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5.1.2.3.Factive versus non-factive complement clause constructions

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Section 5.1.2.2, sub II, has shown that finite object clauses normally do not appear in the middle field of the matrix clause. The relevant examples are repeated here as (81).

a.	Jan heeft	gisteren	beweerd	[dat	Els	gaat	emigreren].
	Jan has	yesterday	claimed	that	Els	goes	emigrate
	'Jan said yesterday that Els is going to emigrate.'

a'.

Jan heeft [dat Els gaat emigreren] gisteren beweerd.

b.	Peter zal	grondig	onderzoeken	[of	het	waar	is].
	Peter will	thoroughly	investigate	whether	it	true	is
	'Peter will investigate thoroughly whether it is true.'

b'.

Peter zal [of het waar is] grondig onderzoeken.

There is, however, a systematic exception to this rule: the examples in (82) show that factive verbs like onthullen'to reveal' and betreuren'to regret' do allow the embedded clause to appear in the middle field. The acceptability of the primed examples decreases when they become longer and more complex, but this simply reflects the fact that, in general, longer constituents prefer to occur in extraposed position.

a.	Jan heeft	gisteren	onthuld	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
	Jan has	yesterday	revealed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan revealed yesterday that Els is going to emigrate.'

a'.

Jan heeft [dat Els gaat emigreren] gisteren onthuld.

b.	Jan heeft	nooit	betreurd	[dat	hij	taalkundige	is geworden].
	Jan has	never	regretted	that	he	linguist	has become
	'Jan has never regretted that he has become a linguist.'

b'.

Jan heeft [dat hij taalkundige is geworden] nooit betreurd.

The fact that factive clauses can occur in nominal argument positions was first noticed by Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) and since then it has widely been assumed that factive clauses are nominal in nature. Additional support for claiming that factive clauses differ from argument clauses is that there are more systematic differences between the two. The subsections below discuss some of these differences as well as some other conspicuous properties of embedded factive clauses.

I. The truth of the embedded proposition is presupposed
II. Properties of factive verbs
III. Factors affecting factivity
IV. The position of the factive clause in the middle field
V. Wh-extraction from factive clauses
VI. The syntactic status of factive clauses
VII. Factive interrogative clauses
VIII. Conclusion

[+] I. The truth of the embedded proposition is presupposed

The main difference between (81a) and the primeless examples in (82) is related to the truth of the proposition expressed by the embedded clause; cf. Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970). Non-factive verbs are used to assert the truth of the argument clause with varying degrees of decisiveness: by using (83a), the speaker expresses that Jan can be held responsible for the truth of the proposition "Els is going to emigrate", whereas this holds only to a lesser extent when he uses (83b).

a.	Jan heeft	beweerd	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	non-factive
	Jan has	claimed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan has said that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Jan vermoedt	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	non-factive
	Jan suspects	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan suspects that Els is going to emigrate.'

Factive verbs, on the other hand, are used if the speaker presupposes the truth of the proposition expressed by the embedded clause, and asserts something about it: by using (84a), the speaker asserts about the embedded proposition "Els is going to emigrate" that Jan revealed it and by using (84b) he asserts about the same proposition that Peter regrets it.

a.	Jan heeft	onthuld	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	factive
	Jan has	revealed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan has revealed that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Peter	betreurt	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	factive
	Jan	regrets	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan regrets that Els is going to emigrate.'

That the speaker does not commit himself to the truth of the proposition expressed by the argument clauses of the non-factive verbs beweren'to claim' and vermoeden'to suspect' in (83) is clear from the fact that he can without much ado deny that the proposition is true. The speaker may simply think or know that the information source is wrong, consequently, his denial of the proposition "Els is going to emigrate" in the examples in (85) leads to a semantically coherent result.

a.	Jan heeft	beweerd	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren],	maar	dat	is niet waar.
	Jan has	claimed	that	Els goes	emigrate	but	that	is not true
	'Jan has claimed that Els is going to emigrate, but that isnʼt true.'

b.	Jan vermoedt	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren],	maar	dat	is niet waar.
	Jan suspects	that	Els goes	emigrate	but	that	is not true
	'Jan suspects that Els is going to emigrate, but that isnʼt true.'

