- Dutch
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- 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 1.3.2, sub IB, has shown that the vector approach to spatial adpositional phrases can be straightforwardly applied to temporal adpositional phrases. Due to the fact that the time line is only one-dimensional, an exhaustive description of the temporal relation requires only the three relations before, simultaneous, after, as in (79).
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The relations before and after involve vectors with opposite orientations; simultaneous can be assumed to denote the null vector. Given the conclusions in Section 3.1.7, we therefore expect that modification is possible in the case of before and after (which of course only involve the magnitude of the vector and not the orientation, due to the one-dimensional nature of the time line), but not in the case of simultaneous. The examples in (80) show that this expectation is indeed borne out.
| a. | Dat gebeurde | lang/vlak | voor de tweede wereldoorlog. | |
| that happened | long/just | before World War II |
| b. | * | Dat gebeurde | lang/vlak | tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog. |
| that happened | long/just | during World War II |
| c. | Dat gebeurde | lang/vlak | na de tweede wereldoorlog. | |
| that happened | long/just | after World War II |
Subsection I starts by discussing modification of temporal PPs that take a noun phrase as their complement, and Subsection II continues with temporal PPs that take a clause as their complement.
PPs headed by voor'before' and na'after' are the only temporal PPs that can be modified. As is illustrated in (81) and (82), the modifier can be an adjectival phrase or an adverb, a nominal phrase, and, in the case of na, a prepositional phrase headed by binnen'within'. These modifiers all indicate the “distance” on the time line between the position of the reference object and the position of the event expressed by the remainder of the clause.
| a. | Jan vertrok | lang/kort/vlak | voor de voorstelling. | |
| Jan left | long/shortly/shortly | before the performance |
| b. | Jan vertrok | twee dagen | voor de voorstelling. | |
| Jan left | two days | before the performance |
| c. | * | Jan vertrok | binnen tien minuten | voor de voorstelling. |
| Jan left | within ten minutes | before the performance |
| a. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | lang/kort/vlak | na het ongeluk. | |
| the victim | died | long/shortly/shortly | after the accident |
| b. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | twee dagen | na het ongeluk. | |
| the victim | died | two days | after the accident |
| c. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | binnen tien minuten | na het ongeluk. | |
| the victim died | within | ten minutes | after the accident |
The following subsections discuss these three types of modifiers in more detail.
The adjectival modifiers are mainly lang'long' and kort'shortly', although one may also finds the adjectives snel'quickly' or the adverb spoedig'soon' as modifiers of na-PPs. The adverbs are the same that are used for modification of spatial adpositional phrases: vlak/pal'shortly'.
| a. | Jan vertrok | (zeer) | lang/kort | voor de voorstelling. | |
| Jan left | very | shortly/long | before the performance |
| b. | Jan vertrok | (*zeer) | vlak | voor de voorstelling. | |
| Jan left | very | shortly | before the performance |
It is important to note that lang and kort are antonymous expressions, which is rather special given that antonymous expressions cannot be used to modify spatial voor -PPs. The fact that lang and kort are antonyms accounts for the contrast found in (84a); these examples show that adjectival modifiers are gradable and can be extracted by wh -movement, but that, as always in the case of antonymous APs, the neutral form hoe lang 'how long' is preferred over hoe kort 'how shortly' ; cf. Section A1.3.2.2, sub ID. Example (84b) is ungrammatical due to the earlier established fact that adverbs are not gradable.
| a. | Hoe lang/?kort | voor de voorstelling | vertrok | Jan? | |
| how long/shortly | before the performance | left | Jan | ||
| 'How long before the performance did Jan leave?' | |||||
| b. | * | Hoe vlak | voor de voorstelling | vertrok | Jan? |
| how shortly | before the performance | left | Jan |
Note that, as in the case of spatial PPs, the modifier does not modify the preposition but the full PP. This is clear from the fact that an R-pronoun can intervene between the modifier and the preposition, as is shown in (85).
| a. | Kort | daar | voor/na | vertrok | hij. | |
| shortly | there | before/after | left | he |
| b. | * | Daar | kort | voor/na | vertrok | hij. |
| there | shortly | before/after | left | he |
All nominal expressions that can be used to denote a stretch of time can be used as modifiers: twee dagen'two days', een jaar'one year', een tijdje'a while', etc. The nominal modifier can also be questioned.
