- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
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- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Verbs: Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I: Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases IIIa: Selected clauses/verb phrases (introduction)
- 1.0. Introduction
- 1.1. Main types of verb-frame alternation
- 1.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 1.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 1.4. Some apparent cases of verb-frame alternation
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa: Selected clauses/verb phrases (introduction)
- 4.0. Introduction
- 4.1. Semantic types of finite argument clauses
- 4.2. Finite and infinitival argument clauses
- 4.3. Control properties of verbs selecting an infinitival clause
- 4.4. Three main types of infinitival argument clauses
- 4.5. Non-main verbs
- 4.6. The distinction between main and non-main verbs
- 4.7. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb: Argument and complementive clauses
- 5.0. Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 5.4. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc: Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId: Verb clustering
- 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)
- 11.0. 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
- 11.4. Bibliographical notes
- 12 Word order in the clause IV: Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 14 Characterization and classification
- 15 Projection of noun phrases I: Complementation
- 15.0. Introduction
- 15.1. General observations
- 15.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 15.3. Clausal complements
- 15.4. Bibliographical notes
- 16 Projection of noun phrases II: Modification
- 16.0. Introduction
- 16.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 16.2. Premodification
- 16.3. Postmodification
- 16.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 16.3.2. Relative clauses
- 16.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 16.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 16.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 16.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 16.4. Bibliographical notes
- 17 Projection of noun phrases III: Binominal constructions
- 17.0. Introduction
- 17.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 17.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 17.3. Bibliographical notes
- 18 Determiners: Articles and pronouns
- 18.0. Introduction
- 18.1. Articles
- 18.2. Pronouns
- 18.3. Bibliographical notes
- 19 Numerals and quantifiers
- 19.0. Introduction
- 19.1. Numerals
- 19.2. Quantifiers
- 19.2.1. Introduction
- 19.2.2. Universal quantifiers: ieder/elk ‘every’ and alle ‘all’
- 19.2.3. Existential quantifiers: sommige ‘some’ and enkele ‘some’
- 19.2.4. Degree quantifiers: veel ‘many/much’ and weinig ‘few/little’
- 19.2.5. Modification of quantifiers
- 19.2.6. A note on the adverbial use of degree quantifiers
- 19.3. Quantitative er constructions
- 19.4. Partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions
- 19.5. Bibliographical notes
- 20 Predeterminers
- 20.0. Introduction
- 20.1. The universal quantifier al ‘all’ and its alternants
- 20.2. The predeterminer heel ‘all/whole’
- 20.3. A note on focus particles
- 20.4. Bibliographical notes
- 21 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- 22 Referential dependencies (binding)
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 23 Characteristics and classification
- 24 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 25 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 26 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 27 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 28 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 29 The partitive genitive construction
- 30 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 31 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 32 Characteristics and classification
- 32.0. Introduction
- 32.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 32.2. A syntactic classification of adpositional phrases
- 32.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 32.4. Borderline cases
- 32.5. Bibliographical notes
- 33 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 34 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 35 Syntactic uses of adpositional phrases
- 36 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 32 Characteristics and classification
- Coordination and Ellipsis
- Syntax
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- General
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- 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)
We speak of irregularity in case the forms of a verbal paradigm are not completely p[redictable on the basis of a single form. However, most irregular forms do share a similarity among each other. Reconsider the case of boake ‘bake’. It has as reduced stems: bak and buuk. Although these forms are not predictable, they are similar. More specifically, the consonant frame remains constant, and it is just the nucleus (the vowel) which is irregular. This holds true of most irregular verbs. Irregularity targets the stem vowel, but not the consonant frame. There is a small number of cases in which the coda is irregular, that is, the consonant group following the nucleus. In such a case, only the onset is constant throughout the paradigm. This is for example the case with a verb like sjo ‘see’. It doesn’t have a coda in its infinitive, but in the past tense the coda is a velar fricative: saach ‘saw’. It is only a minority of the irregular verbs, in which the coda is affected. But then there is an even higher degree of irregularity, in which some forms of the paradigm of a speicifc verb have nothing in common with each other. This is the case with the most irregular of all verbs in most languages, the verb of being. The 3SG form is ‘is’ has nothing in common with the 1SG form bän ‘am’. Here two completely different stems are involved. And the infinitive weze ‘be’ instantiates a third stem. If there is no similarity between two stems belonging to the same verbal paradigm, we speak of suppletion.
