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This paper discusses contexts in which modal verbs occur without a verbal complement. Firstly, I present the properties of Dutch modal verbs and conclude that modals are not strictly speaking auxiliary verbs on a par with hebben 'have' and zijn 'be', but rather lexical verbs selecting a verbal complement. However, they also occur without such verbal complement and the current paper gives an overview of the various types of such 'naked' modal verbs that can be distinguished with respect to their syntactic properties, as the syntactic differences between them lead to different analyses. Some cases involve ellipsis,more specifically PF-deletion (Modal Complement Ellipsis), while in other cases the modals directly select a small clause or nominal phrase for their complement. Although the type involving ellipsis receives most attention, the paper gives an overview of the different types and focuses on the question of whether or not the modal selects a silent verbal complement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a cognitive-functional account of the 'autonomous use'-- i.e., the use without a main verb elsewhere in the clause -- of the Dutch modals ('can'), ('may') and ('must'), as a deviance from their default auxiliary use. The study is corpus-based and takes a predominantly diachronic perspective on the subject matter. It reveals that the autonomous use is strongly increasing in frequency since Early New Dutch, and that it has distinct grammatical properties (a strong tendency towards intransitive uses with a deictic pronoun referring to a state of affairs as the subject) and semantic properties (featuring the full range of (inter)subjective meanings of the auxiliary uses, but with a strong tendency towards deontic modal and directive uses). These properties are clearly different from those of the original main verbal uses from which these modals have emerged in Old and Early Middle Dutch. The paper offers an explanation for the emergence and increasing importance of this new autonomous use in terms of the principle of iconicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I focus on strengths and weaknesses of corpus research in linguistics, and how it relates to intuition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review the phonological component of Dutch in Taalportaal, a website discussing the language systems of Dutch, Frisian and Afrikaans. We examine the website from the perspective of language variation, with special attention to (varieties of) Belgian Dutch. The discussion on Dutch phonology is comprehensive, including segmental as well as suprasegmental topics. Language variation is certainly not ignored, but seems to be dealt with in a rather ad hoc way. This is linked to the fact that Taalportaal takes 'the Dutch standard variety as it functions in the Netherlands' as its starting point, rather than giving equal attention to the three national language varieties, being Dutch Dutch, Belgian Dutch and Surinamese Dutch. In three case studies - on diphthongs, voice assimilation and vowel reduction - we show that there are interesting differences between Dutch and Belgian Dutch varieties which are not yet discussed on the website. We therefore plead for the addition of a critical reflection on the position of language variation in Taalportaal (and on the question which variation to include or to leave aside), and for taking the pluricentric character of Dutch as a starting point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the morphological part of the Taalportaal website, which gives access to a comprehensive, scientific grammar of Dutch, Frisian and Afrikaans. More particularly, we investigate how separable verbs are dealt with in Taalportaal. We evaluate the structure of that part of the website, and try to find an answer to three questions regarding this type of verbs, viz. (i) what are separable verbs, (ii) what is their grammatical status and (iii) what are their semantic properties? By doing so, we are able to identify strengths and weaknesses of the Taalportaal website, which are related to consistency and accessibility of the information as well as to the quality of the illustrations and the explanation for non-native speakers. In general, we conclude that Taalportaal provides an introduction to Dutch morphology rather than giving an exhaustive overview of the different word formation possibilities in Dutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how the phonologies of Dutch, West-Frisian and Afrikaans are represented in Taalportaal, a digital grammar of the three West- Germanic languages. These languages have similar consonant inventories, but differ in the vowel phonemes that they use. The phonological processes and phonotactic restrictions that refer to laryngeal properties are comparable in the three languages, but for other processes and phonotactic restrictions, it is not quite clear in how far they occur in all three languages or in how far they are unique for one individual language. This part seems to be incomplete in Taalportaal. For Dutch, West-Frisian, and Afrikaans, we find different descriptions of word stress assignment and it is therefore difficult to find the underlying generalisations. Also, the part on phonological processes at morpheme boundaries and other cases of phonology-morphology interaction lack a full description in Taalportaal. Nevertheless, this platform will be highly appreciated by linguists and other researchers who are interested in the sound systems of the languages represented in Taalportaal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses four Dutch constructions in which adverbs occur in marked syntactic positions: (i) Adverbs that occur in an embedded clause but must be interpreted in the main clause; (ii) Adverbs that occur in the main clause but can be interpreted in the embedded clause; (iii) Extraposed adverbs; (iv) Predicate adverbs that occur in the position of sentence adverbs. These phenomena provide evidence for an analysis of adverb placement in Dutch along the lines of the Cinque hierarchy (Cinque 1999), supplemented with the traditional split between sentence