- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- 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
- Coordination and Ellipsis
- Nouns and noun phrases (JANUARI 2025)
- 15 Characterization and classification
- 16 Projection of noun phrases I: Complementation
- 16.0. Introduction
- 16.1. General observations
- 16.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 16.3. Clausal complements
- 16.4. Bibliographical notes
- 17 Projection of noun phrases II: Modification
- 17.0. Introduction
- 17.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 17.2. Premodification
- 17.3. Postmodification
- 17.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 17.3.2. Relative clauses
- 17.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 17.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 17.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 17.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 17.4. Bibliographical notes
- 18 Projection of noun phrases III: Binominal constructions
- 18.0. Introduction
- 18.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 18.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 18.3. Bibliographical notes
- 19 Determiners: Articles and pronouns
- 19.0. Introduction
- 19.1. Articles
- 19.2. Pronouns
- 19.3. Bibliographical notes
- 20 Numerals and quantifiers
- 20.0. Introduction
- 20.1. Numerals
- 20.2. Quantifiers
- 20.2.1. Introduction
- 20.2.2. Universal quantifiers: ieder/elk ‘every’ and alle ‘all’
- 20.2.3. Existential quantifiers: sommige ‘some’ and enkele ‘some’
- 20.2.4. Degree quantifiers: veel ‘many/much’ and weinig ‘few/little’
- 20.2.5. Modification of quantifiers
- 20.2.6. A note on the adverbial use of degree quantifiers
- 20.3. Quantitative er constructions
- 20.4. Partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions
- 20.5. Bibliographical notes
- 21 Predeterminers
- 21.0. Introduction
- 21.1. The universal quantifier al ‘all’ and its alternants
- 21.2. The predeterminer heel ‘all/whole’
- 21.3. A note on focus particles
- 21.4. Bibliographical notes
- 22 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- 23 Referential dependencies (binding)
- Syntax
-
- General
This section consists of two parts: the first deals with appositively used “true” adjectives; the second deals with appositively used past and present participles. Although, strictly speaking, modal infinitives should also be discussed in the second part, this will not be done, since they are already discussed in Section 17.3.3, sub IVB. This section on adjectival postmodification will be brief, since the attributive use of adjectival and participle phrases is treated in detail in Chapters A28 and A32.
Although adjectival modifiers in Dutch typically appear in prenominal position, they can occasionally also be found in postnominal position, where they can be interpreted either as restrictive, as in (550a), or as non-restrictive, as in (550b&c). Unlike prenominal adjectival modifiers, postnominal adjectival modifiers are not inflected.
| a. | ? | Een olifant | hongerig en kwaad | kan | veel schade | aanrichten. |
| an elephant | hungry and angry | can | much harm | prt.-cause | ||
| 'An elephant hungry and angry can do a lot of harm.' | ||||||
| b. | Jan, | jaloers op zijn zusje, | scheurde | het boek | kapot. | |
| Jan | jealous on his sister | tore | the book | into.pieces | ||
| 'Jan, jealous of his sister, tore the book up.' | ||||||
| c. | De jongen, | rood van schaamte , | durfde | haar | niet | aan | te kijken. | |
| the boy | red with shame | dared | her | not | prt. | to look | ||
| 'The boy, scarlet with shame, did not dare look at her.' | ||||||||
Restrictive adjectival postmodification is less common, and is usually restricted to indefinite noun phrases; only in emphatic and contrastive contexts like (551) can definite noun phrases or proper nouns be used. Since individual-level predicates like intelligent are not likely to be emphatically or contrastively stressed, it is not surprising that the examples in (551) do not accept this adjective.
| a. | Deze jongen | jaloers/*intelligent | is tot | alles | in staat. | emphatic | |
| this boy | jealous/intelligent | is to | everything | capable | |||
| 'This boy jealous is capable of everything.' | |||||||
| b. | Jan kwaad/*intelligent | is te verkiezen | boven | Jan verdrietig. | contrastive | |
| Jan angry/intelligent | is to prefer | above | Jan sad | |||
| 'Jan angry is preferable to Jan sad.' | ||||||
Non-restrictive postnominal APs, on the other hand, are quite common and accept all kinds of antecedents. Since the modifier does not serve to restrict or identify the antecedent, the antecedent can be either definite or indefinite, or even a proper noun. Moreover, the adjectives in question can be either stage-level or individual-level, and need not be modified in any particular way, although more or less heavy APs are usually preferred. Some examples are given in (552).