All West Germanic languages testify to suppletion in the verbal paradigm of the verb of being. Suppletion is related to frequency. Only very frequent verbs may exhibit suppletion. The verb of going has an example of suppletion in its paradigm in English: the past tense went is unrelated to the other forms of the paradigm. It derives from a different verb alltogether: Old English wendan ‘turn, go’, which appears in Saterland Frisian as weende ‘turn’. The verb of going in Saterland Frisian is gunge ‘go’. It does not testify to suppletion: all its forms have the same onset before the nucleus: g-. However, the language has developed two other cases of suppletion, which are characteristic of East Frisian and which are not found in the other West Germanic languages. These two cases naturally involve two very frequent verbs, namely the verb of seeing (sjo ‘see’) and the verb of giving (jeeuwe ‘give’). We will discuss both these verbs in some more detail below.
The verb sjo ‘see’ has as its perfect participle the form: blouked. The complete paradigm is given as follows (from J. Hoekstra 2008, on whom the information given here is based).
| 1SG | 2SG | 3SG | PL | Participle | |
| Present: | sjo | sjuchst | sjucht | sjo | (säin) |
| Past: | saach | saachst | saach | segen | blouked |
Suppletion in the paradigm of to see might well be a property of all East Frisian language varieties. It is also found in Wangerooge Frisian:
| 1SG | 2SG | 3SG | PL | Participle | |
| Present: | sjo | sjuchst | sjucht | sjo | sjoeen |
| Past: | blouked | bloukest | blouked | bloukeden | blouked |
In Wangerooge Frisian, the suppletive form has extended its domain from the past participle to the simple past. The intrusive form derives from the verb bloukje ‘see’, which reconstructs to be-loukje. It is also interesting that the prefix be- is no longer recognisable, since it is perfectly well able to survive with other verbs. The form loukje is cognate with English to look, West Frisian (now obsolete) loaitsje. There are indications that the paradigm of the verb of seeing was suppletive in other East Frisian varieties as well. The intrusion seems first to have taken place in the form of the past participle. The original participle of sjo is: sain ‘seen’. This form still exists in compounds and derived forms, such as fersjo ‘equip’, which has as its past participle fersain. The verb bloukje ‘look’ does not exist outside the paradigm of sjo ‘see’, where the form of its participle lives on in Saterland Frisian. This is similar to English, where the verb wendan disappeared after its past tense was incorporated into the verb to go. Saterland Frisian didn’t preserve the form loukje ‘look’ either. It was replaced with the Low German form kiekje ‘see’. J. Hoekstra relates the possibility of the intrusion process to semantic factors, which certainly play a role. The second factor is frequency. Suppletion correlates with frequency. Only verbs of very high frequency can be subject to suppletion. The third factor is similarity. It seems that suppletion takes place in case the forms of a very frequent verb resemble each other too much. The effect of suppletion is that it creates dissimilarity among the forms of the paradigm. In this respect, it is interesting that suppletion targets verbs with a monosyllabic infinitive. These monosyllabic verbs have forms which are relatively more similar to each other.
A second example of suppletion involves the Old Frisian verb jeva ‘to give’ (on Old Frisian, see Bremmer 2009 and the references given there). This verb has been completely replaced by the verb reke ‘to hand’. This process may have taken place by suppletion as well. It has even affected the compunds and derived forms, so we find forms like uutreke ‘give out’, and so on. The original stem is preserved in the nominalisation Jeeuwer ‘giver, spender’. In addition, it survives in a couple of derived forms. This subject merits further study.
Finally we point out that there are cases in which two verbs seem to have been collapsed. As a result, one verbal paradigm may have two different and unrelated meanings. A case in point is läite, which means both ‘to let’ (West Frisian litte) and ‘to seem’ (West Frisian lykje). Another example is stete, which means both ‘to bump’ (West Frisian stjitte) and ‘to prick’ (West Frisian stekke).