adverbs and predicate adverbs (Jackendoff 1972). A new analysis is proposed for the bridge verbs denken 'think' and willen 'want' in which they move from a position in the embedded clause into the matrix clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepositions are so-called closed class words and are generally coined as function words. It is not correct, however, to consider prepositions as a homogeneous word class, even though structurally the preposition is always the head of a PP. To, for example, can have different functions: it can have a lexical function, as in the man is walking to the car, a subcategorized function, as in the man is listening to his wife, and a syntactic function, as in the man is giving flowers to his wife. In this paper, we will present the data of a study from the 1980s, completed with more recent spontaneous speech data, to the production and comprehension of prepositions by individuals with a lexical deficit or grammatical deficit due to brain damage. The results indicate that there is empirical evidence for a distinction within the class of prepositions on the basis of their lexical and grammatical characteristics and, hence, that the general statement that all prepositions are function words is not justified. The use of prepositions with a lexical and subcategorized function is compromized in individuals with a lexical impairment, whereas individuals with a grammatical deficit encounter problems with prepositions with a grammatical function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a quantitative variationist analysis of the future markers gaan and zullen in modern spoken Dutch in the light of current discussion on grammaticalisation. In order to determine to what extent gaan has been grammaticalised, internal constraints on the distribution of gaan and zullen such as verb type, animacy of subject, grammatical person, clause type, sentence type and proximity of future reference are investigated, using Netherlandic and Belgian data from the Corpus of Spoken Dutch. The purpose of investigating constraints such as animacy of subject and proximity of future reference is to establish to what extent the behaviour of gaan is still determined by its lexical history (i.e. as a verb denoting motion towards an immediate goal), and results demonstrate that these two constraints persist in modern Dutch. Moreover, research on grammaticalisation in other languages has shown that grammaticalised markers can become specialised to certain morphosyntactic environments such as particular grammatical persons or types of clause. Indeed, it will be shown here that the use of gaan is favoured in subordinate clauses and non-first person utterances, which it has in common with English be going to. By contrast, zullen is shown to occur in pragmatically more nuanced contexts, indicated by the presence of modal particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses one subtype of semi-insubordination in Dutch, viz. adverbial and adjectival semi-insubordinate dat-constructions (e.g. Misschien/ Leuk dat hij komt 'Maybe/nice that he comes'). These constructions display an unusual syntactic status in that they consist of a (formally) subordinate dat-clause which is preceded by just one adverb or adjective, instead of a full matrix clause. In this study, I will outline the semantic, structural and functional properties of semi-insubordinate dat-constructions by reviewing previous accounts of this phenomenon against empirical corpus data. The data show that there are basically two types of initial elements in semi-insubordinate dat-constructions: evaluative and discursive ones. Both subtypes challenge traditional syntactic analyses in that they extend beyond the sentence level: they represent syntactically independent units, but pragmatically they are highly dependent on prior discourse. It will therefore be argued that it is essential to include aspects of discourse organization in the analysis of semi-insubordinate dat-constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the results of a salience experiment in Flanders are reported. 80 informants were subjected to a qualitative interview in which they were asked to evaluate seven audio recordings, spoken in several regional versions of tussentaal (literally 'in-between-language') or in Standard Dutch. The informants had to judge which language variety was spoken in the recordings and they had to motivate on which features they based their judgment of the language used. This paper aims to show that research on salience has almost exclusively focused on whether a linguistic item is salient or not and that not enough attention has been paid to interpersonal variation in salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses contexts in which modal verbs occur without a verbal complement. Firstly, I present the properties of Dutch modal verbs and conclude that modals are not strictly speaking auxiliary verbs on a par with hebben 'have' and zijn 'be', but rather lexical verbs selecting a verbal complement. However, they also occur without such verbal complement and the current paper gives an overview of the various types of such 'naked' modal verbs that can be distinguished with respect to their syntactic properties, as the syntactic differences between them lead to different analyses. Some cases involve ellipsis, more specifically PF-deletion (Modal Complement Ellipsis), while in other cases the modals directly select a small clause or nominal phrase for their complement. Although the type involving ellipsis receives most attention, the paper gives an overview of the different types and focuses on the question of whether or not the modal selects a silent verbal complement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a cognitive-functional account of the 'autonomous use' - i.e., the use without a main verb elsewhere in the clause - of the Dutch modals kunnen ('can'), mogen ('may') and moeten ('must'), as a deviance from their default auxiliary use. The study is corpus-based and takes a predominantly diachronic perspective on the subject matter. It reveals that the autonomous use is strongly increasing in frequency since Early New Dutch, and that