| a. | Jan veegde | zijn gezicht, | nog nat ??(van het zweet), | met zijn zakdoek | af. | |
| Jan wiped | his face | still wet of the sweat | with his handkerchief | prt. | ||
| 'Jan wiped his face, still wet with perspiration, with his handkerchief.' | ||||||
| b. | Haar hoofd, | zo rood als een biet, | steekt | scherp | af | bij haar witte blouse. | |
| her head | as red as a beet | contrasts | sharply | prt. | with her white blouse | ||
| 'Her head, as red as a beet, contrasts sharply with her white blouse.' | |||||||
| c. | Jan, | jaloers op zijn zusje, | scheurde | het boek | kapot. | |
| Jan | jealous on his sister | tore | the book | into.pieces | ||
| 'Jan, jealous of his sister, tore the book up.' | ||||||
If we are dealing with a simple AP, the construction can be paraphrased with the adjective in prenominal position, as shown in the (a)-examples in (553). However, this requires that the prenominal adjective can be given a non-restrictive interpretation, which implies that such paraphrases are restricted to constructions with definite antecedents. The indefinite example in (553b'), though perfectly acceptable, is therefore not a paraphrase of (553b): whereas (553b) presupposes that all elephants are big and heavy, and that all members of this species can therefore do a lot of damage, example (553b') expresses rather that only a subset of elephants are big and heavy, and that the members of this subset can do a lot of damage.
| a. | De atleet, | uitgeput, | haalde | de finish | niet. | |
| the athlete | exhausted | made | the finish | not | ||
| 'The athlete, exhausted, did not make it to the finish.' | ||||||
| a'. | De uitgeputte atleet | haalde | de finish | niet. | |
| the exhausted athlete | made | the finish | not | ||
| 'The exhausted athlete did not make it to the finish.' | |||||
| b. | Olifanten, | groot en zwaar, | kunnen | veel schade | aanrichten. | |
| elephants | big and heavy | can | much damage | prt.-cause | ||
| 'Elephants, big and heavy, can do a lot of harm.' | ||||||
| b'. | # | Grote en zware olifanten kunnen veel schade aanbrengen. |
Attributively used past and present participle phrases are usually found in prenominal attributive position. Given that these pronominal modifiers have attributive inflection in this position, it is safe to assume that participle phrases of this type are in fact adjectival phrases; cf. Chapter A32 for a detailed discussion. In this subsection we will focus on the postnominal use of these phrases.
Postnominal present participle phrases can occur with the same verb types as prenominal attributive phrases. This is illustrated in (554) for non-restrictive postnominal phrases. The modified noun is interpreted as the implied agent of the participle if the verb is intransitive, transitive, or if the verb takes a PP-complement, or as the implied theme if the verb is unaccusative.
| a. | Mijn | voor Philips | werkende | broer | is programmeur. | intransitive | |
| my | for Philips | working | brother | is programmer | |||
| 'My brother who works for Philips is a computer programmer.' | |||||||
| a'. | Mijn broer, werkend voor Philips, is programmeur. |
| b. | De | een vrolijk deuntje | fluitende | jongen | fietste | voorbij. | transitive | |
| the | a cheerful tune | whistling | boy | cycled | past | |||
| 'The boy who was cheerfully whistling a tune, cycled past.' | ||||||||
| b'. | De jongen, een vrolijk deuntje fluitend, fietste voorbij. |
| c. | De | van spoor 2 | vertrekkende | trein | is vertraagd. | unaccusative | |
| the | from platform 2 | departing | train | is delayed | |||
| 'The train to Tilburg that is leaving from platform 2, has a delay.' | |||||||
| c'. | De trein naar Tilburg, vertrekkend van spoor 2, is vertraagd. |
| d. | Het op de trein | wachtende | meisje | stampte met haar voeten. | PP-complement | |
| the on the train | waiting | girl | stamped with her feet | |||
| 'The girl who was waiting for the train stamped her feet.' | ||||||
| d'. | Het meisje, wachtend op de trein, zag er koud en eenzaam uit. |
Like the postnominal adjectives discussed in Subsection I, the postnominal participles in the primed examples of (554d) are usually not inflected. Note, however, that in formal language it is sometimes possible for the present participle to have the ending -e. An example can be found in (555).
