Article published in:
Adjectives in Germanic and Romance
Edited by Petra Sleeman, Freek Van de Velde and Harry Perridon
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 212] 2014
► pp. 113–146

The resilient nature of adjectival inflection in Dutch

| Research Foundation Flanders FWO | University of Leuven
| University of Amsterdam
The rich Germanic adjectival inflection dramatically eroded in the history of Dutch as part of a general process of deflection. At present, Dutch is left with what appears to be a vestigial structure: an alternation between an inflected form in schwa and an uninflected form, the distribution of which is semantically ill-motivated. As a consequence, one might expect that the inflection is moribund and that Dutch will follow its West Germanic neighbor English in doing away with this dysfunctional piece of morphology. This is not what is happening, though. Dutch adjectival inflection is remarkably resilient. In this article it is argued that this resilience is due to refunctionalization. The inflectional schwa is turning into a transparent marker of attributive adjectives, and comes to function as a watershed between the modification and determination zone in the noun phrase. This account explains many erratic inflectional patterns in non-standard language. The whole reanalysis is a long-term process, which has not yet come to completion, but the existence of the process is supported by a detailed investigation of corpus data.
Published online: 18 February 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.212.05vel
References

References

Berteloot, Amand
2005 “… eens wisen subtiils menschen …” Over de verbuiging van het adjectief in het Middelnederlands. In Gehugdic Sis Samnungun Thinro. Liber amicorum Willy Pijnenburg, Aad Quak & Tannke Schoonheim (eds), 23–37. Groningen: Gopher Publishers.Google Scholar
Blom, Alied
1994 Het ondoorgrondelijk bijvoeglijk naamwoord. Forum der Letteren 55: 81–94.Google Scholar
Blom, Elma, Polišenská, Daniela & Weerman, Fred
2006 Effects of age on the acquisition of agreement inflection. Morphology 16: 313–336. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 Articles, adjectives and age of onset: The acquisition of Dutch grammatical gender. Second Language Research 24: 297–331. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Booij, Geert
2010 Construction Morphology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Boumans, Louis
2002 Meertaligheid op de Marokkaanse elektronische prikborden. Levende Talen 3: 11–21.Google Scholar
Braunmüller, Kurt
2008 Observations on the origins of definiteness in ancient Germanic. Sprachwissenschaft 33: 351–371.Google Scholar
Broekhuis, Hans & Keizer, Evelien
2012 Syntax of Dutch, Vol. I: Nouns and Noun Phrases. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Coene, Martine & Yves D’hulst
2003 Introduction: The syntax and semantics of noun phrases. In From DP to NP, Vol I: The Syntax and Semantics of Noun Phrases [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 56], Martine Coene & Yves D’hulst (eds), 1–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Schutter, Georges
1998 The noun phrase in Dutch. Leuvense Bijdragen – Leuven Contributions in Linguistics and Philology 86: 309–356.Google Scholar
1999 Het achterveld in de nominale constituent in het Nederlands. Leuvense Bijdragen – Leuven Contributions in Linguistics and Philology 88: 323–354.Google Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik
2012 The course of actualization. Language 88(3): 601–633. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Diepeveen, Janneke & Van de Velde, Freek
2010 Adverbial morphology: How Dutch and German are moving away from English. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 22: 381–402. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S.
2007 Noun phrase structure. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. II: Complex Constructions, 2nd edn., Timothy Shopen (ed.), 151–205. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Duinhoven, Anton M.
1988 Middelnederlandse Syntaxis, Synchroon en Diachroon, Deel 1: De Naamwoordgroep. Leiden: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Fudeman, Kirsten
2004 Adjectival agreement vs. adverbal inflection in Balanta. Lingua 114: 105–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ghesquière, Lobke & Van de Velde, Freek
2011 A corpus-based account of the development of English such and Dutch zulk: Identification, intensification and (inter)subjectification. Cognitive Linguistics 22(4): 765–797. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Giacalone Ramat, Anna
1998 Testing the boundaries of grammaticalization. In The Limits of Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 37], Anna Giacalone Ramat & Paul J. Hopper (eds), 227–270. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, Deygers, Katrien, Van Aken, Hilde, van den Heede, Vicky & Speelman, Dirk
2000 Het CONDIV-corpus geschreven Nederlands. Nederlandse Taalkunde 5(4): 356–363.Google Scholar
Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, de Rooij, Jaap & van den Toorn, Maarten C.
1997 Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst, nd edn. Groningen: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
2010 The behaviour-before-coding principle in syntactic change. In Mélanges Denis Creissels, Franck Floricic (ed.), 493–506. Paris: Presses de L’École Normale Supérieure.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd
