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8.3.2.VP adverbials
quickinfo

VP adverbials can be adjectival, prepositional, nominal or clausal, as was already illustrated for temporal adverbials in example (136) in the introduction to Section 8.3. It is not the case, however, that all semantic subtypes discussed in Section 8.2 are as versatile in this respect as temporal adverbials: the following subsections will discuss the restrictions on the manifestation of the various subtypes.

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[+]  I.  Process Adverbials

Manner adverbials are prototypically APs, although example (140a) shows that it is sometimes also possible to realize them as PPs. The (b)-examples show that there are two proforms that can be used as manner adverbs: deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how'.

140
a. Jan heeft het hek zorgvuldig/met veel zorg geschilderd.
manner
  Jan has  the gate  carefully/with great care  painted
  'Jan has painted the gate carefully/with great care.'
b. Met veel zorg, zo heeft hij het hek geschilderd.
deictic
  with great care  so  has  he  the gate  painted
  'With great care, in this way he has painted the gate.'
b'. Hoe heeft hij het hek geschilderd? Met veel zorg.
interrogative
  how has  he  the gate  painted  with great care
  'How has he painted the gate? With great care.'

Adverbials indicating instrument or means are prototypically realized as a met-PP, as in (141a), although Section 8.2.1, sub I, has shown that other prepositions are occasionally used as well. The (b)-examples in (141) show that the pronominal counterpart of these adverbials is normally a pronominal PP like deictic daarmee'with that' or interrogative/relative waarmee'with what', but it is also possible to use the interrogative proform hoe'how'. Deictic zo seems occasionally to be possible as well but this is clearly a marked option.

141
a. Jan heeft het gat met een schep/zand gevuld.
instrument/means
  Jan has  the hole  with a shovel/sand  filled
  'Jan has filled the hole with a shovel/sand.'
b. Jan heeft het gat daarmee gevuld.
deictic
  Jan has  the hole  with.that  filled
  'Jan has filled the hole with that.'
b'. Waarmee/Hoe heb je dat gat gevuld? Met een schep/zand.
interrogative
  with.what/how  have you  that hole  filled  with a shovel/sand
  'With what/how have you filled that hole? With a shovel/sand.'

Volitional adverbials are again prototypically APs, although (142a) shows that they occasionally may surface as PPs as well. The (b)-examples show once more that deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how' can be used as adverbial proforms.

142
a. Jan heeft zijn bekentenis gedwongen/onder dwang afgelegd.
volitional
  Jan  has  his confession  forced/under pressure prt.-reported
  'Jan has confessed under pressure.'
b. Onder dwang, zo heeft Jan zijn bekentenis afgelegd.
deictic
  under pressure  so  has  Jan his confession  prt.-reported
b'. Hoe heeft Jan zijn bekentenis afgelegd? Onder dwang.
interrogative
  how  has  Jan his confession  prt.-reported  under pressure

Domain adverbials such as syntactisch'syntactically' in (143a) are APs. The (b)-examples show that deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how' are used as adverbial proforms in this case.

143
a. Jan beschrijft de adverbia syntactisch/morfologisch.
domain
  Jan describes  the adverbs  syntactically/morphologically
  'Jan is describing the adverbs syntactically/morphologically.'
b. Syntactisch, zo beschrijft Jan de adverbia.
deictic
  syntactically  so  describes  Jan  the adverbs
b'. Hoe beschrijft Jan de adverbia, syntactisch of morfologisch?
interrogative
  how  describes  Jan the adverbs  syntactically or morphologically
  'How does Jan describe the adverbs: syntactically or morphologically?'

This subsection has shown that process adverbials are normally adjectival or prepositional in nature. The adverbial proforms corresponding with the adjectival forms are deictic zo'in this way' and interrogative hoe'how'. These proforms can generally also be used to refer to or to question process adverbials in the form of a PP, although daarmee'with that' and waarmee'with what' are clearly the preferred forms for adverbial met-PPs.

[+]  II.  Agentive adverbials

Agentive adverbials always have the form of a PP, such as the passive door-PP in (144a) or the comitative met-PP in (144b). There are no specialized proforms; pronominalization is done by replacing the nominal complement of the preposition by a pronoun.

