- Dutch1
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological processes
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Word stress
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Monomorphemic words
- Diachronic aspects
- Generalizations on stress placement
- Default penultimate stress
- Lexical stress
- The closed penult restriction
- Final closed syllables
- The diphthong restriction
- Superheavy syllables (SHS)
- The three-syllable window
- Segmental restrictions
- Phonetic correlates
- Stress shifts in loanwords
- Quantity-sensitivity
- Secondary stress
- Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Stress in complex words
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Accent & intonation
- Clitics
- Spelling
- Morphology
- Word formation
- Compounding
- Nominal compounds
- Verbal compounds
- Adjectival compounds
- Affixoids
- Coordinative compounds
- Synthetic compounds
- Reduplicative compounds
- Phrase-based compounds
- Elative compounds
- Exocentric compounds
- Linking elements
- Separable complex verbs (SCVs)
- Gapping of complex words
- Particle verbs
- Copulative compounds
- Derivation
- Numerals
- Derivation: inputs and input restrictions
- The meaning of affixes
- Non-native morphology
- Cohering and non-cohering affixes
- Prefixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixation: person nouns
- Conversion
- Pseudo-participles
- Bound forms
- Nouns
- Nominal prefixes
- Nominal suffixes
- -aal and -eel
- -aar
- -aard
- -aat
- -air
- -aris
- -ast
- Diminutives
- -dom
- -een
- -ees
- -el (nominal)
- -elaar
- -enis
- -er (nominal)
- -erd
- -erik
- -es
- -eur
- -euse
- ge...te
- -heid
- -iaan, -aan
- -ief
- -iek
- -ier
- -ier (French)
- -ière
- -iet
- -igheid
- -ij and allomorphs
- -ijn
- -in
- -ing
- -isme
- -ist
- -iteit
- -ling
- -oir
- -oot
- -rice
- -schap
- -schap (de)
- -schap (het)
- -sel
- -st
- -ster
- -t
- -tal
- -te
- -voud
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Univerbation
- Neo-classical word formation
- Construction-dependent morphology
- Morphological productivity
- Compounding
- Inflection
- Inflection and derivation
- Allomorphy
- The interface between phonology and morphology
- Word formation
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
- 3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
- 3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
- 7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Phonology
-
- General
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological Processes
- Assimilation
- Vowel nasalization
- Syllabic sonorants
- Final devoicing
- Fake geminates
- Vowel hiatus resolution
- Vowel reduction introduction
- Schwa deletion
- Schwa insertion
- /r/-deletion
- d-insertion
- {s/z}-insertion
- t-deletion
- Intrusive stop formation
- Breaking
- Vowel shortening
- h-deletion
- Replacement of the glide w
- Word stress
- Clitics
- Allomorphy
- Orthography of Frisian
- Morphology
- Inflection
- Word formation
- Derivation
- Prefixation
- Infixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixes
- Verbal suffixes
- Adjectival suffixes
- Adverbial suffixes
- Numeral suffixes
- Interjectional suffixes
- Onomastic suffixes
- Conversion
- Compositions
- Derivation
- Syntax
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Unergative and unaccusative subjects
- Evidentiality
- To-infinitival clauses
- Predication and noun incorporation
- Ellipsis
- Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo
- Expression of irrealis
- Embedded Verb Second
- Agreement
- Negation
- Nouns & Noun Phrases
- Classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Partitive noun constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Nominalised quantifiers
- Kind partitives
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Bare nominal attributions
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers and (pre)determiners
- Interrogative pronouns
- R-pronouns
- Syntactic uses
- Adjective Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification and degree quantification
- Comparison by degree
- Comparative
- Superlative
- Equative
- Attribution
- Agreement
- Attributive adjectives vs. prenominal elements
- Complex adjectives
- Noun ellipsis
- Co-occurring adjectives
- Predication
- Partitive adjective constructions
- Adverbial use
- Participles and infinitives
- Adposition Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Intransitive adpositions
- Predication
- Preposition stranding
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
-
- General
- Morphology
- Morphology
- 1 Word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 1.1.1 Compounds and their heads
- 1.1.2 Special types of compounds
- 1.1.2.1 Affixoids
- 1.1.2.2 Coordinative compounds
- 1.1.2.3 Synthetic compounds and complex pseudo-participles
- 1.1.2.4 Reduplicative compounds
- 1.1.2.5 Phrase-based compounds
- 1.1.2.6 Elative compounds
- 1.1.2.7 Exocentric compounds
- 1.1.2.8 Linking elements
- 1.1.2.9 Separable Complex Verbs and Particle Verbs
- 1.1.2.10 Noun Incorporation Verbs
- 1.1.2.11 Gapping
- 1.2 Derivation
- 1.3 Minor patterns of word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 2 Inflection
- 1 Word formation
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
- 0 Introduction to the AP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of APs
- 2 Complementation of APs
- 3 Modification and degree quantification of APs
- 4 Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative
- 5 Attribution of APs
- 6 Predication of APs
- 7 The partitive adjective construction
- 8 Adverbial use of APs
- 9 Participles and infinitives as APs
- Nouns and Noun Phrases (NPs)
- 0 Introduction to the NP
- 1 Characteristics and Classification of NPs
- 2 Complementation of NPs
- 3 Modification of NPs
- 3.1 Modification of NP by Determiners and APs
- 3.2 Modification of NP by PP
- 3.3 Modification of NP by adverbial clauses
- 3.4 Modification of NP by possessors
- 3.5 Modification of NP by relative clauses
