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3.3.3.Nominative/PP alternations

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This section discusses alternations between PPs with various functions and the subject of the clause, subsection I starts with cases in which the PP functions as a complementive, and show that the options are limited compared to similar cases discussed in Subsection 3.3.2, in which the predicative PP alternates with an accusative phrase, subsection II continues with alternations that involve locational PPs that seem to function as the logical subject of the verb, and Subsection III concludes with alternations that involve adverbial PPs.

I. Alternations with predicative PPs
II. Locative alternation (type II)
III. Alternations with adverbial PPs

[+] I. Alternations with predicative PPs

Section 3.3.2 has discussed the alternation between the examples in (494a&b) and suggested that the prefix be- performs a similar function as the adjective vol'full' in (494c); be- and vol both function as a complementive, and the only difference is that the prefix must incorporate into the verb in order to satisfy the requirement that it be supported by some other morpheme.

494

a.		Jan plakt	de posters	op de muur.
		Jan pastes	the posters	on the wall

b.		Jan be-plakt	de muur	(met de posters).
		Jan be-pastes	the wall	with the posters

c.		Jan plakt	de muur	vol (met posters).
		Jan pastes	the wall	full with posters

In (494a) the located object is realized as an accusative object, but the examples in (495) show that the located object can also be realized as the subject of the clause with positional verbs like zitten'to sit', liggen'to lie', staan'to stand' and hangen'to hang'. Since these verbs are unaccusative, we may assume that the subject of the clause functions as the logical subject of the complementive PP, and therefore originates in the same position as the accusative noun phrase in (494a).

495

a.	Er	zitten	fouten	in de tekst.
	there	sit	errors	in the text
	'There are errors in the text.'

b.	Er	liggen	kleren	op de bank.
	there	lie	clothes	on the couch
	'Clothes are lying on the couch.'

c.	Er	staan	veel supporters	op de tribune.
	there	stand	many fans	on the stand
	'Many fans are on the stand.'

d.		Er	hangen	slingers	in de kamer.
		there	hang	festoons	in the room

This, in turn, leads to the expectation that the examples in (495) will exhibit similar alternations as example (494a). Given that the positional verbs are unaccusative, this means that we expect that the nominal part of the complementive PP can be realized as a nominative noun phrase with the concomitant effect that the subject of the clause (that is, the subject of this complementive PP) surfaces as the nominal part of a met-PP. The examples in (496) shows that this expectation is not borne out.

496

a.	*	De tekst	zit	met fouten.
		the text	sits	with errors

b.	*	De bank	ligt	met kleren.
		the couch	lies	with clothes

c.	*	De tribune	staat	met veel supporters.
		the stand	stands	with many fans

d.	*	De kamer	hangt	met slingers.
		the room	hangs	with festoons

However, the expected alternation with the adjectival complementive vol does occur, as shown by (497). The adjective vol adds the meaning aspect that the reference object (location) is affected by the located object; cf. Section 3.3.2, sub IIA1. The extent of the effect can be specified by adding an attributive modifier like heel to the locational noun phrase or a degree modifier like helemaal to the adjective vol.

497

a.	De (hele) tekst	zit	vol	met fouten.
	the whole text	sits	full	with errors
	'The text is full of errors.'

b.	De (hele) bank	ligt	vol	met kleren.
	the whole couch	lies	full	with clothes
	'The couch is full of clothes.'

c.	De tribune	staat	(helemaal)	vol	met supporters.
	the stand	stands	completely	full	with fans
	'The stand is full of fans.'

d.	De kamer	hangt (helemaal)	vol	met slingers.
	the room	hangs completely	full	with festoons
	'The room is full of festoons.'

For completeness' sake, note that the examples in (497) in turn alternate with the examples in (498). This shows that the location denoting subjects in (497) can (at least marginally) be replaced by an expletive related to a locative PP. Alternations of this type are the topic of Subsection II.

