- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
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- 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
Section 2.2, sub I, has discussed adjectives that take a nominal complement and noticed that the adjective and its nominal complement cannot readily undergo topicalization as a whole. The examples in (88) and (89) illustrate this again for, respectively, genitive and dative complements.
| a. | ?? | [AP | Het Frans | machtig] | is hij | niet. |
| ?? | ??[AP | the French | in.command.of | is he | not | |
| 'He isnʼt able to speak French.' | ||||||
| b. | ?? | [AP | Deze opera zat] | zal | hij | niet worden. |
| ?? | ??[AP | this opera weary | will | he | not become | |
| 'He wonʼt get tired of this opera.' | ||||||
| a. | *? | [AP | Die jongen | vertrouwd] | is de omgeving | niet. |
| *? | *?[AP | this boy | familiar | is the area | not | |
| 'This area isnʼt familiar to this boy.' | ||||||
| b. | *? | [AP | De mens | aangeboren] | is de Universele Grammatica | zeker. |
| *? | *?[AP | the man | innate | is the Universal Grammar | certainly | |
| 'Universal Grammar is certainly innate to man.' | ||||||
The degraded status of these examples is not due to a general prohibition on topicalization, given that the primeless examples in (90) and (91), in which the noun phrase is stranded, are completely acceptable, just like the primed examples that involve topicalization of the noun phrase. Observe that the noun phrases precede the clausal modifiers niet'not' and zeker'certainly', which shows that they have been moved leftward into some AP-external position.
| a. | [AP ti Machtig]j is hij het Fransi niet/zeker tj. |
| a'. | Het Fransi is hij niet/zeker [AP ti machtig]. |
| b. | [AP ti Zat]j zal hij deze operai niet/zeker tj worden. |
| b'. | Deze operai zal hij niet/zeker [AP ti zat] worden. |
| a. | [AP ti Vertrouwd]j is de omgeving die jongeni niet/zeker tj. |
| a'. | Die jongeni is de omgeving niet/zeker [AP ti vertrouwd]. |
| b. | [AP ti Aangeboren]j is de Universele Grammatica de mensi niet/zeker tj. |
| b'. | De mensi is de Universele Grammatica niet/zeker [AP ti aangeboren]. |
The examples in (92) and (93) show that in constructions without topicalization, the noun phrase also preferably precedes the clausal modifier, that is, that leftward movement is also strongly preferred in this case. Observe that in (92) the effect is less strong with the clausal adverb zeker'certainly', especially if it is assigned emphatic accent.
| a. | Hij is *?niet/?zeker [AP het Frans machtig]. |
| a'. | Hij is het Fransi niet/zeker [AP ti machtig]. |
| b. | Hij zal *?niet/?zeker [AP deze opera zat] worden. |
| b'. | Hij zal deze operai niet/zeker [AP ti zat] worden. |
| a. | * | De omgeving is niet/zeker [AP die jongen vertrouwd]. |
| a'. | De omgeving is die jongeni niet/zeker [AP ti vertrouwd]. |
| b. | * | De Universele Grammatica is niet/zeker [AP de mens aangeboren]. |
| b'. | De Universele Grammatica is de mensi niet/zeker [AP ti aangeboren]. |
The data above suggest that the noun phrase cannot remain in its base position immediately to the left of the adjective. This conclusion can also be supported by taking into account the position of the nominal complement with respect to the adverbial modifier of the adjective. Since modifiers are more peripheral in the projection of the head than complements, we would expect that the nominal complement can be placed between the adverbial modifier and the adjective; cf. the discussion of (82). As can be seen in (94), however, this leads to ungrammaticality; the nominal complement must precede the modifier vreselijk/erg'extremely/very'.
| a. | * | Hij | zal | vreselijk | deze opera | zat | worden. |
| he | will | extremely | this opera | weary | become | ||
| 'Heʼll become very tired of this opera.' | |||||||
| a'. | Hij zal deze opera vreselijk zat worden. |
| b. | * | De omgeving | is erg | deze jongen | vertrouwd. |
| this area | is very | this boy | familiar | ||
| 'The area is very familiar to the boy.' | |||||
| b'. | De omgeving is deze jongen erg vertrouwd. |
To conclude, we can say that the data in this section have shown that the nominal complements of adjectives cannot remain in their base position immediately to the left of the adjective, but are obligatorily moved leftward into some AP-external position. Why the noun phrase cannot remain in its base position is not clear at this moment.
