The transitive verb häbe ‘to have’ is able to provide a complementive structure for a direct object and an Adposition Phrase (PP) predicated of it. This verb involves a relation of being between its direct object and the PP predicate. The external argument of the PP is thus realised as the direct object, wheras it is realised as the structural subject in an intransitive predication.

The following two examples involve the verb häbe ‘to have’. In such cases, the direct object must frequently be an expletive noun, as in the first example, or a measure noun, as in the second example:

The first example establishes a locational containment relation between the pain and the back, and the containee is realised in the external position, which here is the direct object position. The subject denotes the possessor of both locations. The container is realised as the prepositional complement. The second example does not involve location but causation. The money is the causee, and it is realised in the external position, here the direct object position. The subject again denotes the possessor, in this case the possessor of the cause and the causee. There are also examples in which the direct is a normal argument:

A peculiar example is the following:

There are three NPs in this clause, apart from the prepositional complement. One of them is a measure phrase, which may perhaps be analysed as a modifier of the PP. In that case, the PP is predicated of the direct object, as in the earlier examples.

Häbe ‘to have’ is a transitive verb of being, as far as its direct object and its predicate are concerned. The unmarked transitive verb of becoming is kriege ‘get’, which likewise mediates in establishing a predication relation between its direct object and a PP. An example is provided below:

Here the direct object is the inherent possessor of the body part realised as the prepositional complement. The subject is the non-inherent possessor of this body part. Some more examples are given below:

The last example illustrates that the preposition changes into a postposition because its complement is realised as a R-pronoun. The second example illustrates that a complex of two bare adpositions is predicated of the direct object. The first example is a straightforward locative example.

Modal verbs include moute ‘must’, wolle ‘want’ and hougje ‘need to’. Examples could not be found.

Prototypical transitive verbs of caused motion such as sätte ‘to put’ involve a change of location initiated by a cause or an agent. They can be considered the motional-locational equivalent of the concept of becoming. The example below involves temporal placement:

Here there is a temporal containment relation between the direct object and the prepositional complement. The temporal complement denotes the container, the direct object the containee. The subject is the possessor of both temporal stretches and the events contained in them. Transitive predication may also involve a reflexive object:

Another example is given below:

Here the preposition specifies the spatial relation of relative orientation between the prepositional complement and the direct object. The following example is interesting as it involves two verbal objects, one of which is a reflexive:

The external argument of the preposition is the illness, which is realised as the reflexive object. The other object hier ‘her’ is the affected object, the possessor of the body part denoted by the prepositional complement. Consider next the following example, which is a classic locational case:

These examples together illustrate both the basis case of a subject causing an object to change its location and the more difficult cases involving reflexives and more abstract or idiomatic interpretations.

Adposition Phrases (PPs) participating in an evidential construction are characteristically formed with the word as ‘as’. An example of a supplementive phrase is given below, involving the verb moakje ‘make’:

The PP is predicated of the direct object, and then verb moakje ‘make’ functions as a transitive verb of becoming. However, a verb may select a different adposition, as in the following example, involving the preposition foar ‘for’:

Apart from evidentials, the word as ‘as’ is freely used to establish a predication relation. As such it may be selected, but it may also function as a supplementive predicated of the subject or object.