144
a. Het pakket wordt door Jan/hem bezorgd.
agentive
  the parcel  is  by Jan/him  delivered
  'The parcel is delivered by Jan/him.'
a'. Door wie wordt het pakket bezorgd?
  by whom  is  the parcel  delivered
b. Jan heeft met Els/haar het museum bezocht.
comitative
  Jan has  with Els//her  the museum  visited
  'Jan has visited the museum with Els/her.'
b'. Met wie heeft Els het museum bezocht?
  with whom  has  Els the museum  visited
[+]  III.  Spatio-temporal adverbials

Locational and temporal adverbials may take various forms: temporal adverbials especially are quite free in this respect. The possible manifestations of these adverbials will be discussed in separate subsections.

[+]  A.  Locational adverbials

Locational adverbial phrases are prototypically PPs. The prepositions in these adverbial phrases typically function as two-place predicates locating the event in a specific place. The adverbial phrase in de tuin'in the garden' in (145a), for instance, expresses that event e of Jan playing takes place in the garden, while onder de boom'under the tree' in (145b) expresses that it takes place under the tree; this can be expressed in logical notation by, respectively, in(e,garden) and under(e,tree). We will not discuss here the various spatial relations expressible by prepositions, but refer the reader to Section P.1.3 for a detailed discussion of this. Observe that prepositional phrases like buiten/binnen'outside/inside' and boven/beneden'upstairs/downstairs' can be (pseudo-)intransitive and therefore surface as particles; we will not discuss this here but refer the reader to P1.2.4 for extensive discussion.

145
a. Jan heeft in the tuin gespeeld.
  Jan has  in the garden played
b. Jan heeft onder de boom gespeeld.
  Jan has  under the tree  played

The proforms associated with place adverbials are typically R-words: see P5.1 for discussion. All forms in (146) can be used to replace the adverbial PPs in (145). It should be noticed, however, that these forms are not specifically used as adverbials, but can also be used as complementives; referring to these R-words as adverbs would therefore not do justice to their actual use.

146
a. Referential: er'there'
b. Demonstrative: hier'here', daar'there'
c. Interrogative/relative: waar'where'
d. Quantificational: overal'everywhere', ergens'somewhere', nergens'nowhere'

A special proform-like element is the somewhat bookish form elders'elsewhere', which is not part of the set of R-words. The fact that this form can also be used as the complement of a directional preposition such as naar suggests that it is actually nominal.

147
De piraat heeft de schat naar elders gebracht.
  the pirate has  the treasure  to somewhere/else  taken
'The pirate took the treasure to some other place.'

The R-words in (146) are also used in the formation of pronominal PPs, which can likewise be used as locational adverbials, so that we may find the two examples in (148) next to each other with virtually the same meaning. Again it would be wrong to call the pronominal PPs adverbs because they can also be used as complementives.

148
a. Jan heeft daar gespeeld.
daar = onder de boom
  Jan has  there  played
b. Jan heeft daaronder gespeeld.
daar = de boom
  Jan has  under.it  played
[+]  B.  Temporal adverbials (punctual)

Time adverbials are probably the most versatile adverbials when it comes to their categorial form. The examples in (149), repeated from the introduction to Section 8.3, show that they can be adjectival, prepositional, nominal or clausal. We will not digress on these forms here as these are extensively discussed in Sections A8.2.1, sub IV, P.1.3.2, N8.3.1, and P2.4.1.

149
a. Jan gaat erg vroeg weg.
adjective phrase
  Jan goes  very early  away
  'Jan is leaving very early.'
b. Jan gaat voor zonsopgang weg.
prepositional phrase
  Jan goes  before sunrise  away
c. Jan gaat volgende week weg.
noun phrase
  Jan goes  next week  away
d. Jan gaat weg voordat de zon opkomt.
clause
  Jan goes  away  before  the sun  prt.-rises

The examples in (150) show that the interrogative proform wanneer'when' is used in questions, while dat is used in relative clauses; in the latter case, it is often also possible to use a pronominal PP.

150
a. Wanneer gaat Jan weg?
interrogative
  when  goes  Jan away
  'When is Jan leaving?'
b. Els denkt aan de tijd dat/waarin ze in Utrecht werkte.
relative
  Els thinks  of the time  that/where.in  she  in Utrecht worked
  'Els is thinking of the time when she worked in Utrecht.'

