Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

1136 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
unaccusative verb a °DO-subject. The fact that (ib) has a transitive alternate is an
incidental property of the verb breken ‘to break’. Some verbs, such as arriveren ‘to
arrive’, only occur in an unaccusative frame.
It is often assumed that regular intransitive verbs and unaccusative verbs have
three distinguishing properties: (a) intransitives take the perfect auxiliary hebben ‘to
have’, whereas unaccusatives take the auxiliary zijn ‘to be’; (b) the past/passive
participle of unaccusatives can be used attributively to modify a head noun that
corresponds to the subject of the verbal construction, whereas this is not possible
with intransitive verbs; (c) the impersonal passive is possible with intransitive verbs
only. These properties are illustrated in (ii) by means of the intransitive verb lachen
‘to laugh’ and the unaccusative arriveren ‘to arrive’, cf. Hoekstra (1984a).
(ii) • Intransitive • Unaccusative
a. Jan heeft/*is gelachen. a′. Jan is/*heeft gearriveerd.
Jan has/is laughed Jan is/has arrived
b. *de gelachen jongen b′. de gearriveerde jongen
the laughed boy the arrived boy
c. Er werd gelachen. c′. *Er werd gearriveerd.
there was laughed there was arrived
There are, however, cases that show only part of the prototypical behavior of
unaccusative verbs. Locational verbs like hangen, for example, enter an alternation
similar to the verb breken in (i), but nevertheless the verb hangen in (iiib) does not
exhibit the behavior of the verb arriveren in (ii). It has been suggested that this
might be due to the fact that there is an aspectual difference between the verbs
arriveren and hangen: the former is telic whereas the latter is not.
(iii) a. Jan hangt de jas in kast.
Jan hangs the coat into the wardrobe
b. De jas hangt in de kast.
the coat hangs in the wardrobe
Verb-Second:
The phenomenon in Dutch that the finite verb normally occupies the so-called
second position of the main clause, that is, is preceded by precisely one constituent
(see also °constituency test). In embedded clauses the finite verb is placed in clausefinal
position, just like the non-finite verbs, which is generally considered as its
“base”-position; Verb-Second is often used for the movement placing the finite
verb in second position.
VP adverb:
See °adverb tests.
Weak:
The notions of WEAK and STRONG have two different uses, depending on whether
we are dealing with pronouns, or with noun phrases, determiners and quantifiers.