/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    6.1.1 Aspectual verbs with a complementive predication of AP
    quickinfo

    Intransitive aspectuals, also referred to as copulas, are verbs indicating a state or a change of state. They provide the outer structure for a predication. Examples of intransitive aspectuals are: weze ‘be’, wäide ‘become’, blieuwe ‘stay’, and the evidential aspectual läite ‘seem to be’. Examples of a transitive aspectual are: häbe ‘have’, hoolde ‘keep’. Aspectual copulas combine with set-denoting adjectives. The AP is the predicate, and the argument of the AP is realised in subject position with intransitive verbs and in object position with transitive verbs.

    readmore

    The unmarked verb of intransitive predication is the verb weze ‘be’. An example is given below:

    1
    Et is tou woorm.
    it is too warm
    It is too warm.

    Here the argument of the AP is hosted by the subject position of the copula. The unmarked verb of transitive predication is the verb häbe ‘have’, which is the transitive equivalent of weze ‘be’. An example is given below:

    2
    Dan häbe wie dät hele Huus loange woorm.
    then have we the whole house long warm
    Then we have the whole house warm for a long time.

    The argument of the AP appears in the direct object position of the transitive copula. The subject position of the verb hosts the person who in some sense ‘owns’ the proposition. Häbe ‘have’ may be viewed as the transitive equivalent of weze ‘be’.

    The intransitive copula blieuwe ‘stay’ expresses continuation, as in the following example:

    3
    Hie bleeuw ierzen.
    he stayed iron
    He continued to be unyielding.

    The transitive equivalent of bleeuwe ‘stay’ is hoolde ‘keep’. An example is given below:

    4
    Hiere Ogene hoolde jo ticht.
    their eyes keep they closed
    Their eyes, they keep closed.

    The intransitive copula wäide ‘become’ expresses a change of state, as in the following example:

    5
    Anno wuud gans iewerch.
    Anno became very diligent
    Anno became very diligent.

    Thus this copula may be referred to as the verb or the copula of becoming. The verb kriege ‘get’ may function in certain idiomatic examples as the transitive equivalent of the verb of becoming:

    6
    Deer häbe do Bäidene hiere Pännige ferlädden kriegen.
    there have the children their pennies lost got
    There the children got their pennies lost.

    A further example of an intransitive predication is given below:

    7
    In Tjuustergen läite alle Katte gries.
    in dark seem all cats grey
    In the dark, all cats appear grey.

    Incidentally, it is difficult to understand why the nominalised neuter AP ends in –n. This example involves the evidential verb läite ‘seem, appear’. This verb may be accompanied by an indirect object, denoting the person ‘owning’ in some sense the proposition expressed by the AP:

    8
    Ju hele Seke lät mie nit goud tou.
    the whole matter seems me not good to
    The whole matter doesn’t seem to me to be good.

    The argument of the adjective appears in the subject position of the evidential verb. The person responsible for the subjective evaluation is expressed as an indirect object. It is also possible to express the argument of the adjective in object position, and the person responsible for the subjective evaluation in subject position. Then we must use a different verb, the verb finde ‘find’. The verb finde ‘find’ may characteristically provide a subject evaluation, as in the example below:

    9
    Säilich sunt do Knjuchte, do die Here woak findt.
    blessed are the servants who the Lord awake finds
    Blessed are the servants who the Lord finds awake.
    10
    Do Wuchtere finde him fuuls tou naigungsk.
    the girls find him much too lustful
    The girls find him much too lustful.

    With this verb, the argument of the AP is realised as the direct object of the verb. The subjective evaluator is realised as the subject of the verb. Evaluative verbs combine with evaluative adjectives. Finde ‘find’ and läite ‘seem to be’ illustrate two different patterns of realising argument structure:

    Table 1. Two patterns of argument structure.

    Table 1
    Evaluator argument AP argument
    läite seem to be Indirect object Subject
    finde find Subject Direct object
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X