Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2015Edited by Björn Köhnlein and Jenny Audring
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 32] 2015
► pp. 48–62
Edited by Björn Köhnlein and Jenny Audring
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 32] 2015
► pp. 48–62
On the syntactic nature of the Dutch prefix
This paper provides a novel syntactic analysis of the Dutch prefix be-. This prefix can derive new verbs by attaching to verbs (be-vindV-en ‘to be located’), nouns (be-dijkN-en ‘to dam up’) or adjectives (be-grootA-en ‘to economize’). It can also form new adpositions by combining with adjectives (be-needA-en, ‘below’) or prepositions (be-ove(r)P-(e)n ‘above’). We propose an analysis of be- based on Aboh’s (2010) account for complex locative expressions in typologically different languages, including Gungbe, Zina Kotoko, English and Dutch. We extend this analysis to Dutch verbal complexes, and argue that be- expresses a functional category (F°) that embeds a predicate phrase containing the element it attaches to, in both adpositions and verbs. Our analysis goes against Hoekstra, Lansu and Westerduin’s (1987) small clause account of be- in verbal complexes in which be- is the head of a predicate phrase (Pr°).
Keywords: morphology, syntax, Dutch prefixes, predication
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
References
Aboh, Enoch O
2010 “The P-route”. Mapping spatial PPs ed. by Guglielmo Cinque, 225–260. New York: Oxford University Press. 
Baker, Mark
1988 Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Booij, Geert
2002 The morphology of Dutch. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bowers, J
1993 “The syntax of predication”. Linguistic Inquiry 241.591–656.
De Belder, M
To appear. “The root and nothing but the root: primary compounds in Dutch”. Syntax.
De Haas, Wim & Mieke Trommelen
1993 Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands: Een overzicht van de woordvorming. ’s-Gravenhage: SDU Uitgeverij.
De Vries, Jan Willem
1975 Lexicale Morfologie van het Werkwoord in Modern Nederlands. Leiden: Universitaire Pers.
Den Besten, Hans
1983 “On the interaction of root transformations and lexical deletive rules”. On the formal syntax of the Westgermania: Papers from the third Groningen Grammar Talks ed. by Werner Abraham. Linguistik Aktuell 31:47–131 Amsterdam/Philadephia: John Benjamins.
Den Dikken, Marcel
1998 “Predicate inversion in DP”. Possessors, predicates and movement in the determiner phrase ed. by A. Alexiadou and C. Vilder, 177–215. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
2006 Relators and linkers: The syntax of predication, predicate inversion, and copulas. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Hoekstra, T.A., M. Lansu & M. Westerduin
1987 “Complexe Verba”. Glot 101.61–77.
Holmberg, Anders
2002 “Prepositions and PPs in Zina Kotoko” Some Aspects of the Grammar of Zina Kotoko ed. by B. Kappel Schmidt, D. Odden and A. Holmberg, 162–174. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.
Kayne, R
1985 “Principles of particle constructions”. Grammatical representation 221.101–140.
Lieber, Rochelle & Harald Baayen
1993 “Verbal prefixes in Dutch: a study in lexical conceptual structure”. Yearbook of Morphology 1993 ed. by G. Booij and J. van Marle, 51–78. Dordrecht: Springer.
Roberts, Ian G. & Anna Roussou
2003 Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schultink, Henk
1962 [1980] De morfologische valentine van het ongelede adjectief in modern Nederlands. Utrecht: Hes Publishers.
Talmy, Leonard
2000 Toward a cognitive semantics: Volume I1. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Trommelen, M. & W. Zonneveld
1986 “Dutch Morphology: Evidence for the Righthand Head Rule”. Linguistic Inquiry 171.147–170.
Wechsler, Stephen
2005 “Resultatives under the ‘Event –Argument Homomorphism’ model of telicity”. The Syntax of Aspect: Deriving Thematic and Aspectual Interpretation ed. by N. Erteschik-Shir and T. Rapoport, 255–273. Oxford: Oxford University Press.