498

a.	?	Het	zit	vol met fouten	in de tekst.
		it	sits	full with errors	in the text

b.	??	Het	ligt	vol met kleren	op de bank.
		it	lies	full with clothes	on the couch

c.	?	Het	staat	vol	met supporters	op de tribune.
		it	stands	full	with fans	on the stand

d.	??	Het	hangt	vol	met slingers in de kamer.
		it	hangs	full	with festoons in the room

[+] II. Locative alternation (type II)

This subsection discusses the alternation illustrated in (499) and (500), in which the nominal part of a non-predicative locational PP in one clause surfaces as the subject of another clause. The point of departure of our discussion will be the hypothesis that the subject pronoun het in the primeless examples is an anticipatory pronoun and that the locational PP functions as the logical subject of the construction; cf. Bennis & Wehrmann (1987).

499

a.		Het	is	erg warm/gezellig	in de kamer.
		it	is	very warm/cozy	in the room

a'.		De kamer	is erg warm/gezellig.
		the room	is very warm/cozy

b.		Het stinkt	in de kamer.
		it stinks	in the room

b'.		De kamer	stinkt.
		the room	stinks

The subsections below will not extensively discuss the copular examples in (499) given that these are discussed in more detail in Section A6.6, but focus more specifically on the constituent parts of the two alternants in (500), which have a number of peculiar semantic and syntactic properties on top of those found in (499).

500

a.	Het	krioelt	in de tuin	van de mieren.
	it	crawls	in the garden	of the ants
	'The garden is swarming with ants.'

b.	De tuin	krioelt	van de mieren.
	the garden	swarms	of the ants
	'The garden is swarming with ants.'

[+] A. The non-referential pronoun het'it'

An important property of the constructions in (499a&b) and (500a) is that they are impersonal in the sense that the subject pronoun het is non-referential in nature. That this is the case is clear from the fact that this pronoun cannot be replaced by any referential element (with preservation of the intended meaning); this is illustrated in (501) for the demonstrative pronouns dit'this' and dat'that'

501

a.		Dit/Dat	is erg	*warm/#gezellig	in de kamer.
		this/that	is very	warm/cozy	in the room

b.	*	Dit/Dat stinkt	in de kamer.
		this/that stinks	in the room

c.	*	Dit/Dat	krioelt	in de tuin	van de mieren.
		this/that	crawls	in the garden	of the ants

The fact that the subject pronoun het is non-referential may be problematic for the copular constructions in (499a) given that the adjectival complementives warm'warm' and gezellig'cozy' should be predicated of some entity. This problem can perhaps be solved for the adjective warm by saying that it resembles weather verbs like vriezen'to freeze' in that it takes a quasi-referential subject, but this seems less likely for adjectives like gezellig'cozy'. It has therefore been proposed that the pronoun het actually functions as an anticipatory pronoun that is coindexed with the locational PP, which acts as the logical subject of the adjective. When we extend the proposal to impersonal constructions like (499b) and (500), we arrive at the representations in (502).

502

a.		Heti	is [SCti	erg warm/gezellig]	[in de kamer]i.
		it	is	very warm/cozy	in the room

b.		Heti	stinkt	[in de kamer]i.
		it	stinks	in the room

c.		Heti	krioelt	[in de tuin]i	van de mieren.
		it	crawls	in the garden	of the ants

These representations not only solve the question of what the adjective/verbs in (499a&b) and (500a) are predicated of, but perhaps also make intuitive sense in light of the fact that the nominal parts of the locational PPs surface as the subject of the alternate constructions in the primed examples in (499) and in (500b). However, we should not to jump to conclusions given that the two alternants are not semantically equivalent, which is clear from the examples in (503) taken from Janssen (1976:69): whereas (503a) unequivocally refers to the space within the car, (503a') can also be use to refer to the car itself (its engine may need fine-tuning, for example); similarly, whereas the PP in (503b) may refer to some meeting organized by the family Janssen, the subject in (503b') must refer to the people themselves.

