disappointed |
The analysis must be slightly different if we accept Klein's conclusion that the subject clause occupies the sentence-initial position if the demonstrative pronoun dat is not present. We then have to assume that the subject clause has not been moved into clause-initial position in one fell swoop but has moved via the regular subject position; the anticipatory pronoun is then blocked given that the subject position is occupied by a trace of the clause. See Section 5.1.2.2, sub III, for a more extensive discussion of this option.
The (b)-examples in (234) show that subject clauses cannot be preposed in clauses that contain expletive er either; er can only be interpreted as an adverbial phrase of place in these examples. The reason for this is different, however, than in the case of het; expletive er can only be used if the subject is part of the focus (new information) of the clause, whereas preposed subject clauses are normally interpreted as being part of the presupposition of the clause.
a. | Er | is gebleken | [dat | de software | goed | werkt]. | |
there | is turned.out | that | the software | well | works | ||
'It has turned out that the software is working well.' |
b. | [dat | de software | goed | werkt] | dat | is (#er) | gebleken. | |
that | the software | well | works | that | is there | turned.out |
b'. | [dat | de software | goed | werkt] | is (#er) | gebleken. | |
that | the software | well | works | is there | turned.out |
The option of having the anticipatory pronoun het or the expletive er is not only affected by the position of the subject clause. In examples with a complementive, the position of the secondary predicate may also be relevant. With a sentence-initial predicate het is preferably dropped and er becomes completely impossible.
a. | Het/Er | is | duidelijk | geworden | [dat | Jan de nieuwe voorzitter | wordt]. | |
it/there | is | clear | become | that | Jan the new chairman | becomes | ||
'It has become clear that Jan will become the new chairman].' |
b. | Duidelijk | is | (?het) | geworden | [dat | Jan de nieuwe voorzitter | wordt]. | |
clear | is | it | become | that | Jan the new chairman | becomes |
b'. | Duidelijk | is | (*er) | geworden | [dat | Jan de nieuwe voorzitter | wordt]. | |
clear | is | there | become | that | Jan the new chairman | becomes |
The examples in (236) show that we may find the same phenomenon in perfect-tense constructions with monadic unaccusative verbs taking subject clauses like blijken'to turn out': with topicalized participles, het and er cannot be properly realized. Examples with het and er do occur on the internet but are very rare.
a. | Het/Er | is gebleken | [dat | vette vis | gezond | is]. | |
it/there | is turned.out | that | oily fish | healthy | is | ||
'It has turned out that oily fish is healthy.' |
b. | Gebleken | is | (?het) | [dat | vette vis | gezond | is]. | |
turned.out | is | it | that | oily fish | healthy | is |
b'. | Gebleken | is | (?er) | [dat | vette vis | gezond | is]. | |
turned.out | is | there | that | oily fish | healthy | is |
Although we are not aware of any theoretical account for the markedness of the primeless (b)-examples in (235) and (236), we hypothesize that examples of this type involve some kind of locative inversion of the type we find in English. Den Dikken and Næss (1993) have argued that in examples like Down the hill rolled a baby carriage the predicative PP down the hill has been topicalized via the regular subject position, and that the subject occupies its base position in the small clause headed by the moved predicate; [CP Down the hilli [TPti rolled [SC the baby carriage ti]]]. If we assume something similar for examples such as (235b), insertion of the pronoun het may be blocked given that the regular subject position is occupied by a trace of the moved predicate. A potential problem for this analysis is that this leaves unexplained why insertion of het seems to be marginally possible. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether an analysis of this sort can be extended to examples such as (236b). The degraded status of the primed (b)-examples can again be related to the information structure of the clause if left dislocation/topicalization of the predicate is only possible if it is part of the presupposition of the clause. We leave it to future research to investigate whether proposals along these lines are viable.
Example (218) in Subsection I has shown that in passive constructions the choice between het and er is related to the question as to whether the object clause in the corresponding passive construction can be combined with the anticipatory pronoun het. It seems that, as in English, clause-final subject clauses in active sentences can always be introduced by anticipatory het and that in many cases they can also be combined with expletive er. The semantic difference between the two options is not always clear, but we may suppose that the choice between the two options depends on whether the subject clause is presented as part of the presupposition or the focus of the sentence. A Google search (1/27/2012) shows that the frequencies of het and er in examples such as (237) are both high.
a. | Het | is | duidelijk | geworden | dat ... | presupposition | |
it | is | clear | become | that | |||
'It has become clear that ...' |
b. | Er | is | duidelijk | geworden | dat ... | focus | |
there | is | clear | become | that | |||
'It has become clear that ...' |
An appeal to the information structure of the sentence seems supported by examples like those in (238). Given that interrogative clauses are less likely to be interpreted as presuppositional than declarative clauses, we expect examples such as (238a) to be extremely rare (despite being definitely grammatical). A Google search (3/22/2013) on this string shows that this expectation is indeed borne out: it resulted in no more than 4 hits. Strings such as (238b), on the other hand, are very frequent.
a. | Het | werd | gevraagd | of ... | presupposition | |
it | was | asked | whether | |||
'It was asked whether ...' |
b. | Er | werd | gevraagd | of ... | focus | |
there | was | asked | whether | |||
'It was asked whether ...' |
Given the result of our Google searches mentioned above, one would also expect the frequency of examples such as (239a) to be much lower than examples such as (239b). This expectation is, however, not borne out: we found 225 cases of the two strings in (239a) and only 13 of the two strings in (239b).
a. | Het | is niet/nooit | duidelijk | geworden |