it has distinct grammatical properties (a strong tendency towards intransitive uses with a deictic pronoun referring to a state of affairs as the subject) and semantic properties (featuring the full range of (inter)subjective meanings of the auxiliary uses, but with a strong tendency towards deontic modal and directive uses). These properties are clearly different from those of the original main verbal uses from which these modals have emerged in Old and Early Middle Dutch. The paper offers an explanation for the emergence and increasing importance of this new autonomous use in terms of the principle of iconicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the DiDDD-project (Diversity in Dutch DP Design) which ran at Utrecht University from 2005-2010 and was funded by NWO. The project investigated the morpho-syntactic variation in the nominal domain of Dutch dialects, Frisian dialects and older varieties of Dutch. Its purpose was to describe the variation within the nominal domain, to analyze it within the framework of generative grammar and to identify the parameters within this framework that facilitate the attested linguistic variation. The data from this project are publically available as part of the Mimore-project. This article can therefore be seen as background information for this project. This paper discusses both the practical-methodological aspects of the project (methodology of data collection and storage) as well as the descriptive-theoretical dimensions by discussing the most important empirical generalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the presence of English in a written chat corpus produced by Flemish adolescents in their late teens whose native language is (a variety of) Dutch. Topics include the relative presence of lexemes and word categories, the effect on the target language (Dutch) and the way the loans are integrated into the chatspeak of the teenagers, i.e. (g)localisation processes. In quantitative terms, the impact of English on the informal ‘speech’ of Flemish teenagers appears to be considerable, but the borrowing process is not a ‘copy-and-paste’ practice. In many cases the teenagers transform the English words graphematically, morphologically and/or semantically. By using an extensive and reliable corpus and by quantifying and categorizing the English tokens in several ways, this paper offers a representative case study for the appropriation of English by a generation whose socialization process partly proceeds via electronic media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders the syntax of indefinite quantitative er and its definite counterpart ze. Quantitative er 'there' is obligatory in Dutch when the only visible element in a nominal group is a numeral. I argue that quantitative er is the pronominalization of a lower projection of the nominal group (DP-low) that contains directly modifying adjectives and complements of N but not relative clauses and PP-adjuncts. Quantitative ze is the pronominalization of a higher projection of the nominal group (DP-high) that contains DP-low and the layers to which PP-adjuncts and relative clauses attach. Both quantitative er and ze are weak pronouns that, like all weak pronouns, move to the left- hand part of the middle field. This analysis explains the parallel syntactic distribution of quantitative er and ze and the differences in modifiability of the two pronouns. New evidence for the claim that quantitative er involves pronominalization, not ellipsis, comes from the obligatory lack of gender agreement between the nominal group and the relative pronoun in an associated relative clause. New evidence for the parallel analysis of er and ze comes from optional haplology when there are two instances of quantitative ze in one clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van Heuven and Haan's (2000, 2002) experimental work on the prosody of Dutch question types found that the prosodic signalling of interrogativity is stronger for declarative questions, less so for yes/no-questions and even less so for wh-questions. This paper shows how the sequence established on prosodic grounds (declarative questions > yes/no questions > wh questions > statements) is mirrored in the functional hierarchy in syntax. Prosody therefore provides an argument for a detailed left periphery (Rizzi 1997, 2001; Haegeman & Hill 2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a construction-based exploration of a number of formal and semantic issues surrounding the Dutch double object and prepositional dative constructions. The first part of the paper deals with the formal demarcation of these constructions vis-à-vis other three-place argument structure constructions. The second part discusses diachronic shifts and synchronic variation in the constructional semantics of the double object pattern, the third part briefly looks into the semantic relation between the double object construction and the prepositional dative. The overall aim of the paper is to give a general impression of the way such issues are dealt with in construction grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calling into question the usefulness of linearly oriented constructional templates, this paper presents a variety of arguments for the significance of syntactic hierarchical structure and, in particular, the concept of ‘small clause’ in the analysis of ditransitive constructions, and underscores the role of a derivational relationship between the two members of the dative alternation (V-NP-PP and V-NP-NP). The double object construction is compared in detail to a superficially very similar V-NP-NP construction in which the second NP is the predicate of the first. The behaviour of verb-particle constructions plays a central role in the discussion, which is broadly based on Den Dikken (1995). The paper closes with some broader remarks about the efficacy of a constructional approach to resultative constructions in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to written Dutch, spoken Dutch sees the sporadic emergence of a coordinating use of the subordinate conjunction omdat ('because'). Starting from the paper by Persoon, Sanders, Quené & Verhagen (2010), this article aims at investigating the role coordinating omdat plays on the distinct levels of syntax, semantics, and discourse. Results suggest that coordinating omdat plays a discourse-specific role that is different from subordinating omdat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a corpus-based investigation of the imperatival infinitive in Dutch. It offers an analysis of the distribution and the frequency of the form in present-day and historical Dutch, with reference to the imperative. It also examines the pragmatic functions that the imperatival infinitive fulfills in contemporary discourse. The prototypical use of the form is defined and compared to the most convincing characterization of its semantics in the literature. The paper concludes with a study of the correlation of the imperatival infinitive with negation, which is explained in terms of politeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resulting in the largest speech corpus of Dutch (+/- 9 million words), the construction of the Spoken Dutch Corpus (CGN) can be considered a unique project. Financed by the Dutch and the Flemish Government the CGN was successfully completed in 2004. This paper presents an overview of the CGN, from the beginning of the project in 1998 until now. First the project background -- motivation and project organisation -- will be described. Then a detailed description of the corpus contents will be presented, followed by an introduction to the corpus exploitation software Corex. A small-scale Corex experiment is carried out for further illustration. Besides, an overview of divergent corpus-based research using the CGN is given. The paper concludes with practical information about distribution by the TST-centrale, and future perspectives such as an online web version of the corpus and the additional JASMIN-CGN project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the semantic development of causal conjunctions which originally were used as temporal markers (cf. German weil). It has often been argued that the development from temporal to causal conjunctions is based on a causal interpretation of temporal relationship, following the pattern post hoc ergo propter hoc (cf. Traugott & König 1991). This paper, however, argues that the development from temporals to causals is much more complex. It claims that the rise of a conditional meaning is an important factor in the development from temporal to causal conjunctions. The semantic relationship between the different functions (temporal, conditional and causal) is construed in terms of partly - but not completely - similar 'points of view' or mental spaces (cf. Fauconnier 1994). The role of conditionality in the development of causals from temporals is illustrated by four conjunctions which all have their roots in a temporal marker meaning 'at this time': on the one hand modern German causal weil and the Dutch conjunction dewijl which was used as a causal conjunction until at least the 19th century; and on the other hand Dutch terwijl and English while which function primarily as temporal conjunctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Dutch as the dominant language, spoken Frisian is under severe pressure in the province of Fryslân. This paper looks at changes in the Frisian verb cluster grammar and focuses on constructions with three verbs that potentially display an IPP-effect. In both Dutch and Standard Frisian, only one cluster form is grammatical and these are each other's opposites in terms of word order and (lack of) IPP-effect. Secondary school pupils that we tested show on a grammaticality judgement task that they accept quite a few word orders, with or without IPP-effect, most of which are ungrammatical in both Dutch and Frisian. This paper addresses the question of how these 'new' forms come into existence and looks at parameter theory for an answer. In addition, we argue that extra-grammatical factors are responsible for the fact that some cluster forms are more popular than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of the constructional approach to grammar (morphology and syntax) as developed since Langacker (1987) and especially Goldberg (1995) and Jackendoff (1995). The first part of the paper deals with the motivation for a constructional approach and with assumptions about the properties of constructions and the organisation of taxonomic networks of constructions, shared by all practitioners of the approach. The second part addresses the relation of constructional grammar to other linguistic issues and approaches and especially some theoretical issues that have gained importance over the last few years: the role of memory, frequency, and language acquisition -leading to, among other things, the disappearance of the assumption of an innate grammar-module ("UG") and the rise of the so-called usage-based approach, which claims that properties of processes of language use and language acquisition explain the properties of language systems (mental grammars). In these areas, there are more differences of opinion, a crucial one involving the question whether traditional abstract syntactic categories (Noun, Verb, etc.) and syntactic relations (Subject, Object, etc.) are reducible to properties of constructions. Finally, some issues and prospects for future research are sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of the acquisition of the Dutch plural, against the background of the Pinker-Marcus-Clahsen dual route model for the analysis of morphological processes in natural languages. The Dutch case is special in that two suffixes seem to meet all criteria for the default plural suffix; these suffixes are phonologically conditioned, but cannot be derived from a single underlying phonological form. It may be argued that Dutch is a halfway house between English (phonologically conditioned suffix forms, derivable from a single underlying form) and German (no single majority suffix). Data gleaned from a large single child acquisition file (longitudinal, focusing on 1;5-2;2) support these ideas about Dutch. Moreover, crucial aspects of the pluralization system seem to be acquired at a stage earlier than hitherto suspected, giving