- 3.6 Modification of NP in a cleft construction
- 3.7 Free relative clauses and selected interrogative clauses
- 4 Partitive noun constructions and constructions related to them
- 4.1 The referential partitive construction
- 4.2 The partitive construction of abstract quantity
- 4.3 The numerical partitive construction
- 4.4 The partitive interrogative construction
- 4.5 Adjectival, nominal and nominalised partitive quantifiers
- 4.6 Kind partitives
- 4.7 Partitive predication with a preposition
- 4.8 Bare nominal attribution
- 5 Articles and names
- 6 Pronouns
- 7 Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- 8 Interrogative pronouns
- 9 R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive
- 10 Syntactic functions of Noun Phrases
- Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases (PPs)
- 0 Introduction to the PP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of PPs
- 2 Complementation of PPs
- 3 Modification of PPs
- 4 Bare (intransitive) adpositions
- 5 Predication of PPs
- 6 Form and distribution of adpositions with respect to staticity and construction type
- 7 Adpositional complements and adverbials
- Verbs and Verb Phrases (VPs)
- 0 Introduction to the VP in Saterland Frisian
- 1 Characteristics and classification of verbs
- 2 Unergative and unaccusative subjects and the auxiliary of the perfect
- 3 Evidentiality in relation to perception and epistemicity
- 4 Types of to-infinitival constituents
- 5 Predication
- 5.1 The auxiliary of being and its selection restrictions
- 5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
- 5.3 The auxiliary of continuation and its selection restrictions
- 5.4 The auxiliary of coming and its selection restrictions
- 5.5 Modal auxiliaries and their selection restrictions
- 5.6 Auxiliaries of body posture and aspect and their selection restrictions
- 5.7 Transitive verbs of predication
- 5.8 The auxiliary of doing used as a semantically empty finite auxiliary
- 5.9 Supplementive predication
- 6 The verbal paradigm, irregularity and suppletion
- 7 Verb Second and the word order in main and embedded clauses
- 8 Various aspects of clause structure
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
-
- General
- Phonology
- Afrikaans phonology
- Segment inventory
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
- The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
- The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
- The rounded high back vowel /u/
- The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
- The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
- The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
- Overview of Afrikaans consonants
- The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
- The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
- The bilabial nasal /m/
- The alveolar nasal /n/
- The velar nasal /ŋ/
- The trill /r/
- The lateral liquid /l/
- The alveolar fricative /s/
- The velar fricative /x/
- The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
- The approximants /ɦ/, /j/ and /ʋ/
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- Word stress
- The phonetic properties of stress
- Primary stress on monomorphemic words in Afrikaans
- Background to primary stress in monomorphemes in Afrikaans
- Overview of the Main Stress Rule of Afrikaans
- The short vowels of Afrikaans
- Long vowels in monomorphemes
- Primary stress on diphthongs in monomorphemes
- Exceptions
- Stress shifts in place names
- Stress shift towards word-final position
- Stress pattern of reduplications
- Phonological processes
- Vowel related processes
- Consonant related processes
- Homorganic glide insertion
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Phonotactics
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Afrikaans syntax
- Nouns and noun phrases
- Characteristics of the NP
- Classification of nouns
- Complementation of NPs
- Modification of NPs
- Binominal and partitive constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Partitive constructions with nominalised quantifiers
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Binominal name constructions
- Binominal genitive constructions
- Bare nominal attribution
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- Syntactic uses of the noun phrase
- Adjectives and adjective phrases
- Characteristics and classification of the AP
- Complementation of APs
- Modification and Degree Quantification of APs
- Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative degree
- Attribution of APs
- Predication of APs
- The partitive adjective construction
- Adverbial use of APs
- Participles and infinitives as adjectives
- Verbs and verb phrases
- Characterisation and classification
- Argument structure
- Verb frame alternations
- Complements of non-main verbs
- Verb clusters
- Complement clauses
- Adverbial modification
- Word order in the clause: Introduction
- Word order in the clause: position of the finite Verb
- Word order in the clause: Clause-initial position
- Word order in the clause: Extraposition and right-dislocation in the postverbal field
- Word order in the middle field
- Emphatic constructions
- Adpositions and adposition phrases
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.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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.
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.
a. | Simultaneous (k ≈ t): 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.
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'.
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.
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 (k ≈ t): 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').
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).
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.
a. | Zodra/Toen | zij | Peter zag, | liep | Els weg. | simultaneous | |
as.soon.as/when | she | Peter saw | walked | Els&nbs |