- 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
The factors determining attributive inflection on the adjective can be distributed into two groups. Those in the first group involve syntactic and semantic features of the noun (phrase), and the second involve phonological properties of the adjective itself. These two groups are discussed in Subsections I and II, respectively.
The inflectional ending of an attributive adjective depends on the gender of the noun it modifies; cf. also Section 1.2. If the noun is masculine or feminine and thus belongs to the de-group, the adjective normally ends in -e (pronounced as schwa /ə/), which means that the inflection is independent of the number and the definiteness of the noun phrase. If the noun is neuter and thus belongs to the het-group, the -e ending is absent in indefinite singular noun phrases. This is illustrated in Table 1, in which the single case of null inflection is given in a box with bold lines.
| singular | plural | |||
| de-nouns | het-nouns | de-nouns | het-nouns | |
| definite | de oude stoel the old chair | het oude boek the old book | de oude stoelen the old chairs | de oude boeken the old books |
| indefinite | een oude stoel an old chair | een oud-∅ boek an old book | oude stoelen old chairs | oude boeken old books |
The paradigm in Table 1 can be described by assuming the rules in (2), in which the words between square brackets indicate the features of the noun (phrase).
| a. | +neuter+indefinite+singular ⇒ adjective + -∅ |
| b. | otherwise: adjective + -e |
Alternatively, we could assume the rules in (3). Although this set of rules may seem unnecessarily complex, we will take it as our point of departure for our exposition later in this chapter.
| a. | -neuter | ⇒ adjective + -e |
| b. | -indefinite | ⇒ adjective + -e |
| c. | -singular | ⇒ adjective + -e |
| d. | otherwise: adjective + -∅ |
Although we do not intend to make any theoretical claim by adopting (3), we want to point out that this set of rules is superior to the set of rules in (2) in that it straightforwardly accounts for the fact illustrated in Table 2 that number is irrelevant in the case of non-count nouns: the attributive -e ending is lacking with indefinite noun phrases headed by a non-count noun. This would follow from (3), but not from (2), if we assume that the number feature is simply not present on non-count nouns; see Broekhuis (2007/2008: Section 4.2) for more discussion.
| de-noun | het-noun | |
| definite | de lekkere rijst the tasty rice | het lekkere bier tasty beer |
| indefinite | lekkere rijst tasty rice | lekker-∅ bier tasty beer |
The examples in (4) show that, if a noun is combined with more than one adjective, the inflectional ending appears on each of the adjectives. The (a)-examples involve the non-neuter noun stoel'chair', and the (b)-examples the neuter noun boek'book'.
| a. | een oud-e fraai-e stoel | |
| * | een oud fraai-e stoel | |
| * | een oud-e fraai stoel | |
| 'an old fine chair' |
| a'. | een oud-e, maar fraai-e stoel | |
| * | een oud, maar fraai-e stoel | |
| * | een oud-e, maar fraai stoel | |
| 'an old but fine chair' |
| b. | een oud fraai boek | |
| * | een oud-e fraai boek | |
| * | een oud fraai-e boek | |
| 'an old fine book' |
| b'. | een oud, maar fraai boek | |
| * | een oud-e, maar fraai boek | |
| * | een oud, maar fraai-e boek | |
| 'an old but fine book' |
We will refer to this phenomenon as the concord constraint on attributive inflection, which is formulated in (5).
| If a noun is combined with more than one attributive adjective, the inflectional endings on the adjectives are identical (unless the -e ending is not realized for phonological reasons): | ||
| * | [NP .. ADJ-∅ .. ADJ-e .. N] | |
| * | [NP .. ADJ-e .. ADJ-∅ .. N] |
The proviso between parentheses in (5) is needed, because the appearance of the -e ending is partly phonologically determined. As will become clear in Subsection II, this proviso will account for the apparent counterexamples in (6).
| a. | de | oud-e | kaki-∅ | broek | |
| the | old | khaki | trousers |
| b. | de | blauw-e | open-∅ | deur | |
| the | blue | open | door |
Observe that the constraint in (5) does not apply to the examples in (7), in which the adjectives can be considered compound forms.
| a. | de | rood-wit-blauw-e | vlag | |
| the | red-white-blue | flag |
| b. | de | rood-met-witt-e | vlag | |
| the | red-with-white | flag |
| c. | de | kant-en-klar-e | maaltijd | |
| the | instant | food |
| d. | de | Nederlands-Duits-e | betrekkingen | |
| the | Dutch-German | relations |
The paradigm in Table 1 is typical for adjectives that end in a consonant (cf. the examples given in the previous subsection), but if the adjective ends in a vowel, the -e ending can sometimes be dropped. The pattern in (8) arises: short vowels are not mentioned because they only occur in closed syllables (= syllables that end in a consonant) in Dutch.
| a. | long vowels: |
| i. | /a/, /o/ or /i/: no inflection |
| ii. | /e/, /y/ or /u/: -e inflection (with intervocalic /j/ or /w/ sound) |
| b. | diphthong: -e inflection |
| c. | schwa /ə/: no inflection |
The -e inflection is absent if the adjective ends in the long vowel /a/, /o/ or /i/, as in (9). The number of adjectives that belong to this group is quite small.
