Cover not available
Article published In:
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Vol. 19:4 (2014) ► pp.548–569

Variable satellite placement in spoken Dutch

A corpus study of the role of the proximity principle

| Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen)
| Ghent University

This article presents a corpus study of the variable placement of adverbial satellites in spoken Dutch. It is widely contended that the relative order of satellites is motivated by three general principles: information status, length and the proximity principle. The proximity principle maintains that the placement of satellites is motivated by their semantic relationship with the sentence verb. We investigated the effect of the proximity principle on the relative placement of 8 different satellite classes based on a corpus sample of 202 combinations of two satellites retrieved from the Corpus of Spoken Dutch. The exact binomial test was used to evaluate the statistical significance of the observed orders. Our main results corroborate the hypothesis that the proximity principle influences satellite ordering. We also found, however, that the placement of certain satellite classes appeared very restricted, which suggests that the proximity principle does not play an active role in their placement.

Keywords: proximity principle, Dutch, constituent ordering
Published online: 25 October 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19.4.05rys
References
Anstey, M
2002 “Layers and operators revisited”. Web Papers in Functional Grammar, 771, 1–37.Google Scholar
Behaghel, O
1930 “Zur Wortstellung des Deutschen”. Language, 6, (4), 29–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boisson, C
1981 “Hiérarchie universelle des spécifications de temps, de lieu, et de manière”. Confluents, 7 (2), 69–124.Google Scholar
Brouwers, J
2000 Geheime Kamers. Amsterdam: Maarten Muntinga.Google Scholar
Cinque, G
2009 “The fundamental left-right asymmetry of natural languages”. In S. Scalise, E. Magni & A. Bisetto (Eds.), Universals of Language Today. Houten: Springer, 165–184. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dik, S.C., Hengeveld, K., Vester, E. & Vet, C
1990 “The hierarchical structure of the clause and the typology of adverbial satellites”. In J. Nuyts, A.M. Bolkestein & C. Vet (Eds.), Layers and Levels of Representation in Language Theory: A Functional View. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 25–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, B
1997 Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fehringer, C
1999 A Reference Grammar of Dutch. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Haeseryn, W., Romijn, K., Geerts, G., de Rooij, J. & van den Toorn, M.C
1997 Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst. Groningen: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J
1994 A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
2000 “The relative order of prepositional phrases in English: Going beyond manner-place-time”. Language Variation and Change, 11 (3), 231–266. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hengeveld, K
1990 “The hierarchical structure of utterances”. In J. Nuyts, A.M. Bolkestein & C. Vet (Eds.), Layers and Levels of Representation in Language Theory: A Functional View. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lagerwey, W
1970 Speak Dutch. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff Educatief.Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Shannon, T. & Coffey, M
2004 “Janus and the order of adverbials in Dutch and English”. In J.P. Snapper & T.F. Shannon (Eds.), Janus at the Millennium. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 245–264.Google Scholar
Song, S
2008 “Types of Korean Adverbs”. Kling, 21, 113–132.Google Scholar
Stern, H.R
1984 Essential Dutch Grammar. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Sulkalla, H. & Karjalainen, M
1992 Finnish. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wasow, T
1997 “Remarks on grammatical weight”. Language Variation and Change, 9 (1), 81–105. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wasow, T. & Arnold, J
2003 “Post-verbal constituent ordering in English”. In G. Rohdenburg & B. Mondorf (Eds.), Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English. Berlin: Mouton, 119–154.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

BERG, THOMAS
2019. Adjective phrases with doubly modified heads: how lexical information influences word order and constituent structure. English Language and Linguistics 23:2 ► pp. 341 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.