There are various specialized deictic forms which locate eventuality k expressed by the clause with respect to some syntactically specified or contextually determined time, which we will loosely refer to as anchor time t: (151) shows that k can be (virtually) simultaneous with t, or be anterior or posterior to it.

151
a. Simultaneous (kt): direct'at once', nu/nou'now', onmiddellijk'immediately', etc.
b. Anterior (k < t): net'only just', pas'only just', toen'then', zoëven/zojuist'just now', vroeger'in earlier times', etc.
c. Posterior (k > t): aanstonds'presently', binnenkort'before long', dadelijk'in a moment', dan'then', gauw'soon', spoedig'soon', straks'later', etc.Posterior (k > t): aanstonds'presently', binnenkort'before long', dadelijk'in a moment', dan'then', gauw'soon', spoedig'soon', straks'later', etc.

      The discussion of the deictic forms in (151) takes as its point of departure the claim from binary tense theory that present-tense interval i includes speech time n, while past-tense interval i includes a virtual speech-time-in-the-past n', where n' precedes n; cf. Section 1.5.1. Furthermore, the discussion encompasses the conclusion from Section 1.5.4 that the default interpretation of the present/past tense is that the so-called present j of eventuality k also includes n/n', and that k is located at n/n' in the simple present/past while it precedes n/n' in the present/past perfect. That these default readings can be overridden by, e.g., adverbial modification shows that we are dealing with pragmatics, not semantics. The default readings can be observed most easily in the simple-present tense: without an indication to the contrary, (152a) is interpreted such that eventuality k of Jan reading the book occurs at n. This default reading is overridden by temporal adverbials such as morgen'tomorrow' in (152b), which locates j in a position following n, as a result of which eventuality k is also located after n.

152
a. dat Jan het boek leest.
default: j includes n
  that  Jan the book reads
  'that Jan is reading the book.'
b. dat Jan morgen (waarschijnlijk) het boek leest.
j follows n
  that  Jan tomorrow   probably  the book  reads
  'that Jan will (probably) read the book tomorrow.'

Similar effects can be observed in the examples in the present-perfect tense in (153). Without an indication to the contrary, (153a) will be interpreted such that eventuality k of Jan reading the book was completed before n so that the resulting state of Jan having read the book occurs at n. Again, the temporal clause adverbial morgen'tomorrow' overrides this default reading and locates the present j of k in a position following n; as a result, (153b) cannot be used to express that eventuality k was completed before n so that the resulting state can only occur after n. We refer the reader to Section 8.2.3 for a more detailed summary and further discussion.

153
a. dat Jan het boek heeft gelezen.
default: j precedes n
  that  Jan the book  has  read
  'that Jan has read the book.'
b. dat Jan morgen (waarschijnlijk) het boek heeft gelezen.
j follows n
  that  Jan tomorrow   probably  the book  has  read
  'that Jan (probably) will have read the book tomorrow.'

      The mechanisms determining the default and non-default readings of the present/past tenses outlined above also play a role in the interpretation of the deictic adverbial forms in (151). We start by illustrating this for the forms in (151a), which express that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with anchor time t. The default reading of the simple-present example in (154a) is that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with speech time n. We therefore expect that its past tense counterpart in (154b) expresses that eventuality k occurs more or less simultaneously with virtual speech-time-in-the-past n', but this is only partly borne out: while direct'directly' and onmiddellijk ‘immediatelyindeed meet this expectation, nu'now' does not. This contrast suggests that we should distinguish between tense-sensitive and speaker-oriented adverbials: while tense-sensitive adverbials like direct and onmiddellijk locate k relative to n or n' depending on the tense of the clause, the speaker-oriented adverbial nu always locates k relative to n.

154
a. Jan vertrekt direct/onmiddellijk/nu.
k occurs approximately at n
  Jan leaves at.once/immediately/now
  'Jan is leaving at once/immediately/now.'
b. Jan vertrok direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.
k occurs approximately at n'
  Jan left  at.once/immediately/now
  'Jan left at once/immediately.'

