• Dutch1
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
12.3.Modifiers of the clause
quickinfo

This section discusses the extraposition options of clausal constituents that are not selected by the verb, such as adverbial phrases and supplementives. Generally speaking, extraposition is restricted to prepositional and clausal adjuncts, that is, extraposition of nominal and adjectival adjuncts is impossible.

readmore
[+]  I.  Prepositional adverbial phrases

It is often taken for granted that locational and temporal adverbial PPs can be extraposed. That this is justified seems clear from the fact illustrated in (52) that such PPs normally do not have to be preceded by an intonation break if they occur in postverbal position.

52
a. dat Jan graag in de tuin eet.
locational
  that  Jan gladly  in the garden  eats
  'that Jan likes to eat in the garden.'
a'. dat Jan graag eet in de tuin.
b. dat Jan na het eten graag een sigaret rookt.
temporal
  that  Jan  after the meal  gladly  a cigarette  smokes
  'that Jan likes to smoke a cigarette after dinner.'
b'. dat Jan graag een sigaret rookt na het eten.

That we are dealing with extraposition in the primed examples in (52) is further supported by the fact that the adverbial PPs can easily be pied piped under VP-topicalization.

53
a. Eten in de tuin doet Jan graag.
  eat in the garden  does  Jan gladly
b. Een sigaret roken na het eten doet Jan graag.
  a cigarette smoke after the meal  does  Jan gladly

Another argument for assuming extraposition may be that accent can be placed on extraposed adverbial PPs. It should be noted, however, that speakers sometimes seem to entertain different ideas on the question as to whether this results in a neutral intonation pattern: while Van den Berg (1978:222) claims the accent on the PP to be the (non-contrastive) sentence accent, as indicated in (54b), Mark de Vries (p.c.) claims it to be a contrastive accent, as indicated in (54b'). We will leave this issue open for future research.

54
a. dat Jan graag in de tuin eet.
  that  Jan gladly  in the garden  eats
  'that Jan likes to eat in the garden.'
b. % dat Jan graag eet in de tuin.
b'. dat Jan graag eet in de tuin

      Section 12.2, sub IV, observed that extraposition does not affect the propositional meaning of the construction. In order to establish whether we are dealing with extraposition or right dislocation, it may therefore be useful to investigate the propositional meaning of the constructions under consideration. But first let us look again at the (a)-examples in (52) in order to show that the structural position of the adverbial phrase in the clause may affect its extraposition options. Under a neutral (non-contrastive) intonation pattern, example (52a) expresses that Jan likes a certain thing, namely, eating in the garden: like to do (Jan, eating in the garden). The extraposition example (52a') expresses exactly the same propositional content, and the same holds for the VP-topicalization construction in (53a). Things look different in the case of the (b)-examples in (52). Example (52b), repeated as (55a), expresses that Jan likes to do a certain thing after dinner, namely smoking a cigarette: like to do after dinner (Jan, smoking a cigarette). However, this is not what is expressed by example (52b') or the VP-topicalization construction in (53b), which expresses that Jan likes to do a certain thing, which is smoking a cigarette after dinner: like to do (Jan, smoking a cigarette after dinner). This strongly suggests that (52b') cannot be considered the extraposition counterpart of (55a), but should be considered the counterpart of (55b), which does express the same meaning. If we assume that the subject-oriented adverb graag'gladly' has a fixed position in the structure, this suggests that the structural position of the adverbial PP may determine whether extraposition is possible or not.

55
a. dat Jan na het eten graag een sigaret rookt.
  that  Jan  after the meal  gladly  a cigarette  smokes
a'. like to do after dinner (Jan, smoking a cigarette)
b. dat Jan graag na het eten een sigaret rookt.
  that  Jan  gladly  after the meal  a cigarette  smokes
b'. like to do (Jan, smoking a cigarette after dinner)

This phenomenon is more general: Chapter 8 argues that clausal adverbs such as waarschijnlijk'probably' or vaak'often' are located at the boundary of the lexical and the functional domain of the verbal projection (see Section 9.1 for an introduction to these notions): elements appearing to the left of such adverbs are located in the functional domain of the verb while elements appearing to the right of such adverbs are part of the lexical domain of the verb. Now consider the primeless examples in (56) and their paraphrases in the primed examples.