503

a.		Het	stinkt	in de auto.
		it	stinks	in the car

a'.		De auto	stinkt.
		the car	stinks

b.		Het	was	leuk	bij de Janssens.
		it	was	fun	with the Janssens

b'.		De Janssens	waren	leuk.
		the Janssens	were	fun

[+] B. The locational PP functions as the logical subject of the clause

The claim in (502) that the locational PPs function as logical subjects of the clauses not only provides an answer to the question pertaining the semantic properties discussed in the previous subsection, but is in fact supported by their syntactic behavior. Let us start by eliminating two potential alternative analyses. That the locational PP in (500a) is not a complementive is clear from the fact illustrated in (504a) that it can be placed after the clause-final verb as well as from the fact illustrated in (504b) that it can readily be separated from the clause-final verbs by other phrases in the middle field of the clause.

504

a.		dat	het	<in de tuin>	krioelt	van de mieren <in de tuin>.
		that	it	in the garden	crawls	of the ants

b.		dat	het	<in de tuin>	vaak <in de tuin>	krioelt	van de mieren.
		that	it	in the garden	often	crawls	of the ants

The examples in (505) show further that the locational PP differs from unsuspected PP-complementives in that it does not allow R-pronominalization; pronominalization is possible only by means of locational pro-forms like hier'here' and daar'there'.

505

a.	*	dat	het	er	vaak	in	krioelt	van de mieren.
		that	it	there	often	in	crawls	of the ants

b.		dat	het	hier/daar	vaak	krioelt	van de mieren.
		that	it	here/there	often	crawls	of the ants

A possible conclusion would be that the locational PP functions as an adverbial phrase. However, this seems at odds with the fact that it cannot be omitted; example (506a) is only acceptable if the neuter pronoun is referential, that is, if it functions as the pronominalized counterpart of an example such as (506b).

506

a.	#	Het	krioelt	van de mieren.
		it	crawls	of the ants

b.		Dat deel van de tuin	krioelt	van de mieren.
		that part of the garden	crawls	of the ants

The conjecture in (502) that the locational PP functions semantically as the logical subject of the clause is compatible with these facts. A potential problem for this conjecture is that the (a)-examples in (507) show that the PP cannot be placed in the regular subject position of the clause; it can only be placed in clause-initial position if it is topicalized, in which case the non-referential pronoun het must appear in the subject position right-adjacent to the finite verb in second position. This is compatible with the proposed analysis, however, if we assume that the regular subject position can only be occupied by a noun phrase and that this is precisely the reason why the anticipatory pronoun is used in this construction.

507

a.	*	In de tuin	krioelt	van de mieren.
		in the garden	crawls	of the ants

b.		In de tuin	krioelt	het	van de mieren.
		in the garden	crawls	it	of the ants

In fact, this also explains why het is not needed in the alternants of (507) in (508); since the reference objects are syntactically realized as noun phrases in these constructions, they can of course be placed in regular subject position, and insertion of the anticipatory pronoun het is therefore unnecessary (hence blocked).

508

a.		De tuin	krioelt	van de mieren.
		the garden	crawls	of the ants

b.	*	De tuin	krioelt	het van de mieren.
		the garden	crawls	it of the ants

[+] C. The van-PP

The syntactic status of the van-PP is not immediately clear. A first observation is that this PP seems to prefer a position after the verb in clause-final position, which excludes an analysis according to which the PP functions as a complementive.

509

a.		dat	het	in de tuin	<?van de mieren>	krioelt <van de mieren>.
		that	it	in the garden	of the ants	crawls

b.		dat	de tuin	<?van de mieren>	krioelt <van de mieren>.
		that	the garden	of the ants	crawls

The examples in (510) show that R-pronominalization of the van-PP is possible; this favors an analysis according to which the PP functions as a complement of the verb; it is not conclusive, however, given that certain adverbial phrases also allow R-pronominalization.

510

a.	dat	het	er	in de tuin	van	krioelt.
	that	it	there	in the garden	of	crawls
	'that it is crawling with them in the garden.'

b.	dat	de tuin	er	vaak	van	krioelt.
	that	the garden	there	often	of	crawls
	'that the garden is often crawling with them.'