| a. | Jan vertrok | twee dagen | voor de voorstelling. | |
| Jan left | two days | before the performance |
| b. | Hoeveel dagen | voor de voorstelling | vertrok Jan? | |
| how.many days | before the exhibition | left Jan |
Like the adjectival modifiers, the nominal measure phrases modify the full PP, which is again clear from the fact that an R-pronoun can intervene between the modifier and the preposition, as is shown in (87).
| a. | Twee dagen | daar | voor/na | vertrok | hij. | |
| two days | there | before/after | left | he |
| c. | * | Daar | twee dagen | voor/na | vertrok | hij. |
| there | two days | before/after | left | he |
The use of adpositional phrases as modifiers of temporal PPs is extremely restricted, the only possibility being PPs headed by binnen'within', which furthermore seems compatible only with temporal adpositional phrases headed by na'after'; cf. the unacceptability of (81c). Note that the modifier can also be questioned in this case.
| a. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | binnen tien minuten | na het ongeluk. | |
| the victim | died | within ten minutes | after the accident |
| b. | Binnen hoeveel minuten | na het ongeluk | overleed | het slachtoffer? | |
| within how many minutes | after the accident | died | the victim |
In light of the examples in (85) and (87) it is remarkable that the presence of a PP modifier seems to block R-pronominalization of the temporal PP; whereas daar na overleed het slachtoffer'after that the victim died' is fully acceptable, the examples in (89) are both degraded. It is not clear to us what brings about this effect.
| a. | * | Binnen tien minuten | daar | na | overleed | het slachtoffer. |
| within ten minutes | there | after | died | the victim |
| b. | * | Daar binnen tien minuten | na | overleed | het slachtoffer. |
| there within ten minutes | after | died | the victim |
As is discussed in Section 2.4.1, sub IIA, adverbial clauses preceded by sequences like voordat 'before' or nadat 'after' can be analyzed either as involving a complex subordinator or as PPs headed by the preposition voor/na , which takes a finite clause as its complement. Whatever the right analysis may be, the examples in (90) and (91) show that such temporal adverbial clauses can be modified in the same way as PPs that take a noun phrase as their complement; cf. (81) and (82). Since the modifiers behave in the same way with respect to questioning, we will not illustrate this here.
| a. | Jan vertrok | lang/kort/vlak | voor | dat | de voorstelling | begon. | |
| Jan left | long/shortly/shortly | before | that | the performance | begun |
| b. | Jan vertrok | twee dagen | voor | dat | de voorstelling | begon. | |
| Jan left | two days | before | that | the performance | begun |
| c. | * | Jan vertrok | binnen tien minuten | voor | dat | de voorstelling | begon. |
| Jan left | within ten minutes | before | that | the performance | begun |
| a. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | lang/kort/vlak | na | dat | hij | aangereden | was. | |
| the victim | died | long/shortly/shortly | after | that | he | over.run | was | ||
| 'The victim died long/shortly/just after he was run over.' | |||||||||
| b. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | twee dagen | na | dat | hij | aangereden | was. | |
| the victim | died | two days | after | that | he | over.run | was |
| c. | Het slachtoffer | overleed | binnen tien minuten | na | dat | hij | aangereden | was. | |
| the victim | died | within ten minutes | after | that | he | over.run | was |
The examples in (92) show, however, that in contrast to finite clauses, infinitival temporal clauses do not allow modification. Note that we cannot illustrate this for voor 'before' , given that it cannot be used to introduce infinitival clauses; the corresponding infinitival complementizer is alvorens ; cf. Section 2.4.2, sub II.
| a. | * | Het slachtoffer | overleed | vlak | na | overreden | te zijn. |
| the victim | died | just | after | over.run | to be | ||
| Intended reading: 'The victim died just after being overrun.' | |||||||
| b. | * | Vlak | alvorens | te gaan | eten, | dronken | we een glas sherry. |
| just | before | to go | eat, | drank | we a glass sherry | ||
| Intended reading: 'Just before eating, we drank a glass of sherry.' | |||||||
