Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

10.2. In het + adjective: In het algemeen'In general'

quickinfo

The examples in (24) show that adjectives can enter the syntactic frame in het + A. A typical difference between the Dutch examples and their English counterparts is that these constructions contain the article-like element het in Dutch, whereas in English the adjective is normally bare. The complement of the preposition in therefore looks like a noun phrase in Dutch, but this is probably just seemingly the case as the phrases het algemeen'the general' and het bijzonder cannot be used in other NP-positions.

a.		in het algemeen
		'in general'

b.		in het bijzonder
		'in particular'

A second reason to doubt that the complement of the preposition is a regular noun phrase is that the adjective is normally affixed with -e if a definite noun phrase does not contain an overt noun; cf. Section 5.4. This is shown in (25). That this ending is lacking in (24) shows that we are not dealing with N-ellipsis.

a.	Ik	wil	de blauw-e	hebben.
	I	want	the blue	have
	'I want to have the blue one.'

b.	Ik	heb	de grot-e	gekocht.
	I	have	the big	bought
	'I bought the big one.'

The phrases in (24) are more or less fixed in the sense that modification is excluded: nothing can be placed between the preposition in and the element het, and het and the adjective must also be adjacent. The number of adjectives that can enter the construction is, however, quite large. All color adjectives can enter the construction, and it is also quite normal with adjectives such as effen'unpatterned', gestreept'striped', geblokt'checked' that refer to a certain design.

a.		Marie trouwt	in het wit/roze.
		Marie marries	in the white/pink

b.		Ik wil zoʼn jurk,	maar	dan	in het grijs/blauw/effen/gestreept/geblokt.
		I want such a dress	but	then	in the grey/blue/unpatterned/striped/checked

c.		Marie heeft	zoʼn jurk	in het wit/effen/?gestreept/?geblokt.
		Marie has	such.a dress	in the white/unpatterned/striped/checked

A peculiar property of the examples in (26) is that some notion of completeness is implied: example (26c) with the adjective wit, for example, implies that the dress is entirely white, and (26a) implies that Marieʼs dress and main accessories are white. This notion of completeness is absent, however, if the color adjectives are replaced by, e.g., measure adjectives like lang'long' and kort'short', as in (27).

a.		Marie trouwt	in het lang/kort.
		Marie marries	in the long/short

b.		Ik	wil	zoʼn jurk,	maar	dan	in het lang/kort.
		I	want	such a dress	but	then	in the long/short

c.		Marie heeft	zoʼn jurk	in het lang/?kort.
		Marie has	such.a dress	in the long/short

Occasionally, it is not easy to determine whether we are dealing with the in het + A construction or with a regular PP with a nominal complement. In (28), for example, geheim'secret' could in principle be either an adjective or a noun. Given the fact that a locational interpretation is not plausible, we may decide that we are dealing with an adjective here, which is also consistent with the fact that the article the is missing in its English rendering in secret (Carole Boster informs me that English also has the expression on the sly, in which sly is clearly adjectival).

Jan doet	het	in het geheim/geniep.
Jan does	it	in the secret
'Jan does it in secret.'

The adjective nauw'narrow (space)' can also be interpreted as either an adjective or a noun. Given that the verb drijven'drive' in (29a) requires a locational complement in the presence of an accusative object, we should conclude that we are dealing with a regular (metaphorically used) locational PP, and consequently also with a regular noun phrase het nauw. This conclusion seems to be supported by example (29b). Like drijven in (29a), the verb trekken'to pull' requires a locational phrase, and the adjectives belachelijk and absurd are adorned with an - e ending, which indicates that het belachelijke and het absurde are noun phrases with an elided noun; cf. Section 5.4, sub II. Observe that in the English translation of (29a) the article the/a must be present.

a.	Jan drijft	Marie in het nauw.
	Jan drives	Marie in the/a corner
	'Jan drives Marie into the/a corner/Jan is pressing Marie hard.'

b.	Jan trekt	het	in	het belachelijke/absurde.
	Jan pulls	it	into	the ridiculous/absurd
	'Jan is ridiculing it.'

For the examples in (30), it cannot easily be decided whether we are dealing with a noun or an adjective. The element klad'draft' in (30a) is probably a noun, since it cannot occur in attributive or complementive position, whereas net'neat' is probably an adjective since it cannot be used in regular NP-positions (with the relevant meaning); Engels in (30b) can be used both as a noun and as an adjective. Example (31) provides some other potential cases of the in het + A construction.

a.	Jan schrijft	het	in het klad/net.
	Jan writes	it	in the draft/neat
	'Jan is writing a draft/final version.'

b.	Jan schrijft	de brief	in het Engels.
	Jan writes	the letter	in the English
	'Jan writes the letter in English.'

a.		In het echt	is de Nachtwacht	mooier.
		in the real	is the Night.Watch	more.beautiful

b.	In het kort	komt	het	op het volgende	neer.
	in the short	comes	it	on the following	down
	'In short it amounts to the following.'

c.		paling in het groen
		eel in the green
		'stewed eel in chervil sauce'

References:

⇑ Back to top

About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: ArticleDefinite ArticleSpurious Definite Article

report errorprintcite

Jump to:

introduction
references
related articles