The Syntax of Dutch

by Jan-Wouter Zwart

• ISBN13: 9780521871280
• ISBN10: 052187128X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Dutch is a West-Germanic language closely related to English and German, but its special properties have long aroused interest and debate among students of syntax. This is an informative guide to the syntax of Dutch, offering an extensive survey of both the phenomena of Dutch syntax and their theoretical analyses over the years. In particular the book discusses those aspects of Dutch syntax that have played an important role in the development of syntactic theory in recent decades. Presupposing only a basic knowledge of syntax and complete with an extensive bibliography, this survey will be an important tool for students and linguists of all theoretical persuasions, and for anyone working in Germanic linguistics, linguistic typology and linguistic theory.

Author Biography

Jan-Wouter Zwart is Professor of Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Groningen. His recent publications include Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax (2002).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Abbreviations used in the glosses	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Dutch: the language, its history, its dialects	p. 3
Basic morphosyntax	p. 6
General typological characteristics	p. 6
Word classes	p. 7
Morphosyntactic features	p. 11
Grammatical functions	p. 17
Constituents	p. 21
Sentence prosody	p. 22
Perspectives on Dutch syntax	p. 25
Description	p. 31
Clause structure	p. 33
The left bracket	p. 38
The right bracket	p. 41
The middle field	p. 50
Objects	p. 53
Adverbs	p. 58
Other middle-field elements	p. 62
The middle-field borders	p. 66
The initial field	p. 68
The final field	p. 72
Nominal and prepositional phrases	p. 80
Noun phrase structure	p. 80
The order of attributive modifiers	p. 86
Adjective phrase structure	p. 90
Nominalization	p. 93
Preposition phrase structure	p. 95
Complex sentences	p. 104
Subordination	p. 104
Diagnostics	p. 104
Finite embedded clauses	p. 107
Nonfmite embedded clauses	p. 110
Relative clauses	p. 112
Coordination	p. 117
General remarks	p. 117
Clausal coordination	p. 119
Unclear cases	p. 122
Ellipsis	p. 127
General remarks	p. 127
Noun ellipsis	p. 130
Conjunction reduction	p. 132
Gapping	p. 137
Other ellipsis phenomena	p. 141
Dependencies	p. 145
Semi-referential expressions	p. 145
Raising and control	p. 152
Raising and control diagnostics	p. 152
Modal verbs	p. 158
Raising	p. 164
Control	p. 169
Negation	p. 172
Types of niet	p. 172
Negation with indefinites	p. 175
Negation in complex clauses	p. 178
Negative polarity	p. 179
Quantification	p. 185
Inventory of quantifiers	p. 185
Scope relations	p. 188
Focus and topic	p. 191
Focus	p. 191
Topic	p. 197
Wh-movement	p. 198
Fronting of interrogative elements	p. 198
Conditions on wh-movement	p. 202
Gaps	p. 213
Theory	p. 221
The structural realization of lexical semantics	p. 223
Arguments and grammatical functions	p. 223
The small-clause analysis	p. 233
The complex predicate analysis	p. 241
Dutch as an OV/VO language	p. 243
Preliminaries	p. 243
Dutch as an OV language	p. 247
Koster (1975)	p. 247
Derivation of the major patterns	p. 251
Dutch as a head-initial language	p. 265
Zwart (1994)	p. 265
Some consequences	p. 265
Verb second	p. 281
Historiography	p. 281
Theoretical embedding	p. 290
Verb clusters	p. 296
Structuralist work on verb clusters	p. 299
The classical verb-raising analysis	p. 302
Minimalist analyses	p. 313
Nominal and prepositional phrases	p. 324
Noun phrases	p. 324
Constituent structure	p. 324
The DP analysis	p. 325
Movement phenomena	p. 329
Adjective phrases	p. 333
Order and interpretation	p. 333
Ellipsis and the -e suffix	p. 335
Movement phenomena	p. 337
Preposition phrases	p. 338
Internal structure	p. 338
Movement phenomena	p. 341
Binding and control	p. 344
Binding	p. 344
Control	p. 350
Appendices	p. 355
Pronouns	p. 357
Adpositions	p. 360
Auxiliaries and modal verbs	p. 363
Verbs taking infinitival complements	p. 365
Verbal inflection	p. 367
References	p. 368
Index	p. 390
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