56
a. dat Jan vaak na het eten in slaap valt.
  that  Jan  often  after the meal  in sleep  falls
  'that Jan often falls asleep after dinner.'
a'. Het is vaak zo dat Jan na het eten in slaap valt.
  it  is often  the.case  that  Jan after the meal  in sleep  falls
  'It is often the case that Jan falls asleep after dinner.'
b. dat Jan na het eten vaak in slaap valt.
  that  Jan  after the meal  often  in sleep  falls
  'that Jan often falls asleep after dinner.'
b'. Het is na het eten vaak zo dat Jan in slaap valt.
  it  is after the meal  often  the.case  that  Jan in sleep  falls
  'It is often the case after dinner that Jan falls asleep.'

The extraposition and VP-topicalization constructions in the (a)-examples in (57) correspond in their propositional meaning to example (56a), while the right-dislocation and topicalization constructions in the (b)-examples correspond in their propositional meaning to example (56b). Note that the meaning contrast between the two primeless examples in (57) may not be very sharp, but this is certainly the case for the meaning contrast between the two primed examples. If our intuitions are correct, this strongly suggests that adverbial PPs can be extraposed only if they are in a hierarchically lower position than the clausal adverbs, that is, when they occupy a position in the lexical domain of the verb.

57
a. dat Jan vaak in slaap valt na het eten.
  that  Jan  often  in sleep  falls  after the meal
a'. In slaap vallen na het eten doet Jan vaak.
  in sleep fall  after the meal  does  Jan often
b. dat Jan vaak in slaap valt, na het eten.
  that  Jan  often  in sleep  falls  after the meal
b'. In slaap vallen doet Jan vaak, na het eten.
  in sleep fall  does Jan often  after the meal

The hypothesis that adverbial PPs should be in the lexical domain of the main verb in order to be able to occur in extraposed position provides us with two strong predictions: if an adverbial PP can occur to the right of a clausal adverb, it can also be in extraposed position; if an adverbial PP can only occur to the left of a clausal adverb, it cannot be in extraposed position. This seems more or less the correct generalization. The examples in (58) show that the first prediction is correct for instrumental met-PPs, agentive door-phrases, and wegens-PPs expressing a cause/reason; these may follow the clausal adverb vaak'often' and extraposition is fully acceptable, as is clear from the fact illustrated in the primed examples that the postverbal PPs can be pied piped under VP-topicalization.

58
a. dat Jan vaak <met deze kwast> schildert <met deze kwast>.
  that  Jan often     with this brush  paints
  'that Jan often paints with this brush.'
a'. Schilderen met deze kwast doet Jan vaak.
  paint  with this brush  does  Jan  often
b. Jan wordt vaak <door Peter> geplaagd <door Peter>.
  Jan is  often     by Peter  teased
b'. Geplaagd door Peter wordt Jan vaak.
  teased  by Peter  is  Jan often
c. Dat Jan vaak <vanwege ziekte> lessen verzuimt <vanwege ziekte>.
  that Jan  often  because.of illness  lessons  be-absent
  'that Jan often misses lessons because of illness.'
c'. Lessen verzuimen vanwege ziekte doet Jan vaak.
  lessons  be.absent  because.of illness  does  Jan often

That the second prediction is also on the right track is illustrated in (59) by means of an adverbial ondanks-PP expressing concession. Example (59a) first shows that this PP must precede the clausal adverb vaak'often'. We therefore expect extraposition to be impossible, and this is indeed borne out: example (59b) shows that the PP must be preceded by an intonation break when it is in postverbal position (Veld 1993:144). That we are not dealing with extraposition is further supported by the (c)-examples, which show that the PP cannot be pied piped under VP-topicalization.

59
a. dat Jan <ondanks zijn ziekte> toch vaak <*ondanks zijn ziekte> sport.
  that  Jan    despite his illness  prt  often  does.sport
  'that Jan often exercises despite his illness.'
b. dat Jan toch vaak sport ??(,) ondanks zijn ziekte.
  that  Jan prt  often  does.sport  despite his illness
c. * Sporten (,) ondanks zijn ziekte, doet Jan toch vaak.
  do.sport  despite his illness  does Jan prt  often
c'. Sporten doet Jan toch vaak, ondanks zijn ziekte.
  do.sport  does Jan prt  often  despite his illness

Since most adverbial PPs that can occur to the left of the clausal adverbs can also occur to their right, there are not so very many systematic cases that exhibit the same pattern as concessive adverbial PPs. Another, less frequent, case is the adverbial PP in de regel'normally' in (60a). Example (60b) shows that this PP must be preceded by an intonation break if it is in postverbal position, and the (c)-examples show that it must be stranded by VP-topicalization.