Things are different in sentences such as (84) with the factive verbs onthullen'to reveal' or betreuren'to regret'; by using these verbs the speaker expresses that he himself considers the proposition "Els is going to emigrate" to be true, and the denial of this proposition in the examples in (86) therefore leads to semantically incoherent or at least surprising results.

a.	$	Jan heeft	onthuld	[dat	Els gaat emigreren],	maar	dat	is	niet	waar.
		Jan has	revealed	that	Els goes emigrate	but	that	is	not	true
		'Jan has revealed that Els is going to emigrate, but that isnʼt true.'

b.	$	Jan	betreurt	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren],	maar	dat	is niet waar.
		Jan	regrets	that	Els goes	emigrate	but	that	is not true
		'Jan regrets that Els is going to emigrate, but that isnʼt true.'

[+] II. Properties of factive verbs

The question as to whether a complement clause does or does not allow a factive reading depends mainly on the meaning of the verb/predicate in the matrix clause. In (87) we provide some examples of predicates that are typically used in factive or non-factive contexts, as well as some predicates that can comfortably be used in either context; see Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) for a similar list for English.

Non-factive verbs: beweren'to claim', concluderen'to conclude', veronderstellen'to suppose', denken'to think', hopen'to hope', vinden'to consider', volhouden'to maintain', zich verbeelden'to imagine'Non-factive verbs: beweren'to claim', concluderen'to conclude', veronderstellen'to suppose', denken'to think', hopen'to hope', vinden'to consider', volhouden'to maintain', zich verbeelden'to imagine'

Factive verbs: begrijpen'to comprehend', betreuren'to regret', duidelijk maken'to make clear', negeren'to ignore', onthullen'to reveal', toegeven'to admit', toejuichen'to applaud', vergeten'to forget', weten'to know'Factive verbs: begrijpen'to comprehend', betreuren'to regret', duidelijk maken'to make clear', negeren'to ignore', onthullen'to reveal', toegeven'to admit', toejuichen'to applaud', vergeten'to forget', weten'to know'

Verbs that can be factive or non-factive; vertellen'to tell', bekennen'to admit/confess', erkennen'to admit', geloven'to believe', ontkennen'to deny', vermoeden'to suspect', verwachten'to expect', voorspellen'to predict'Verbs that can be factive or non-factive; vertellen'to tell', bekennen'to admit/confess', erkennen'to admit', geloven'to believe', ontkennen'to deny', vermoeden'to suspect', verwachten'to expect', voorspellen'to predict'

Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) propose various tests that can be used to determine whether or not we are dealing with a factive verb/predicate. Some of these appeal to specific properties of English, so we will only discuss those tests that make the desired distinction for Dutch as well. We will also discuss a number of tests proposed in Barbiers (2000).

[+] A. Paraphrase by het feit dat ...'the fact that ...'

One way of making visible that the truth of the embedded proposition is presupposed is by making use of a paraphrase with the nominal object het feit'the fact'; the contrast in the examples in (88) shows that addition of the noun phrase is impossible if the embedded clause is non-factive, but normally acceptable (albeit sometimes clumsy) if it is factive.

a.	*	Jan heeft	het feit	beweerd	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	non-factive
		Jan has	the fact	claimed	that	Els goes	emigrate
		Intended reading: 'Jan has claimed that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Jan heeft	het feit	onthuld	[dat	Els gaat emigreren].	factive
	Jan has	the fact	revealed	that	Els goes emigrate
	'Jan has revealed the fact that Els is going to emigrate.'