| De verdachte, | wonende in Amsterdam, | werd gisteren | gearresteerd. | ||
| the suspect, | living in Amsterdam, | was yesterday | arrested | ||
| 'The suspect, living in Amsterdam, was arrested | |||||
| yesterday.' | |||||
Postnominal restrictive present participle phrases, which are never inflected, are less common than non-restrictive ones, and occur under more or less the same conditions as postnominal adjectives. The examples in (556) show that they can occur with intransitive and unaccusative verbs as well as with verbs taking a PP-complement, but that the result is degraded when the verb is transitive. The reason for the degraded status of (556b) may be related to the fact that the antecedent and the present participle are not adjacent (as with all non-finite verbs, the object cannot follow the participle either). Note, however, that this leads to a better result in examples such as (556d'); this example seems more or less acceptable, but marked compared to (556d), where the noun and the participle are adjacent.
| a. | Mensen | werkend voor hem | zijn | niet | zeker | van hun baan. | intransitive | |
| people | working for him | are | not | certain | of their job |
| b. | * | Een jongen | een vrolijk deuntje fluitend, | fietste | voorbij. | transitive |
| a boy | a cheerful tune whistling | cycled | past |
| c. | De trein | vertrekkend van spoor 2 | is vertraagd. | unaccusative | |
| the train | leaving from platform 2 | is delayed | |||
| 'The train leaving from platform 2 has a ten-minute delay.' | |||||
| d. | Reizigers | wachtend | op deze trein | krijgen | vertraging. | PP-complement | |
| travelers | waiting | for this train | get | delay | |||
| 'Travelers waiting for this train will get a delay.' | |||||||
| d'. | ? | Reizigers op de trein naar Breda wachtend krijgen vertraging. |
Another difference between non-restrictive and restrictive present participle phrases is that the former, but not the latter, allow a copular verb. Postnominal restrictive participle phrases are similar to attributive constructions in this respect.
| a. | Mijn vriend, | architect | zijnde, | weet | veel | van dat soort dingen. | |
| my friend | architect | being | knows | much | of that kind of things | ||
| 'My friend, being an architect, knows much about those things.' | |||||||
| b. | * | Een vriend/Iemand | architect zijnde | weet | veel | van dat soort dingen. |
| a friend/someone | architect being | knows | much | of that kind of things |
| b'. | * | Mijn architect zijnde vriend weet veel van dat soort dingen. |
Like the attributively used past/passive participle phrases in the primeless examples of (558), the non-restrictive postnominal phrases in the primed examples are only acceptable with a transitive or unaccusative participle: the modified noun is interpreted as the implied theme of the participle, i.e. the direct object of the corresponding transitive verb or the subject of the corresponding unaccusative verb; cf. Sections V2.1.2 and A32.2 for discussion.
| a. | * | Deze | voor hem | gewerkte | man | is niet zeker | van zijn baan. | intransitive |
| this | for him | worked | man | is not certain | of his job |
| a'. | * | Deze man, gewerkt voor Philips, is niet zeker van zijn baan. |
| b. | Deze | in Japan gemaakte | auto | is aanzienlijk goedkoper. | transitive | |
| this | in Japan made | car | is considerably cheaper |
| b'. | Deze auto, gemaakt in Japan, is aanzienlijk goedkoper. |
| c. | De | bij Breda | ontspoorde trein | gaf | veel vertraging. | unaccusative | |
| the | near Breda | derailed train | gave | much delay |
| c'. | De trein, ontspoord tussen Tilburg en Breda, gaf veel vertraging. |
Example (559a) shows that the modified noun phrase cannot be interpreted as the nominal part of a PP-complement, and (559b) that the past participle, unlike the present participle, cannot be a copular. The latter may be surprising, since the copular verb is a kind of unaccusative verb.
| a. | * | De | door het meisje | op | gewachte | trein | kwam | te laat. | PP-complement |
| the | by the girl | for | waited | train | came | too late |
| a'. | * | De trein, <op> gewacht <op> door het meisje, kwam te laat. |
| b. | * | Mijn vriend, | architect geweest, | weet | veel van dat soort dingen. | copular |
| my friend | architect been | knows | much about that sort of things |
Postnominal restrictive past participle phrases are less common than non-restrictive ones, and occur under more or less the same conditions as postnominal adjectives. Again, the participle must be transitive or unaccusative, and the modified noun phrase cannot be interpreted as the nominal part of a PP-complement. Finally, the participle cannot be a copular, but this will not be illustrated here.
| a. | * | Mensen | gewerkt | voor hem | zijn | niet zeker | van hun baan. | intransitive |
| people | worked | for him | are | not certain | of their job |
| b. | Auto’s | gemaakt | in Japan zijn | aanzienlijk goedkoper. | transitive | |
| cars | made | in Japan are | considerably cheaper |
| c. | De trein ontspoord bij Breda | veroorzaakte | veel vertraging. | unaccusative | |
| the train derailed near Breda | caused | much delay |