60
a. dat Jan <in de regel> vaak <*in de regel> sport.
  that  Jan     as a rule  often  does.sport
  'that normally Jan often exercises despite his illness.'
b. dat Jan vaak sport *(,) in de regel.
  that  Jan  often  does.sport  as a rule
c. * Sporten (,) in de regel, doet Jan vaak.
  do.sport  as a rule  does Jan  often
c'. Sporten doet Jan vaak, in de regel.
  do.sport  does Jan often  as a rule

The examples in (61), finally, show that the clausal adverbs themselves cannot be extraposed either if they have the form of a PP; see Veld (1993:144). Example (61b) shows that the adverbial PP tot drie maal toe'up to three times' must be preceded by an intonation break when in postverbal position, and the (c)-examples show that it must be stranded by VP-topicalization.

61
a. dat we tot driemaal toe een explosie hoorden.
  that we  tot three.times toe  an explosion  heard
  'that we heard an explosion thrice.'
b. dat we een explosie hoorden *(,) tot driemaal toe.
  that  we an explosion  heard  tot three.times toe
c. Een explosie horen (,) tot driemaal toe, deden we.
  an explosion  hear  tot three.times toe  did  we
c'. Een explosie horen deden we, tot driemaal toe.
  an explosion  hear  did  we  tot three.times toe

This subsection has put forward the hypothesis that adverbial PPs can be extraposed only if they can occur to the right of the clausal adverbs, that is, if they are part of the lexical domain of the main verb. Adverbial PPs cannot be extraposed if they can only occur to the left of the clausal adverbs, that is, if they are part of the functional domain of the main verb. Sentential adverbial PPs, which seem to be located at the boundary between the two domains cannot be extraposed either.

[+]  II.  Adverbial clauses

Adverbial clauses seem to exhibit more or less the same behavior as their prepositional counterparts, although they may be expected to occur more frequently in extraposed position, as extraposition may be favored in the case of clauses by such factors as mentioned in Section 12.1, sub V. Their similarity in behavior is illustrated in (62) by means of a temporal clause with the same function as the temporal adverbial PP na het eten'after dinner' in (55): example (62b) shows that the clause need not be preceded by an intonation break if it occurs postverbally, and (62c) shows that it can readily be pied piped under VP-topicalization. The primed examples show that the adverbial clause can also be right-dislocated.

62
a. dat Jan <graag> [nadat hij gegeten heeft] <graag> een sigaret rookt.
  that  Jan    gladly   after  he  eaten  has  a cigarette  smokes
  'that Jan likes to smoke a cigarette after he has eaten.'
b. dat Jan graag een sigaret rookt [nadat hij gegeten heeft].
  that  Jan gladly  a cigarette  smokes   after  he  eaten  has
b'. dat Jan graag een sigaret rookt, [nadat hij gegeten heeft].
  that  Jan gladly  a cigarette  smokes   after  he  eaten  has
c. Een sigaret roken [nadat hij gegeten heeft] doet Jan graag.
  a cigarette  smoke   after  he  eaten  has  does  Jan gladly
c'. Een sigaret roken doet Jan graag, [nadat hij gegeten heeft].
  a cigarette  smoke  does  Jan gladly   after  he  eaten  has

The examples in (63) indicate that the distribution of adverbial clauses introduced by ondanks is subject to the same restrictions as the adverbial PP ondanks zijn ziekte'despite his illness' in (59). Example (63a) first shows that the adverbial clause must precede the sentential adverb vaak'often', as placing it in the position indicated by <*> gives rise to a severely degraded result. Example (63b) shows that the clause is preferably preceded by an intonation break if it occurs in postverbal position (although this preference seems less strong than in the case of a PP). The (c)-examples show that the clause cannot be pied piped under VP-topicalization but must be stranded. All of this all suggests that the clause cannot be extraposed.

63
a. dat Jan <ondanks dat hij ziek is> toch vaak <*> sport.
  that  Jan    despite  that  he  ill  is  prt  often  does.sport
  'that Jan often exercises despite the fact that he is ill.'
b. dat Jan toch vaak sport ?(,) [ondanks dat hij ziek is].
  that  Jan prt  often  does.sport   despite  that  he  ill  is
c. * Sporten (,) ondanks dat hij ziek is, doet Jan toch vaak.
  do.sport  despite  that  he  ill  is does Jan prt  often
c'. Sporten doet Jan toch vaak, [ondanks dat hij ziek is].
  do.sport  does Jan prt  often   despite  that  he  ill  is

Infinitival temporal adverbial clauses are like their finite counterparts in that they may occur in pre- and postverbal position. The postverbal clause can be in extraposed position: it need not be preceded by an intonation break and it can easily be pied piped under VP-topicalization. The infinitival clause can also be right-dislocated but we will not illustrate this here.