| a. | een | prima-∅ | opmerking | |
| an | excellent | remark |
| b. | een | albino-∅ | muis | |
| an | albino | mouse |
| c. | de | kaki-∅ | broek | |
| the | khaki | trousers |
If the adjective ends in /e/, /y/ or /u/, on the other hand, the inflection is realized with an intervocalic /j/ (or /w/) sound, which is sometimes orthographically represented by a dieresis on the inflectional ending (-ë), as in (10a), or as an i preceding the schwa, as in (10c). In (10b) there is no orthographic representation of the intervocalic sound.
| a. | een | gedweeë | man | gedweeë = [xədwejə] | |
| a | docile | man |
| b. | het | continue | gezeur | continue = [kɔntinywə] or [kɔntinyjə] | |
| the | continuous | moaning |
| c. | de | moeie | man | moeie = [mujə] | |
| the | tired | man |
It has been suggested that the difference between (9) and (10) is due to the word-internal prosodic structure: the -e ending can only appear if the long vowel carries stress. Whereas the adjectives in (10) have stress on the final syllable, the small number of Dutch adjectives that end in /a:/, /o:/ and /i/ have main stress on the penultimate syllable (indicated by small caps): extra, lila'lilac', mica, nappa'leather', prima'excellent', albino, franco'post-free', kaki'khaki', sexy. However, the fact that the number of adjectives ending in a long vowel is quite small makes it difficult to draw any firm conclusions.
If the adjective ends in a diphthong, the -e ending is realized, as is demonstrated in (11).
| a. | een | vrij-e | stoel | vrije = [vrεiə] | |
| a | free | chair |
| b. | een | lui-e | student | luie = [lœyə] | |
| a | lazy | student |
| c. | een | blauw-e | vaas | blauwe = [blɔue] | |
| a | blue | vase |
If the adjective ends in a schwa, the -e inflection is absent, as is illustrated in the primeless examples in (12). The primed examples show that adjectives ending in -en (pronounced as schwa in Standard Dutch) also lack the -e inflection.
| a. | de | beige-∅/oranje-∅ | ballon | |
| the | beige/orange | balloon |
| a'. | de | dronken-∅ | soldaat | |
| the | drunken | soldier |
| b. | perfide-∅ | opmerkingen | |
| perfidious | remarks |
| b'. | de | open-∅ | deur | |
| the | open | door |
A subclass of the adjectives characterized by ending in -en (schwa), and hence by not appearing in the inflected form, are the substance adjectives, such as ijzeren 'iron' , houten 'wooden' and gouden 'golden' in (13). Observe that the -en ending is an adjectivizing affix in these cases, and cannot be seen as the adjectival inflection -e, since it also shows up in the case of the indefinite singular neuter noun phrases. The affix -en is possibly an old genitive ending (Te Winkel 1849), which may still be syntactically active as such; cf. Section 1.3.3, sub V.
| a. | een | ijzeren-∅ | beker/hek | de beker/het hek | |
| an | iron | mug/gate |
| b. | een | houten-∅ | lepel/mes | de lepel/het mes | |
| a | wooden | spoon |
| c. | een | gouden-∅ | oorbel/oorbelletje | de oorbel/het oorbelletje | |
| a | golden | earring/earringdim |
Although the -e inflection is normally added to attributively used past/passive participles, as in (14a&b), it is absent if we are dealing with an irregular past/passive participle ending in -en, as in (14a'&b'). Similarly, the -e ending is absent in the case of attributively used modal infinitives such as (14c). The inflectional properties of participles and modal infinitives will be more extensively discussed in Section 9.1.
| a. | de | gepost-e | brief | |
| the | posted | letter |
| a'. | de | geschreven-∅ | brief | |
| the | written | letter |
| b. | de | afgezett-e | koning | |
| the | deposed | king |
| b'. | de | verdreven-∅ | koning | |
| the | dislodged | king |
| c. | het | te lezen-∅ | boek | |
| the | to read | book | ||
| 'the book to be read' | ||||
The fact that the -e inflection cannot follow schwa can possibly be attributed to a phonological condition that prohibits two adjacent schwa-sounds, although it should be noted that the varieties of Dutch in which -en is pronounced as [(ə)n] do not realize the -e ending in the relevant cases either; appealing to a phonological condition to exclude the attributive -e is not possible in these cases, since /ən/ can be followed by schwa in cases like het opene van zijn karakter 'the open nature of his character' and het geschrevene 'what has been written' ; see Section 5.4, sub II, for a discussion of examples like these.
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- 2008Derivations and evaluations: object shift in the Germanic languagesnullStudies in Generative GrammarBerlin/New YorkMouton de Gruyter
- 1849Bijdrage tot de kennis van de geslachten der zelfstandige naamwoordenMagazijn van de Nederlandse Taalkunde3177-185