Another argument in favor of assuming that the van-PP is a PP-complement and not an adverbial phrase is that omission of this PP gives rise to a severely degraded result: this is expected of PP-complements but not of adverbial phrases.

511

a.	*	dat	het	in de tuin	krioelt.
		that	it	in the garden	crawls

b.	*	dat	de tuin	krioelt.
		that	the garden	crawls

Note in passing that the examples in (511) are semantically incoherent; the verb is taken in its literal sense as a verb denoting undirected motion, whereas the (logical) subject does not seem to be able to satisfy the selection restrictions imposed by this verb. The addition of the van-PP apparently lifts the selection restriction imposed by the verb on its subject.

[+] D. The meaning of the constructions

The fact that the (logical) subject need not satisfy the selection restriction that a verb like krioelen'to crawl' imposes on its agentive argument may suggest that the meaning of the constructions in (500) is non-compositional. One way of avoiding this conclusion is to assume that the predicative relationships in the clause are expressed in a non-canonical way. We will consider one option here, which we will show to be untenable in the light of a wider set of data.
First consider the examples in (512), which show that the verb krioelen requires its agentive subject to be plural or to be headed by a noun denoting a collection of entities; use of a singular noun phrase like de mier'the ant' gives rise to an unacceptable result.

512

a.	De mieren	krioelen	in de tuin.
	the ants	crawl	in the garden
	'The ants are teeming in the garden.'

b.	Het ongedierte/*De mier	krioelt	in de tuin.
	the vermin/the ant	crawls	in the garden
	'The vermin are teeming in the garden.'

The examples in (513) show that the verb krioelen imposes restrictions on the nominal part of the van-PP similar to those on the subject in (512); the nominal part of the PP must be plural or refer to a collection.

513

a.		Het	krioelt	in de tuin	van	de mieren/het ongedierte/*mier.
		it	crawls	in the garden	of	the ants/the vermin/ant

b.		De tuin	krioelt	van	de mieren/het ongedierte/*mier.
		the garden	crawls	of	the ants/the vermin/ant

This may suggest that the van-PP semantically functions as the logical subject of the verb. If so, this means that we are dealing with a rather complex set of predication relations, which are schematized in the figures in (514). The two constructions are identical in that the verb is predicated of the nominal part of the van-PP. The complex verbal phrase krioelen van de mieren functions as a predicate which is subsequently predicated of the reference object, de tuin'the garden', directly if the latter is realized as the subject of the clause or via the anticipatory pronoun het if it is realized as a locational PP.

514

There are several potential problems with analyses of this sort. The first one is that predication relationship I between a verb and its internal argument is normally not syntactically encoded by means of the preposition van'of'. This does not a priori mean that an analysis along this line would be untenable given that it has been argued in Section N4.2.1 that this preposition can establish such a relationship in metaphorical N-van-een-N constructions like een schat van een kat'a treasure of a cat', in which the noun schat is predicated of the second noun; cf. die kat is een schat'that cat is a treasure'. A second, semantic, problem is that establishing predication relationship I should give rise to a proposition; since propositions are saturated predicates they normally cannot be predicated of some other argument, and this means that we have to make additional stipulations to make predication relationship II possible. The third and probably most problematic aspect of the analyses in (514) is that it is predicted that in constructions of this type the verb is always predicated of the nominal part of the van-PP. The examples in (515) show, however, that this need not be the case.

515

a.	Het	barst/stikt/sterft	*(van de toeristen)	in de stad.
	it	barst/stikt/sterft	of the tourists	in the town
	'It is swarming with tourists in town.'

b.	De stad	barst/stikt/sterft	*(van de toeristen).
	the town	barst/stikt/sterft	of the tourists
	'The town is swarming with tourists.'

The verbs barsten'to burst', stikken'to suffocate' and sterven'to die' are clearly not predicated of the noun phrase de toeristen. Instead, the original meaning of the verb has bleached and the construction as a whole simply assumes a quantitative meaning aspect; there is an extremely high number of tourists in town. It can further be noted that the syntactic properties of the verbs barsten, stikken and sterven in the constructions in (515) also differ considerably from their properties in their more regular uses. This is shown in (516) and (517) for the verb stikken. Example (516) shows that this verb, being a telic unaccusative verb, cannot be combined with durative adverbial phrases like een uur lang'for an hour' and forms the perfect tense by means of the auxiliary zijn'to be'.