phonological constraints the opportunity to affect the earliest stages. The paper winds up speculating briefly on a constraint-based interpretation of the Dutch situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the realisation of postvocalic /r/ in Dutch, focussing on /r/-deletion and effects of /r/ on a preceding vowel and a following consonant. Recently, detailed phonetic studies have shown that many processes traditionally attributed to phonological rules can be accounted for at the phonetic level, in terms of variation in the temporal organisation of phonetic parameters. On the basis of data from a corpus of word pairs realised by four speakers of Standard Dutch, this paper shows that such a phonetic approach is justified in the case of /r/-deletion in Dutch, and presents an analysis in terms of articulatory gestures. It will be shown that unlike existing phonological accounts, this phonetic analysis offers an insight into the relation between /r/-deletion and the contextual effects of /r/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Dutch both the imperative and the infinitive can be used as directives; in the latter case the term 'directive infinitive' is used. The difference in meaning between these forms is often very subtle and hard to define. This paper addresses the question what the difference in meaning is between the imperative and the directive infinitive and how the difference in meaning can account for the different semantic and syntactic features of these forms. First, the general meaning of the infinitive ('situation type') and different uses of the directive infinitive ('procedure', 'script', 'appropriate situation') are investigated, and an analysis is provided of the context-types in which the directive interpretation of the infinitive occurs. It is argued that the directive interpretation of the infinitive can only be analyzed against the background of these context-types, which each constitute the directive interpretation of the infinitive. Subsequently, the meaning of the imperative is analyzed and compared to the meaning of the directive infinitive. The remaining part of the paper is devoted to an analysis of four different semantic-syntactic features of the directive infinitive and the imperative. It is shown that the difference in meaning between these two forms accounts for the difference in semantic-syntactic features of the imperative and the directive infinitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a series of corpus-based investigations into the diachronic and synchronic status of Belgian Dutch, a variant whose standardisation was delayed in the 16th and 17th C and is as yet incomplete. Building on a newly developed measure of linguistic overlap and an extensive corpus of synonymous designations of 30 clothing and soccer concepts, a first study (Geeraerts, Grondelaers & Speelman 1999) confirmed the alleged diachronic convergence between Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch from 1950 to 1990, as well as the larger distance traditionally assumed between standard and substandard language in Belgian Dutch (a major indication of the latter's delayed standardisation). Whereas the first investigation relied on shopwindow materials to represent substandard language, the two follow-up studies reported on in this paper make use of a new corpus containing Internet materials as representatives of substandard register -- viz. Internet Relay Chat and Usenet. In the first follow-up study, the diachronic and synchronic findings are replicated on the basis of clothing terms. In the second, the basis of comparison between different variants of Dutch is extended from content words to function words, viz. prepositions. Although the lexical as well as the prepositional indicators fully confirm the diachronic convergence between Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch and their different synchronic stratification, the present methodology does not allow us to compare the respective impact of the indicators on the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the underresearched issue of the pronominal system of Middle Dutch. Given the nature of the material, it is hard to distinguish for this stage of the language between (in our terms) demonstrativepronouns and definite articles on the one hand, and between weak and strong forms on the other. Employing the far from obvious metrical characteristics of the 13th century Brabantic Life of Lutgart poem (octosyllabic, iambic), this paper shows that around this time a reduced, schwa-variant of the form *de* appears to have been in use, in a function that we now associate with the definite article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question in this paper is whether increasing complexity can explain the sequence in which two-to-six-year-old Dutch children acquire connectives. Because children have to learn both the conceptual relations that can hold between sentences and the linguistic markers of these relations, complexity is operationalized here in terms of conceptual and grammatical complexity. An analysis of longitudinal data from five children in the Childes database shows that Dutch children first acquire the additive en (and), then the temporal connective toen (then), later the adversative maar (but), and finally the causal markers want (because/so), omdat (because/so) and daarom (therefore). The conclusion of this paper is that the operationalizations of complexity indeed give an explanation for the acquisition order. Furthermore, children might make use of a bootstrapping technique to learn the segment-connecting use of words that can also be used sentence-internally. This bootstrapping technique can account for the fact that the Dutch adversative maar is acquired relatively early compared to the English but. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the Dutch prepositional complementizer van (of). This use of van is restricted to Flemish (the variety of Dutch spoken in the northern part of Belgium) and has thus far been overlooked by most linguists. The two main objectives of this article are to characterise and analyse this linguistic phenomenon. The characterisation consists of three parts. First of all, I compare van to another Dutch complementizer, namely om. Secondly, van is looked at from a semantic point of view and thirdly, van is compared to the French complementizer de. Before moving on to the analysis of sentences containing van, I then put the data into perspective. As it turns out, not all native speakers of Flemish use van in the same manner, so in this paragraph I discuss the geographical distribution of this phenomenon. Finally, in the sixth and final paragraph the observations made in the first half of the paper will be fitted into an analysis of complementizer van. The analysis I will propose here is inspired by recent work from den Dikken, Rooryck and Kayne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this discussion paper, a comparative overview of the behaviour of adjectives in Afrikaans and Dutch is given by utilising two descriptive categories identified by Broekhuis (2013), viz complementation and modification. While noticeable areas of overlap and similarity between the two languages can be shown, some important systematic differences exist, both with regard to complementation and modification, and these are illustrated by means of (as far as possible, empirical) examples. The explanatory value of a performance grammar, in the light of the variable behaviour of adjectives in certain fields, is emphasised, while recognising the extensive range of linguistic categories made possible by introspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is part of an ongoing discussion between Hans Broekhuis and myself about the second opposition in the binary tense system originally proposed by Te Winkel (1866). This opposition connects the first one (between Past and Present) and the third one (between Imperfect(ive) and Perfect(ive)). Broekhuis is radical in proposing to do without it. This proposal is too radical in my view, so I want to temper his cutting edge mood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides some historical background of the rise of verb-second in Germanic by data from the earliest Germanic language of which we have authentic texts (rather than slavish translations from Latin): Old English (ca. 700-1100). The rise of verb-second can be seen as activating the C-head (i) by movement of another head V, in order to demarcate a focus domain, and (ii) by merging a 'bespoke' element, a complementizer. The rise of verb-second, then, is seen to work in tandem with the rise of hypotaxis, in which correlative, paratactic pairs of clauses develop into main clause/subclause configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that ascending verb cluster orders (1-2 and 1-2-3, e.g. moet eten 'must eat' and moet hebben gegeten 'must have eaten') are not only the default verb cluster orders in Standard Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands, but also play a crucial role in the acquisition of verb clusters. We administered a series of three sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) to a total of 120 children (2;8-5;6), and found that children, in contrast to what previous literature might predict, are much more likely to produce 1-2 orders than 2-1 orders. We propose an acquisition pathway in which we assume an OV stage (VFIN-final) and a 1-2 stage before children completely fine-tune their preferences toward adult-like behavior. We further argue that this pathway first applies to bipartite modal-infinitive clusters but is quickly expanded to include all cluster types. We believe our proposal has three advantages: it answers an important learnability question, explains the differences attested between the way children of different ages handle verb clusters, and strongly suggests that verb clusters follow one general rule, rather than several separate construction-specific ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dependent verb-first clauses have received a fair amount of interest from a functionalist perspective. In this paper, I argue that their conceived unity as a grammatical construction might be overstated. I do so on the basis of both categorical and probabilistic differences in the distributions of the various types that I discern. The shared functional properties of the various dependent verb-first clauses are best seen as non-conventional tendencies rather than as a conventional symbolic function, that may have driven the development historically, but is not a part of the inventory of linguistic knowledge of a language user synchronically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the properties of a construction in a specific Flemish dialect, in which infinitives are used in fragment answers in contexts where this would be unacceptable in Standard Dutch or other varieties. Questions such as Waar is mijn bril? 'Where are my glasses?' and Waar is je velo? 'Where is your bicycle?' can be answered in this dialect with infinitival constructions such as Op tafel liggen 'layINF on the table' and buiten staan 'standINF outside'. We apply an analysis of fragment answers in terms of ellipsis (based on Merchant 2004) to these infinitival constructions. However, we find fragment answers with infinitives in contexts where the assumption of ellipsis is highly problematic, since there is no plausible underlying structure available in the dialect. We show that the construction has extended its use to contexts in which the infinitive independently expresses the tense features of the sentence. The description of the properties and restrictions of the construction is based on a survey in which more than thirty speakers were tested for their judgements of fragment answers depending on the features in the grammatical context of the infinitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at refining current knowledge about the so-called complexity principle as one of the driving forces in Dutch constituent ordering as well as re-evaluating the common assumption in traditional Dutch reference grammars that the middle field position is the standard slot for non-predicate PPs. Building on journalistic data in the Dutch Parallel Corpus, it is first shown that non-predicate PPs are significantly more often placed in