Since the direct object in (88b) is the discontinuous phrase het feit dat Els gaat emigreren, it need not surprise us that Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) have proposed that underlyingly factive clauses are noun phrases. If true, it would immediately account for the fact that factive clauses can be placed in clause-internal position, given that the clausal complement of feit can also be placed immediately after the noun. Observe that the complex noun phrases may either follow or precede the adverb waarschijnlijk'probably'; this will become relevant later in our discussion.

a.	Jan heeft	waarschijnlijk	[het feit	[dat	Els gaat emigreren]]	onthuld.
	Jan has	probably	the fact	that	Els goes emigrate	revealed
	'Jan has probably revealed (the fact) that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Jan heeft	[het feit [dat	Els gaat emigreren]]	waarschijnlijk	onthuld.
	Jan has	the fact that	Els goes emigrate	probably	revealed
	'Jan has probably revealed (the fact) that Els is going to emigrate.'

[+] B. Negation does not affect the presupposed truth of a factive clause

Negation of the examples in (83) and (84) has different consequences for the truth of the proposition expressed by the embedded clauses. Consider the negated counterparts of the (a)-examples, given in (90).

a.	Jan heeft	niet	beweerd	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	non-factive
	Jan has	not	claimed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan hasnʼt claimed that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Jan heeft	niet onthuld	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].	factive
	Jan has	not revealed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan hasnʼt revealed that Els is going to emigrate.'

The addition of negation to the non-factive construction in (90a) has the effect that the truth of the embedded proposition is no longer asserted. The presupposed truth of the embedded proposition in (90b), on the other hand, is not affected; the speaker still implies that the proposition "Els is going to emigrate" is true. Observe that the use of negation leads to an incoherent pragmatic result with the factive verb weten'to know' in simple present constructions with a first person subject: by using example (91c) the speaker expresses that he has no knowledge of the truth of a proposition he presupposes to be true. This problem, of course, does not arise in (91a&b) given the speaker can readily assert that some other person/the speaker-in-the-past was not aware of the truth of this proposition.

a.	Jan weet	niet	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
	Jan knows	not	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Jan doesnʼt know that Els is going to emigrate.'

b.	Ik	wist	niet	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
	I	knew	not	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'I didnʼt know that Els is going to emigrate.'

c.	$	Ik	weet	niet	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
		I	know	not	that	Els goes	emigrate
		'I donʼt know that Els is going to emigrate.'

[+] C. Questioning does not affect the presupposed truth of a factive clause

The formation of a yes/no-question, as in (92), reveals a similar contrast as the addition of negation: example (92a) no longer asserts the truth of the embedded proposition "Els is going to emigrate", whereas the presupposed truth of this proposition is not affected by question formation in (92b).

a.	Heeft	Jan beweerd	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren]?	non-factive
	has	Jan claimed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Did Jan claim that Els is going to emigrate?'

b.	Heeft	Jan onthuld	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren]?	factive
	has	Jan revealed	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Did Jan reveal that Els is going to emigrate?'

Like negation, questioning leads to an incoherent pragmatic result with the factive verb weten'to know' in simple present constructions with a first person subject: by using example (93c) the speaker is asking whether he himself has knowledge of the truth of a proposition he presupposes to be true. This problem, of course, does not arise in (93a&b) since the speaker can readily ask whether some other person is or whether the speaker-in-the-past was aware of the truth of this proposition.

a.	Weet	Jan	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren]?
	knows	Jan	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Does Jan know that Els is going to emigrate?'

b.	Wist	ik	(toen)	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren]?
	knew	I	then	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'Did I know then that Els is going to emigrate?'

c.	$	Weet	ik	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren]?
		know	I	that	Els goes	emigrate
		'Do I know that Els is going to emigrate?'

[+] D. Question-answer pairs

Consider the question-answer pairs in (94). The answers in the (a)-examples show that non-factive verbs can be used perfectly easily when the speaker wants to diminish his responsibility for the correctness of the answer or to attribute the responsibility for the correctness of the answer to some other person. The (b)-examples, on the other hand, show that factive verbs cannot be used in the syntactic frame "subject + V + answer" at all. See Section 5.1.5, sub II, for more discussion of question-answer pairs such as (94).