516

a.		De jongen	stikte	binnen een minuut/*een uur lang.
		the boy	suffocated	within a minute/one hour long

b.		De jongen	is/*heeft	gestikt.
		the boy	is/has	suffocated

The constructions in (517), on the other hand, exhibit properties of atelic predicates: they can be combined with durative adverbial phrases like de hele zomer'all summer' and they form their perfect tense with the auxiliary hebben'to have'.

517

a.	Het	heeft/*is	in Amsterdam	de hele zomer	gestikt	van de toeristen.
	it	has/is	in Amsterdam	the whole summer	gestikt	of the tourists
	'It has swarmed with tourists in Amsterdam all summer.'

b.	Amsterdam heeft/*is	de hele zomer	gestikt	van de toeristen.
	Amsterdam has/is	the whole summer	gestikt	of the tourists
	'Amsterdam has swarmed with tourists in Amsterdam all summer.'

To sum up the discussion so far, we can conclude that the meaning of the constructions under discussion cannot be determined in a compositional way. The verbs in this construction further have the property that their meaning has bleached; they do not denote the same state of affairs as they do in their more regular uses, a semantic change that is also reflected in their syntactic behavior.
An essential meaning aspect of the two constructions under discussion seems to be that there is a high concentration of entities at a certain location. It has further been claimed that the two alternants differ with respect to the spreading of these entities. Constructions with a nominative subject, like (500b) and (515b), receive a holistic interpretation: example (515b), for instance, expresses that wherever you go in town, there will be many tourists. Impersonal constructions, like (500a) and (515a), on the other hand, have been claimed to be consistent with a partial interpretation: example (515b) may be true if there are high concentrations of tourists in certain restricted areas of town.

[+] E. Productivity

The nominative/PP alternation under discussion seems to be highly productive, and many verb types can enter the construction. Example (499) has already shown that the alternation may occur in copular constructions. The examples in (497) and (498) in Subsection I have further shown that positional verbs with the complementive adjective vol'full' also enter in this alternation; one example is repeated here as (518).

518

a.		De tekst	zit	vol	met fouten.
		the text	sits	full	with errors

b.	Het	zit	vol met fouten	in de tekst.
	it	sits	full with errors	in the text
	'The text has errors everywhere.'

The examples in (519) provide a number of other potential cases with an adjectival complementive, although these are somewhat harder to judge given that they have a more or less idiomatic flavor. The examples in (519) are similar to the ones in (500) with the verb krioelen and (515) with the verbs barsten'to burst', stikken'to suffocate' and sterven'to die' in that they contain an obligatory van-PP and likewise express that there is a high concentration of entities denoted by the nominal part of the van-PP at the location denoted by the reference object die krant'that newspaper'/ de stad'the city'.

519

a.	?	Het	staat	bol	van de fouten	in die krant.
		it	stands	full	of the errors	in that newspaper

a'.	Die krant	staat	bol	van de fouten.
	that newspaper	stands	full	of the errors
	'That newspaper bulges with errors.'

b.		Het	zag	zwart	van de toeristen	in de stad.
		it	saw	black	of the tourists	in the city

b'.	De stadnom	zag	zwart	van de toeristen.
	the city	saw	black	of the tourists
	'The city was swarming with tourists.'

Another set that allows the alternation consists of verbs denoting light and sound emission. Observe that the van-PP in (520a') is optional, but this may be due to the fact that schitteren'to glitter' can also be used as a monadic verb: De diamant schitterde'The diamond sparkled'. These constructions again express that there is a high concentration of entities denoted by the nominal part of the van-PP at the location denoted by the reference object de lucht'the sky'/ de tuin'the garden'.