The readings of the examples in (154), according to which eventuality k is located approximately at n/n' are default readings, which can again be overridden by the use of temporal adverbials that shift anchor time t to some position on the time axis other than n/n'. This is illustrated by the examples in (155), in which eventuality k expressed by the matrix clause is located at approximately the same position on the time axis as eventuality k' expressed by the adverbial clause: the events of Jan leaving and Marie entering occur more or less simultaneously. The interpretative effect of this is clearest in the present-tense example (155a): because Marie’s entering follows n, Jan’s leaving will also be located after n. As a result, the speaker-oriented adverbial nu'now' also gives rise to an infelicitous result in (155a) unless, perhaps, the entering of Marie is expected to occur approximately at speech time n, too. From the resulting contrast between (154a) and (155a), we can conclude that the distribution of nu is not determined by past/present-tense marking as such but by the location of anchor time t on the time axis. Example (155b) illustrates essentially the same thing for the past tense.

155
a. Wanneer Marie binnenkomt, vertrekt Jan direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.
  when  Marie inside.comes  leaves  Jan at.once/immediately/now
  'When Marie enters, Jan will be leaving at once/immediately.'
b. Toen Marie binnenkwam, vertrok Jan direct/onmiddellijk/*nu.
  when  Marie inside.came  left  Jan at.once/immediately/now
  'When Marie entered, Jan left at once/immediately.'

      Now consider the anterior adverbials in (151b), which express that eventuality k expressed by the clause is located before anchor time t: t is again taken by default as n/n' in simple-present/past tense clauses. The examples in (156) show that net'only just' and pas'only just' are clear cases of tense-sensitive adverbials: while k occurs immediately before n/n' in (156a), it is located before eventuality k' expressed by the adverbial clauses in the (b)-examples. The interpretative effect is again clearest in the present tense: because the event of Jan arriving follows n in (156b) the state of Jan being away is also located after n.

156
a. Peter is/was net weg.
k precedes n/n'
  Peter is/was just  away
  'Peter has/had just left.'
b. Peter is net weg als Jan aankomt.
k precedes t
  Peter is just  away  when  Jan  prt.-arrives
  'Peter has just left when Jan arrives.'
b'. Peter was net weg toen Jan binnen kwam.
k precedes t
  Peter was just  away  when  Jan came  in
  'Peter had just left when Jan came in.'

The examples in (157) show again that we should make a distinction between tense-sensitive and speaker-oriented adverbials. Contrary to net in (156), the adverbials zojuist and zoëven in (157a) seem to be intrinsically anchored at speech time n: their interpretation is independent of the tense of the clause, as they simply locate eventuality k at some time just before n. That these adverbials cannot be used to locate k with respect to an anchor time other than n is clear from the fact illustrated in the (b)-examples that they cannot co-occur with adverbials introducing such an alternative anchor time t.

157
a. Jan is zojuist/zoëven vertrokken.
k precedes n
  Jan is just.now  left
  'Jan has just left.'
b. Jan was zojuist/zoëven hier (*toen Peter vertrok).
k precedes n
  Jan  was  just.now  here     when  Peter left
  'Jan was here just now.'
b'. * Jan is zojuist/zoëven hier (als Peter vertrekt).
k does not precede n
  Jan is just.now  here   when  Peter leaves

That speaker-oriented adverbials cannot co-occur with adverbials introducing an anchor time other than n also accounts for the fact that zojuist/zoëven cannot occur in clauses in the simple present, as, for pragmatic reasons, such clauses do not allow k to be located in the actualized part of the present-tense interval. These adverbials thus behave like nominal modifiers such as gisteren'yesterday' and verleden week'last week'; this is illustrated in (158) for the speaker-oriented adverbial toen'then'.

158
a. Jan was toen/gisteren/verleden week hier.
simple past
  Jan was then/yesterday/last week  here
  'Jan was here then/yesterday/last week.'
b. * Jan is toen/gisteren/verleden week hier.
simple present
  Jan is  then/yesterday/last week  here

      The posterior adverbials in (151c) are even more restricted in that they all seem to be anchored by speech time n: it is very hard to find or even construct examples in which they occur in past-tense clauses. These adverbials thus behave essentially the same as nominal modifiers such as morgen'tomorrow' and volgende week'next week'.