Wie	gaat	er	emigreren?
who	goes	there	emigrate
'Who is going to emigrate?'

a.	Ik	denk/vermoed	Els.
	I	think/suspect	Els
	'Els, I think/suspect.'

a'.	Jan zei	net	Els.	non-factive
	Jan said	just.now	Els
	'Els, Jan said just now.'

b.	*	Ik	onthul	Els.
		I	reveal	Els

b'.	*	Jan onthulde net Els.	factive
		Jan revealed just.now Els

The question-answer pairs in (95) show that we find a similar contrast between non-factive and factive verbs in the answers to yes/no-questions: whereas the non-factive verbs in the (a)-answer can be combined with a polar phrase van niet/wel (literally: of + negative/affirmative marker"), the factive verbs in the (b)-answers cannot. For a more extensive discussion of such polar phrases we refer to Section 5.1.2.4, sub IIIB.

Gaat	Els binnenkort	emigreren?
goes	Els soon	emigrate
'Will Els emigrate soon?'

a.	Peter zegt	van niet,	maar	ik denk	van wel.	non-factive
	Peter says	van not	but	I think	van aff
	'Peter says she wonʼt but I think she will'

b.	*	Jan heeft	onthuld	van	niet/wel.	factive
		Jan has	revealed	van	not/aff
		Intended reading: 'Jan has revealed that she will (not).'

b'.	*	Peter betreurt van	niet/wel.	factive
		Peter regrets van	not/aff
		Intended reading: 'Peter regrets that she will (not).'

[+] E. Wh-extraction

Non-factive and factive clauses differ in that the latter are so-called weak islands for wh-movement. While the primeless examples in (96) show that non-factive clauses allow extraction of both objects and adjuncts, the primed examples show that factive clauses allow the extraction of objects only; the trace is used to indicate that the wh-phrase is interpreted as part of the embedded clause. The acceptability contrast between the two (b)-examples thus shows that factive clauses are less transparent than non-factive clauses.

a.	Wati	denk	je	[dat	Peter ti	gekocht	heeft]?	non-factive
	what	think	you	that	Peter	bought	has
	'What do you think that Peter has bought?'

a'.	Wati	betreur	je	[dat	Peter ti	gekocht	heeft]?	factive
	what	regret	you	that	Peter	bought	has
	'What do you regret that Peter has bought?'

b.	Wanneeri	denk	je	[dat	Peter ti	vertrokken	is]?	non-factive
	when	think	you	that	Peter	left	has
	'When do you think that Peter left?'

b'.	*	Wanneeri	betreur	je	[dat	Peter ti	vertrokken	is]?	factive
		when	regret	you	that	Peter	left	has

[+] F. Negative polarity items

That factive clauses are less transparent than non-factive clauses is also borne out by the examples in (97). The contrast between the primeless and primed examples shows that negative polarity items like ook maar iets'anything' or een bal (lit.: a testicle) can be licensed by negation in the matrix clause if they are part of a non-factive clause, but not if they are part of a factive clause. It should be noted, however, that the strength of the argument is somewhat weakened by the fact that this type of long-distance licensing of negative polarity items is only possible with a limited number of non-factive verbs; see Klooster (2001:316ff.).

a.	Ik	denk	niet	[dat	Jan ook maar	iets	gedaan	heeft].	non-factive
	I	think	not	that	Jan ook maar	anything	done	has
	'I donʼt think that Jan has done anything.'

a'.	*	Ik	onthul	niet	[dat	Jan ook maar	iets	gedaan	heeft].	factive
		I	reveal	not	that	Jan ook maar	anything	done	has

b.	Ik	denk	niet	[dat	Jan (ook maar)	een bal	gedaan	heeft].	non-factive
	I	think	not	that	Jan ook maar	a testicle	done	has
	'I donʼt think that Jan has lifted so much as a finger.'

b'.	*	Ik	onthul	niet	[dat	Jan (ook maar)	een bal	gedaan	heeft].	factive
		I	reveal	not	that	Jan ook maar	a testicle	done	has

[+] III. Factors affecting factivity

The discussion in Subsection II may have suggested that the verb/predicate of the matrix clause fully determines whether the embedded proposition can be construed as factive or not. However, it seems that there are a number of additional factors that may affect a verb's ability to take a factive complement; in fact, Barbiers (2000:193) claims that a factive reading can be forced upon the clausal complement of most verbs in (87a).