520

a.		Het	schitterde	van de sterren	in de lucht.
		it	glittered	of the stars	in the sky

a'.	De lucht	schitterde	(van de sterren).
	the sky	glittered	of the stars
	'The sky was glittering with stars.'

b.		Het gonst	van de bijen	in de tuin.
		it buzzes	of the bees	in the garden

b'.	De tuin	gonst	van de bijen.
	the garden	buzzes	of the bees
	'The garden is alive with bees.'

The examples in (521) provide a number of examples of bodily sensation/function, which seem to especially favor the construction in which the reference object is realized as the subject of the clause.

521

a.		Het	kriebelde	op mijn rug	van de vlooien.
		it	tickled	on my back	of the fleas

a'.		Mijn rug	kriebelde	van de vlooien.
		my back	tickled	of the fleas

b.	?	Het	duizelde	door zijn hoofd	van de nieuwe ideeën.
		it	reeled	through his head	of the new ideas

b'.		Zijn hoofd	duizelde	van de nieuwe ideeën.
		his head	reeled	of the new ideas

c.	??	Het	droop	langs zijn gezicht	van het zweet.
		it	dripped	along his face	of the sweat

c'.		Zijn gezicht	droop	van het zweet.
		his face	dripped	of the sweat

[+] III. Alternations with adverbial PPs

The discussion of subject-PP alternations discussed in the previous subsections probably only scratches the surface of a much broader range of facts. PPs that alternate with nominative phrases may not only be predicative or function as the logical subject of the clause but may also function as adverbial phrases of various types. The subjects of the adjunct middle constructions in the primed examples in (522) all have a function similar to that of the adverbial phrases in the regular primeless examples; see Section 3.2.2.3 for extensive discussion. Interestingly, the doubly-primed examples show that adjunct middles also have impersonal counterparts.

522

a.		Els snijdt	altijd	met dat mes.	instrument
		Els cuts	always	with that knife

a'.	Dat mes	snijdt	lekker/prettig.
	that knife	cuts	nicely/pleasantly
	'It is nice/pleasant to cut with that knife.'

a''.	Het	snijdt	lekker/prettig	met dat mes.
	it	cuts	nicely/pleasantly	with that knife
	'It is nice/pleasant to cut with that knife.'

b.	Peter rijdt	graag	op deze stille wegen.	location
	Peter drives	readily	on these quiet roads
	'Peter likes to drive on these quiet roads.'

b'.	Deze stille wegen	rijden	lekker/prettig.
	these quiet roads	drive	nicely/pleasantly
	'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.'

b''.		Het rijdt lekker prettig op deze stille wegen.
		it drives nicely/pleasantly on these quiet roads
		'It is nice/pleasant to drive on these quiet roads.'

c.	Jan werkt	het liefst	op rustige middagen.	time
	Jan works	preferably	on quiet afternoons
	'Jan prefers to work on quiet afternoons.'

c'.	Rustige middagen	werken	het prettigst.
	quiet afternoons	work	the most pleasant
	'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.'

c''.	Het werkt	het prettigst	op rustige middagen.
	it works	most.pleasantly	on quiet afternoons
	'It is the most pleasant to work on quiet afternoons.'

But it is not only in adjunct middle constructions that we find that adverbial PPs alternate with subjects. Section 2.5.1.3 has shown for instance that object experiencer psych-verbs allow expression of the cause either by means of a met-PP or by means of a nominative noun phrase; this is illustrated again in the examples in (523).

523

a.		De clownCauser	amuseerde	de kinderenExp	met zijn grapjesCause.
		the clown	amused	the children	with his jokes

a'.		Zijn grapjesCause	amuseerden	de kinderenExp.
		his jokes	amused	the children

b.		JanCauser	overtuigde	de rechterExp	met dat nieuwe bewijsCause.
		Jan	convinced	the judge	with that new evidence

b'.		Dat nieuwe bewijsCause	overtuigde	de rechterExp.
		that new evidence	convinced	the judge

The examples in (524) show that adverbial met-PPs exhibit the alternation more generally. We will not attempt to characterize the semantic function of the adverbial phrases and their corresponding subjects, but refer the reader to Levin (1993:ch.3), who does try to do this for similar English examples.