postfield position (the structural position after the final verb cluster) than in middle field position (the position before the final verb cluster), which indicates that the postfield position rather than the middle field position should be considered the standard slot for PPs in written Dutch. Second, a binary logistic regression analysis is fitted in order to empirically test the complexity principle. The results show that the syntactic weight of the PP affects PP placement significantly, which is in line with was found earlier, but contrary to previous findings the weight of the middle field position itself has no significant effect and, interestingly, the interaction between PP weight and postfield weight appears to be a significant predictor too. On the basis of these findings, we propose a refined account of the complexity principle, in which both PP weight and postfield weight govern the positioning of nonpredicate PPs in written Dutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the formation of female personal nouns in Dutch provides no argument for so-called 'paradigmatic' means of word-formation. In the literature (Van Marle 1985, 1986) it has been argued that these nouns in particular provide an argument for paradigmatic word-formation. More in particular, Van Marle observes that female nouns in -ster only exist if there is a neutral personal noun in -er. He therefore concludes that in order to form female personal nouns in -ster, the grammar needs to check whether there is an existing word in -er. However, it can be demonstrated that such means are superfluous once we acknowledge that -er is the realization of a more abstract morpheme, which potentiates the affixation of a morpheme deriving female nouns, realized as -ster. Second, that Dutch hosts a haplology rule that deletes -er immediately before -ster. Since haplology is independently motivated (see e.g. Yip 1998, Nevins 2012), the present contribution provides an argument against paradigmatic means for word-formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch is particularly rich in derivational morphology. It features a range of productive affixes and affixoids (morphemes which have a specialized meaning when used in compounds). In this paper we review different processes of emancipation (debonding) of both affixes and affixoids. Using a predefined set of criteria, based in part on Lehmann's parameters of grammaticalization, we outline morphological, syntactic and semantic characteristics of different affixes and affixoids that have undergone varying degrees of emancipation. The analysis shows that these parameters may be set differently in different morphological constructions, and also that they interact with one another in intricate ways. Some bound morphemes can only take scope over a phrase, whereas others come to be used as a free morpheme, which implies morphosyntactic changes as well as a change in semantics, e.g. hyperonymy or specialization. From the qualitative analysis based on our criteria it emerges that debonding of derivational affixes and affixoids is neither degrammaticalization nor lexicalization, but rather a process sui generis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a corpus-based contrastive study of the way in which definite determiners, in particular definite articles and demonstratives, and a specific type of adjectives, namely 'speech act related referential adjectives', contribute to the establishment of definite reference in the Dutch and French noun phrase. Speech act related referential adjectives express a primarily temporal (e.g. de huidige situatie), spatial (e.g. de aanwezige menigte) or deictic textual (e.g. onderhavig boek) meaning. We focus on two grammaticalization processes which allow to explain most of the quantitative and qualitative divergences observed for this topic between both languages: the semantic bleaching of the referential force of the French demonstrative noun phrase in comparison with the Dutch demonstrative noun phrase and the presence of Dutch speech act related referential adjectives in the determiner position of the noun phrase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic corpus investigation into the semantic and the grammatical development of the Dutch mental state predicate denken 'think', from Old Dutch onwards. The discussion focuses specifically on the implications for our understanding of the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification, and their correlation. The verb shows clear signs of a process of semantic subjectification, involving a continuous strengthening of the epistemic use, and the emergence of a pure 'subjectivity' use. But it is highly questionable whether it also involves structural grammaticalization. In particular, the investigation throws an entirely new light on the emergence of the parenthetical use: it suggests a developmental path quite different from what is commonly assumed in the literature. But this path does not involve any processes of grammaticalization. As such, this study also suggests that the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification are less intimately intertwined than is often assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a corpus study of Dutch complement PPs. On the basis of a collection of 3400 occurrences in negative sentences, the four major word order patterns (regular position, scrambling order, topicalization and extraposition) are studied, both in main and subordinate clauses, and linked to the properties of the prepositional phrases, in particular weight and definiteness. Greater weight corresponds to higher likelihood of extraposition, and definiteness to higher likelihood of scrambling and topicalization. This corresponds well with earlier studies of word order variation in Dutch, but had not been established for the class of complement PPs. Among definite phrases, PPs with so-called R-pronouns, such as hieraan 'here-on' and daarvan 'thereof' showed especially high preferences for topicalization and scrambling. Negative sentences were selected for this study to avoid cases where regular order and scrambling order could not be distinguished due to lack of adverbial elements