64
a. dat Jan <graag> [alvorens te eten] een glas jenever drinkt.
  that  Jan    gladly   before  to eat  a glass [of] Dutch.gin  drinks
  'that Jan likes to drink a glass of Dutch gin before eating.'
b. dat Jan graag een glas jenever drinkt [alvorens te eten].
  that  Jan gladly  a glass [of] Dutch.gin  drinks   before  to eat
c. Een glas jenever drinken [alvorens te eten] doet Jan graag.
  a glass [of] Dutch.gin  drink   before  to eat  does  Jan gladly

      Some adverbial clauses do not seem to be comfortable in preverbal position. This holds, for instance, for the adverbial clauses found in conditional and consecutive constructions. The answer to the question as to whether they are in extraposed or right-dislocated position therefore has to rely entirely on VP-topicalization. We illustrate this in (65) for conditional constructions. Example (65a) shows that the when-clause cannot readily occur in the middle field; it can only occur in this position as a parenthetical, in which case it should be preceded and followed by an intonation break. That the postverbal when-clause cannot easily be pied piped under VP-topicalization, as illustrated in (65b), suggests that it is right-dislocated.

65
a. dat Jan <??als hij gedronken heeft> slecht slaapt <als hij gedronken heeft>.
  that  Jan       if  he  drunk  has  badly sleeps
  'that Jan sleeps badly when he has drunk alcohol.'
b. Slapen <??als hij gedronken heeft> doet Jan slecht <als hij gedronken heeft>.
  sleep    if  he  drunk  has  does  Jan badly

The examples in (66) illustrate the same for consecutive constructions. Example (66a) shows that the adverbial clause expressing the consequence must be placed in postverbal position: placement of this clause in the middle field positions indicated by <*> is entirely impossible, even as a parenthetical clause. The adverbial clause in (66a) is again preferably preceded by an intonation break, which suggests that it is right-dislocated. This is supported by the fact illustrated in (b)-examples in (66) that the adverbial clause must be stranded under VP-topicalization.

66
a. dat Jan <*> liever <*> doorwerkt <zodat we alleen moeten gaan>.
  that  Jan  rather  on-works    so.that  we alone  must  go
  'Jan prefers to continue working, so that we have to go alone.'
b. * Doorwerken zodat we alleen moeten gaan doet Jan liever.
  on-work so.that  we alone  must  go does  Jan rather
b'. Doorwerken doet Jan liever, zodat we alleen moeten gaan.
  on-work does  Jan rather  so.that  we alone  must  go

As far as we know, the syntactic behavior of the various semantic types of postverbal adverbial clauses has not been studied systematically. The full story therefore has to await future research; the discussions found in Veld (1993:section 5.2.8) and De Vries (2002:ch.7) provide good starting points for a more in-depth investigation.

[+]  III.  Adjectival phrases

Adjectival adjuncts are excluded in extraposed position. The following subsections will discuss this for adverbial phrases and complementives.

[+]  A.  Adverbial phrases

Adjectival adverbial phrases are excluded in extraposed position. This is illustrated in (67) for the adverbial phrase of manner erg zorgvuldig'very carefully'. While (67a) shows that this phrase can precede the verb, it cannot easily follow it: the only way to improve (67b) is by assigning contrastive stress to the adverbial phrase or by adding an apposition marker such as en wel, which are typical properties of afterthoughts: dat Jan het artikel las—(en wel) erg zorgvuldig. Example (67c) shows that VP-topicalization is also difficult in the case of a postverbal manner adverbial, although the stranding option again improves if contrastive stress or the apposition marker en wel is added to the adverbial phrase; Het artikel lezen deed Jan—(en wel) erg zorgvuldig.