524

a.		Jan bevestigde	de hypothese	met een nieuw experiment.
		Jan confirmed	the hypothesis	with a new experiment

a'.		Het nieuwe experiment	bevestigde	de hypothese.
		the new experiment	confirmed	the hypothesis

b.		Het leger	bluste	de bosbrand	met een helikopter.
		the army	extinguished	the forest.fire	with a helicopter

b'.		De helikopter bluste	de bosbrand.
		the helicopter extinguished	the forest.fire

c.		Jan vult het tochtgat	met kranten.
		Jan fills the blow.hole	with newspapers

c'.		De	kranten	vullen	het tochtgat.
		the	newspapers	fill	the blow.hole

d.		Marie versierde de kamer	met de nieuwe slingers.
		Marie decorated the room	with the new festoons

d'.		De nieuwe slingers	versierden	de kamer.
		the new festoons	decorated	the room

e.		Jan bedekte	de inktvlek	met zijn hand.
		Jan covered	the inkblot	with his hand

e'.		Zijn hand	bedekte	de inktvlek.
		his hand	covered	the inkblot

Levin (1993:ch.3) provides a number of other cases with adverbial phrases headed by prepositions other than met that are possible in English but give rise to unacceptable or at least very unnatural results in Dutch. We confine ourselves here to just giving a number of typical examples. The alternation exemplified in (525), in which the adverbial phrase/subject refers to natural forces, is often acceptable.

525

a.		Jan droogde	zijn haar	in de wind/zon.
		Jan dried	his hair	in the wind/sun

b.		De wind/zon	droogde	zijn haar.
		the wind/sun	dried	his hair

Alternations involving adverbial phrases denoting time, containers, prices, raw materials and sources comparable to the ones given by Levin, on the other hand, give rise to severely degraded results. However, we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions given that, to our knowledge, these kinds of alternations have not yet been investigated thoroughly for Dutch.

526

a.		De wereld	zag	het begin van een nieuw tijdperk	in het jaar 1492.
		the world	saw	the begin of a new era	in the year 1492

a'.	*	Het jaar 1492	zag	een nieuw tijdperk.
		the year 1492	saw	a new era

b.		Jan incorporeert	de kritiek	in de nieuwe versie van zijn proefschrift.
		Jan incorporates	the critique	in the new version of his thesis

b'.	*	De nieuwe versie van zijn proefschrift	incorporeert	de kritiek.
		the new version of his thesis	incorporates	the critique

c.		Jan kocht	een kaartje	voor vijf euro.
		Jan bought	a ticket	for five euros

c'.	*	Vijf euro	koopt	(je)	een kaartje.
		five euros	buys	you	a ticket

d.		Hij	bakt	heerlijke pannenkoeken	van dat biologische boekweitmeel.
		he	bakes	lovely pancakes	from that organic buckwheat.flour

d'.	*	Dat biologische boekweitmeel	bakt	heerlijk pannenkoeken.
		that organic buckwheat.flour	bakes	lovely pancakes

e.		De middeninkomens	profiteren	van de belastingverlaging.
		the middle.income.earners	profit	from the tax.reduction

e'.	*	De belastingverlaging	profiteert	de middeninkomens.
		the tax.reduction	profits	the middle.income.earners

References:

Bennis, Hans & Wehrmann, Pim1987Adverbial argumentsBeukema, Frits & Coopmans, Peter (eds.)Linguistics in the Netherlands 1987Dordrecht1-11
Janssen, Theo1976<i>Hebben</i>-konstrukties en indirekt-objektkonstructiesNijmegenUniversity of NijmegenThesis
Levin, Beth1993English verb classes and alternationsChicago/LondonUniversity of Chicago Press
Levin, Beth1993English verb classes and alternationsChicago/LondonUniversity of Chicago Press

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Locative VerbNon-referential PronounPronounVerb Frame Alternation

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riet Vos	January 2016

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