[+] A. Adverbial phrases

It is frequently not immediately obvious whether we can classify a specific verb as factive or non-factive. For example, Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) take a verb such as geloven'to believe' in (98) to be non-factive, which at first sight seems to be confirmed by the fact that placing the dependent clause in the middle field of the matrix clause gives rise to a degraded result.

a.	dat Marie gelooft	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
	that Marie	believes	that	Els goes emigrate
	'that Marie believes that Els is going to emigrate.'

dat Marie [dat Els gaat emigreren] gelooft.

However, when we add an adverb like eindelijk'finally' or nooit'never', as in (99), placement of the dependent clause in the middle field of the matrix clause becomes much more acceptable. This indicates that it is not just the verb which determines whether the construction is factive or not, but that the wider syntactic context also plays a role.

a.	dat Marie	eindelijk/nooit	gelooft	[dat	Els gaat	emigreren].
	that Marie	finally/never	believes	that	Els goes	emigrate
	'that Marie finally/never believes that Els is going to emigrate.'

dat Marie [dat Els gaat emigreren] eindelijk/nooit gelooft.

[+] B. The anticipatory pronoun het'it'

Addition of the anticipatory pronounhet may also favor a factive reading of an embedded proposition; cf. Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970: 165). This is very clear with a verb such as verwachten'to expect': whereas examples such as (100a) without the anticipatory pronoun are normally used when the expectation is not borne out, examples such as (100b) with the anticipatory pronoun het are regularly used when the expectation is fulfilled.

100

a.	Ik	had verwacht	[dat	Els zou	emigreren].
	I	had expected	that	Els would	emigrate
	'Iʼd expected that Els would emigrate (but I was wrong).'

b.	Ik	had het	verwacht	[dat	Els zou	emigreren].
	I	had it	expected	that	Els would	emigrate
	'I had expected it that Els would emigrate (and you can see that I was right).'

Application of this test is not always easy, however. For example, it is not true that factive clauses must be introduced by the anticipatory pronoun; many factive verbs can occur without it, as will be clear from inspecting the factive constructions discussed so far. It will also be clear from the fact that a factive reading of example (100a) is greatly favored when we add the adverb al'already', as in (101a). For completeness' sake, (101b) shows that al can also be added to (100b).

101

a.	Ik	had al	verwacht	[dat	Els zou	emigreren].
	I	had already	expected	that	Els would	emigrate
	'Iʼd already expected that Els would emigrate.'

b.	Ik	had het	al	verwacht	[dat	Els zou	emigreren].
	I	had it	already	expected	that	Els would	emigrate
	'I had already expected it that Els would emigrate.'

Complications also arise in examples containing the pronoun het. Consider the examples in (102) with the verb vertellen'to tell', which can also be used either as a non-factive or as a factive verb. The former is clear from (102a), which shows that the speaker has no trouble in denying the truth of the proposition expressed by the complement clause in the first conjunct by means of the second conjunct. The continuation in (102b) is of course compatible with a factive interpretation.

102

Jan heeft	me verteld	[dat	hij	decaan	wordt] ...
Jan has	me told	that	he	dean	becomes
'Jan has told me that heʼll become dean of the faculty ... '

a.	...	maar	dat	was	maar	een geintje.	non-factive
	...	but	that	was	just	a joke
	'... but that was just a joke.'

b.	...	maar	dat	wist	ik	al.	factive
	...	but	that	knew	I	already
	'... but I knew that already.'

Example (103) seems to support the claim that adding the anticipatory pronoun het'it' to the first conjunct in (102) favors a factive reading: the continuation in (103a) seems marked because it suggests that the speaker is contradicting himself by denying the presupposed truth of the complement clause in the first conjunct.

103

Jan heeft	het	me verteld	[dat	hij	decaan	wordt] ...
Jan has	it	me told	that	he	dean	becomes
'Jan has told me that heʼll become dean of the faculty ... '