159
a. Jan bezoekt Marie binnenkort/morgen/volgende week.
present tense
  Jan visits  Marie soon/tomorrow/next week
  'Jan will visit Marie soon/tomorrow/next week.'
b. * Jan bezocht Marie binnenkort/morgen/volgende week.
past tense
  Jan visited  Marie soon/tomorrow/next week

      Now that we have discussed the deictic adverbial forms in (151), we can continue with the discussion of the various specialized subordinators in (160) which are used to introduce temporal clauses. These subordinators can again be divided into three semantic groups by the way in which they locate eventuality k with respect to some anchor time t, that is, the time at which eventuality k' introduced by the adverbial clause occurs: k can be simultaneous with t/k', or precede or follow it. We refer the reader to Section P2.4 for more information about the form of these subordinators.

160
a. Simultaneous (k ≈ t): als/wanneer'when', terwijl'while', toen'when', zolang'(for) as long as', nu'now (that)', zodra/zo gauw (als)'as soon as'Simultaneous (kt): als/wanneer'when', terwijl'while', toen'when', zolang'(for) as long as', nu'now (that)', zodra/zo gauw (als)'as soon as'
b. Anterior (k < t): alvorens'before', eer(dat)'before', tot(dat)'until', voor(dat)'before'
c. Posterior (k > t): na(dat)'after', nu'now (that)', zodra/zo gauw (als)'as soon as', sinds/sedert 'since', toen'when'

There are usually no restrictions on tense marking: the examples in (161a&b) show that all types of conjunctions can be used in present-tense and paste-tense clauses. The relevant factor is merely the chronological order of the eventualities expressed by the matrix and the embedded clause. This may also account for the phenomenon that main and adverbial clauses must agree in present/past tense marking (the so-called sequence-of-tense effect). The unacceptability of the (c)-examples in (161) may follow immediately from binary tense theory; by using non-agreeing tenses, the eventualities expressed by the main and the embedded clause are part of different tense intervals (namely, one in the present-tense interval and one in the past-tense interval), and this may make it impossible to linearize them. Note in passing that the adverbial clauses introduced by nadat sound somewhat marked but become perfectly natural in the perfect tense (nadat hij gedanst heeft/had'after he has/had danced').

161
a. Jan speelt viool terwijl/voordat/?nadat hij danst.
present tense
  Jan plays violin  while/before/after he dances
  'Jan plays the violin while/before/after he dances.'
b. Jan speelde viool terwijl/voordat/?nadat hij danste.
past tense
  Jan played violin  while/before/after he danced
  'Jan played the violin while/before/after he danced.'
c. * Jan speelt viool terwijl/voordat/nadat hij danste.
no sequence-of-tense
  Jan plays violin  while/before/after he danced
c'. * Jan speelde viool terwijl/voordat/nadat hij danst.
no sequence-of-tense
  Jan played violin  while/before/after he dances

The (a)-examples in (162) show that adverbial clauses introduced by toen'when' are exceptional in that they can occur in past tense sentences only. Since the adverbial nu'now' can only be used in present-tense clauses, we may expect something similar for adverbial clauses introduced by nu but the (b)-examples show that this is not borne out (although we should perhaps point out that examples such as (162b') are only fully felicitous in narratives).

162
a. Toen Marie vertrok, kwam Jan binnen.
past tense
  when  Marie  left  came  Jan inside
  'When Marie left, Jan came in.'
a'. * Toen Marie vertrekt, komt Jan binnen.
present tense
  when  Marie  leaves  comes  Jan inside
b. Nu hij afgestudeerd is, kan hij gaan werken.
present tense
  now.that  he  prt-graduated  is  can  he  go  work
  'Now that he has graduated, he can start working.'
b'. Nu hij afgestudeerd was, kon hij gaan werken.
past tense
  now.that  he  prt-graduated  was  could  he  go  work
  'Now that he was graduated, he could start working.'

A number of temporal subordinators are listed as simultaneous as well as posterior in (160). Haeseryn et al. (1997: section 10.3.3) noted that the interpretation of these elements is determined by the temporal properties of the adverbial clause. The examples in (163) show that the simultaneous reading arises when the adverbial clause is in simple present/past tense, while the posterior reading arises if the clause is in perfect tense.

163
a. Zodra/Toen zij Peter zag, liep Els weg.
simultaneous
  as.soon.as/when  she  Peter saw  walked  Els&nbs