This chapter takes as its starting point the discussion in 9.2, which has shown that finite verbs can be found in basically two positions: the clause-final position in embedded clauses and the verb-first/second position in main clauses; the latter position is usually occupied by a complementizer in embedded clauses.

On the basis of these two positions, the clause can be divided into three topological fields: the clause-initial position, the middle field, and the postverbal field; cf. representation (2). Note that the clause-final position can also be occupied by the non-finite verb; it is the position occupied by verb clusters (which also contain the finite verb in embedded clauses); the order within such verb clusters is discussed in Chapter 7.

This chapter discusses the postverbal field, i.e. the clause-internal constituents that follow the clause-final verb position. The postverbal field differs from the clause-initial position in several ways. For example, while the clause-initial position can only be filled by a single constituent, the postverbal field can contain more than one constituent. The examples in (3) show that the postverbal field can remain empty, but can also be filled with the PP-complement op Marie d’r kat, the PP-adjunct na zijn vakantie, or both; the extraposed PPs are given in italics.

The question of whether a clausal constituent occurs in the postverbal field is related to its categorial status. This is illustrated in (4) for direct objects: while nominal direct objects must precede the clause-final verbs, clausal direct objects usually follow them, and the examples in (3) have already shown that prepositional objects such as op Marie d’r kat can occur in both positions.

The question whether a clausal constituent can/must occur in the postverbal field is also related to its syntactic function, as can be seen from the fact that adverbial clauses differ from object clauses in that they do not need to be extraposed, but can also occur in the middle field of the clause.

The examples in (6) show that the postverbal field is also accessible to certain subparts of clausal constituents. This holds, for example, for postnominal modifiers of noun phrases; the noun phrase can function as an argument of the main verb, but also as a subpart of an argument of the main verb. The discontinuous noun phrases are italicized: the noun phrase in (6a) functions as the direct object of the verb kopento buy, while in (6b) it is the nominal part of a naar-PP that functions as the prepositional object of the verb zoekento look (for).

The organization of this chapter is as follows. Section 12.1 begins with a discussion of some general properties of (elements occupying) the postverbal field. Section 12.1 discusses the restrictions on the placement of arguments and complementives in postverbal position; Section 12.3 does the same for adjuncts, and Section 12.4 for subparts of clausal constituents. Section 12.5 concludes with some remarks on word order.