67
a. dat Jan het artikel erg zorgvuldig las.
  that  Jan the article  very carefully  read
  'that Jan read the article read very carefully.'
b. dat Jan het artikel las *(??,) erg zorgvuldig.
  that  Jan the article  read  very carefully
c. Het artikel lezen <*erg zorgvuldig> deed Jan, < ??erg zorgvuldig>.
  the article read      very carefully  did Jan

Adjectival adjuncts with other semantic functions are also incompatible with extraposition. Example (68) illustrates this for the adverbial regelmatig'regularly', which can be used either as a predicate or as a clausal adverb. Example (68b) shows that such adverbial phrases can only occur in postverbal position if they are preceded by an intonation break; the result of postverbal placement is best if the adjective regelmatig is assigned contrastive accent. Example (68c) shows that pied piping of the adverbial phrase under VP-topicalization is excluded; stranding is possible and again seems best if the adjective is assigned contrastive stress or preceded by the apposition marker en wel.

68
a. dat we regelmatig een explosie hoorden.
  that  we regularly  an explosion  heard
  'that we regularly heard an explosion.'
b. dat we een explosie hoorden *(,) regelmatig.
  that  we an explosion  heard  regularly
c. * Een explosie horen (,) regelmatig, deden we.
  an explosion  hear  regularly  did we
c'. Een explosie horen deden we, (en wel) regelmatig.
  an explosion  hear  did  we   and prt  regularly

Note in passing that the intonation break in the (c)-examples can be omitted and that the adverbial phrase is not necessarily assigned contrastive accent in the resulting utterance: Een explosie horen deden we regelmatig. Such cases probably involve stranding of a preverbal adverbial phrase. Unfortunately, the actual position of the supplementive cannot be inspected from the surface form of the clause because VP-topicalization has removed all material following it.

[+]  B.  Adjectival supplementives

Adjectival supplementives are also incompatible with extraposition. The (b)-examples in (69) show that complementives can occur in postverbal position only if they function as afterthoughts: they must be preceded by an intonation break and assigned contrastive stress. The (c)-examples show that VP-topicalization cannot pied pipe postverbal supplementives; the supplementive must be stranded. It should be noted that, as in (68c), the intonation break in (69c) can be omitted and that the supplementive is normally not assigned contrastive accent in the resulting utterance: Naar huis wandelen deed Jan tevreden. Such cases probably involve stranding of the preverbal supplementive in (69a) but, unfortunately, the actual position of the supplementive cannot be inspected from the surface form of the clause because VP-topicalization has removed all material following it.

69
a. dat Jan tevreden naar huis wandelde.
  that  Jan satisfied  to home  walked
  'that Jan walked home satisfied.'
b. * dat Jan naar huis wandelde (,) tevreden.
  that  Jan to home  walked  satisfied
b'. dat Jan naar huis wandelde, tevreden.
  that  Jan to home  walked  satisfied
c. * Naar huis wandelen <tevreden> deed Jan, <tevreden>.
  to home  walk    satisfied  did Jan
c'. Naar huis wandelen deed Jan, tevreden.
  to home  walk  did  Jan  satisfied

It should further be pointed out that Veld (1993:133-4) claims that monosyllabic complementives cannot readily be used as afterthoughts for prosodic reasons: the dollar sign in (70) indicates that there is indeed a slight contrast with cases in polysyllabic or phrasal supplementives, such as tevreden in (69) or moe en tevreden in (70), but we still consider examples of this sort acceptable.

70
% dat Jan ging naar huis, [moe $(maar tevreden)].
  that  Jan went  to home   tired     but  satisfied
'that Jan went home, tired (but satisfied).'
[+]  C.  Conclusion

This section has shown that adjectival adjuncts (adverbial phrases and complementives) cannot occur in extraposed position; when they occur postverbally they are right-dislocated. We refer to Veld (1993) and De Vries (2002:291), for more examples, while noting that the latter is quite (and in our view sometimes too) lenient in his acceptability judgments.

[+]  IV.  Noun phrases

Nominal adverbial phrases have a temporal meaning. A prototypical example is given in (71a). Example (71) shows that the phrase de hele dag'the whole day' can be used in postverbal position but is then preferably preceded by an intonation break; cf. Veld (1993:127). The fact that omitting the intonation break seems marginally possible in slow careful speech may give rise to the idea that extraposition is at least a marginal option. However, the fact illustrated in (71c) that pied piping the postverbal phrase gives rise to a highly marked result suggests that we are dealing with a right-dislocated phrase after all; the example improves if the adverbial phrase is preceded and followed by an intonation break, but in that case we are dealing with a parenthetical.

71
a. dat Jan graag de hele dag leest.
  that  Jan gladly  the whole day  reads
  'that Jan likes reading all day long.'
b. dat Jan graag leest