in the middle field. The data set is temporally stratified. This made it possible to study changes over time, and the most robust finding was a continuous retreat of the scrambling order throughout the period 1700-2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic corpus investigation into the semantic and the grammatical development of the Dutch mental state predicate denken 'think', from Old Dutch onwards. The discussion focuses specifically on the implications for our understanding of the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification, and their correlation. The verb shows clear signs of a process of semantic subjectification, involving a continuous strengthening of the epistemic use, and the emergence of a pure 'subjectivity' use. But it is highly questionable whether it also involves structural grammaticalization. In particular, the investigation throws an entirely new light on the emergence of the parenthetical use: it suggests a developmental path quite different from what is commonly assumed in the literature. But this path does not involve any processes of grammaticalization. As such, this study also suggests that the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification are less intimately intertwined than is often assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study three frozen imperative constructions in Dutch (geef op!, opgehoepeld!, and opgepast!) and inquire their highly specific reference properties: all arguments disallow for displaced reference, similar to what we see in animal communication (‘forum-readings’). We show that these seemingly idiosyncratic, frozen, and isolated properties can be derived from principles drawn from productive language competence. We show that the block on displaced reference realizes an endpoint on a scale of forum-readings. The extreme properties are compositionally imported into the construction by a resultative particle (e.g. op) that projects a specifier that is non-thematic. Dutch imperative adverbs (toch, maar, eens) are classified according to their quantificational properties. They import distinct possible world semantics of which the forum reading is a special case. The null spellout of arguments in the op-construction is tied to the one-phase nature of these utterances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, in formal linguistics no distinction is made between the roles of the speaker and the listener when investigating the properties of the grammar. Rather, it is assumed that these roles can be merged into a combined speaker-listener role. In this paper I discuss the so-called Delay of Principle B Effect in language acquisition. This effect has been observed in English-speaking and Dutch-speaking children’s comprehension of pronouns in binding environments, but not in their production of these pronouns. On the basis of this asymmetry between production and comprehension, I argue that for an adequate description and explanation of grammatical phenomena such as pronominal binding it is necessary to distinguish between the role and perspective of the speaker and that of the listener. Whereas Principle A of Binding Theory is a symmetric correspondence between a reflexive form and a reflexive meaning that is used similarly by speakers and listeners, Principle B is a derived pattern emerging when the listener takes into account the perspective of the speaker. The Delay of Principle B Effect is thus explained as children’s failure as a listener to consider the perspective of the speaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper argues for a further exploration of a proposal to analyze the Dutch tense system in terms of binary oppositions rather than ternary, as in the standard approach advocated by Reichenbach (1947). The binary approach was first proposed by Te Winkel (1857; 1866). In a modernized version, the binary system turns out to evade a lot of problems haunting Reichenbachs system which is based on (naïve) physics. Te Winkel takes an interesting mentalistic view that prevents the present from being identified with the floating point of speech. The present is taken as a domain harbouring it. The future tense is robbed from its deictic nature in favour of a more neutral form of posteriority. As to anteriority, the question arises of whether Dutch tense forms with hebben (have) express aspectual information or purely tense information. It will be argued that given a binary approach there is no need for grammatical aspect in languages having developed a tense opposition between imperfect and perfect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the left periphery, the right periphery of Dutch sentences and clauses has received little attention. This paper presents a study in which the positional possibilities of pragmatic markers as well as their contribution to the semantics and pragmatics of the sentence/utterance are explored. The value of different frameworks (generative, constructional and multifactorial) for the explanation of right periphery phenomena is discussed and the findings on Dutch final pragmatic markers are compared with similar phenomena in other languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic case study of extraposition of subjects in passive clauses with a finite form of the auxiliary verb worden ‘to become’. The data are taken from a historical corpus of legal texts dating from 1250 until 1800. The study shows that subjects of passive clauses appear relatively frequently in extraposition in view of the fact that subjects in general encode highly topical participants, which are preferably placed in the beginning of the clause. This is explained by the fact that subjects of passive clauses encode patient participants, and are thus less topical than more prototypical subjects. Furthermore, the study shows that subjects of worden-clauses are increasingly extraposed in the investigated time period. This development is related to the fact that the grammaticalization of passive clauses is accompanied by an increased usage of sentential subjects, which are systematically placed in extraposition throughout the history of Dutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]