Derived verbs in Dutch

There are three ways of deriving verbs in Dutch: through zero marking (e.g. adem), through suffixation (e.g. modern-iseer), and through prefixation (eg ver-breed). We focus on the prefixed verbs, contrasting two views. According to the first view (De Haas & Trommelen 1993), prefixed verbs are left-headed: the prefix is responsible for the change in category, i.e. [V ver [A breed]]. The second view (Neeleman & Schipper 1993) holds that prefixed verbs are right-headed, and involve a zero verbalizing suffix, i.e. [V ver [V [A breed] ø ]]]. We present evidence for the second view, in line with the position of Neeleman & Schipper (1993), but we in addition argue that the causative-inchoative ambiguity of many of these derived verbs requires the introduction of an additional head in the structure. Finally, we present an interpretation of these heads in terms of the nanosyntactic mechanism of phrasal lexicalization.