2003 On degrammaticalization. In Historical Linguistics 2001 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 237], Barry J. Blake & Kate Burridge (eds), 163–179, Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney & Pullum, Geoffrey K.
(eds) 2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, Brian D.
1992 Diachronic explanation: Putting the speaker back into the picture. In Explanations in Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 84], Garry W. Davis & Gregory K. Iverson (eds), 123–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lass, Roger
1990 How to do things with junk: Exaptation in language evolution. Journal of Linguistics 26: 79–102. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1997 Historical Linguistics and Language Change. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lupyan, Gary & Dale, Rick
2010 Language structure is partly determined by social structure. PLoS ONE 5(1). CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McFadden, Thomas
2004 How much of the Germanic strong adjective inflection is pronominal? http://​ifla​.uni​-stuttgart​.de​/~tom​/papers​.html
Narrog, Heiko
2007 Exaptation, grammaticalization, and reanalysis. California Linguistic Notes 32(1). http://​hss​.fullerton​.edu​/linguistics​/cln​/pdf​/Exaptation​_Narrog​.pdfGoogle Scholar
Norde, Muriel
2002 The final stages of grammaticalization: Affixhood and beyond. In New Reflections on Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 49], Ilse Wischer & Gabriele Diewald (eds), 45–65. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Old Dutch dictionary http://​gtb​.inl​.nl/
Payne, John & Huddleston, Rodney
2002 Nouns and noun phrases. In The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey K. Pullum (eds), 423–523. Cambridge: CUP.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Plevoets, Koen, Speelman, Dirk & Geeraerts, Dirk
2009 De verspreiding van de -e(n)-uitgang in attributieve positie. Taal en Tongval Thematic issue 22: 112–143.Google Scholar
Polišenská, Daniela.
2010 Dutch Children’s Acquisition of Verbal and Adjectival Inflection. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Quak, Aad & van der Horst, Joop
2002 Inleiding Oudnederlands. Leuven:Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph & Wrenn, Charles L.
1969 [1955] An Old English Grammar. London: Methuen & Co.Google Scholar
Raidt, Edith H.
1968 Geskiedenis van die Byvoeglike Verbuiging in Nederlands en Afrikaans. Kaapstad: Nasou Beperk.Google Scholar
Ranheimsæter, Harald
1945 Flektierte und unflektierte Nominativformen im Deutschen Adjektivsystem. Oslo: J.G. Tanum.Google Scholar
Royen, Gerlach
1948 Buigingsverschijnselen in het Nederlands, Vol 2. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgeversmaatschappij.Google Scholar
1953 Buigingsverschijnselen in het Nederlands, Vol. 3(2). Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgeversmaatschappij.Google Scholar
Ruette, Tom & Van de Velde, Freek
Forthcoming. Moroccorp: Tien miljoen woorden uit twee Marokkaans-Nederlandse chatkanalen. Lexikos. Crossref
Scott, Gary-John
2002 Stacked adjectival modification and the structure of nominal phrases. In Functional Structure in DP and IP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 1, Guglielmo Cinque (ed.), 91–120. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Simon, Horst
2010 “Exaptation” in der Sprachwandeltheorie. Eine Begriffspräzisierung. In Prozesse sprachlicher Verstärkung. Typen formaler Resegmentierung und semantischer Remotivierung, Rüdiger Harnisch (ed.), 41–57. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Smith, John-Charles
2006 How to do things without junk: the refunctionalization of a pronominal subsystem between Latin and Romance. In New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics, Vol. II: Phonetics, Phonology and Dialectology [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 276], Jean-Pierre Y. Montreuil (ed.), 183–205. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 Change and continuity in form-function relationships. In The Cambridge History of the Romance languages, Martin Maiden, John-Charles Smith & Adam Ledgeway (eds), 268–317. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Speelman, Dirk
1997 Abundantia Verborum. A Corpus-tool for Carrying out Corpus Based Linguistic Case Studies. PhD dissertation, University of Leuven.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C.
1992 Syntax. In The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. I: The Beginnings to 1066, Richard M. Hogg (ed.), 168–289. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter
2010 Contact and sociolinguistic typology. In The Handbook of Language Contact, Raymond Hickey (ed.), 299–319. Oxford: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, Gorden H.
1998 The Lexicogrammar of Adjectives: A Systemic Functional Approach to Lexis. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Tummers, Jos
é 2005 Het Naakt(e) Adjectief: Een Kwantitatief-empirisch Onderzoek naar de Buigingsvariatie bij Neutra in het Nederlands. PhD dissertation, University of Leuven.Google Scholar
é, Speelman, Dirk & Geeraerts, Dirk 2004 Quantifying semantic effects. The impact of lexical collocations on the inflectional variation of Dutch attributive adjectives. In Le poids des mots, Gérald Purnelle, Cédrick Fairon & Anne Dister (eds), 1079–1088. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
é, Speelman, Dirk & Geeraerts, Dirk 2005 Inflectional variation in Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch: A usage-based account of the adjectival inflection. In Perspectives on Variation. Sociolinguistic, Historical, Comparative, Nicole Delbecque, Johan van der Auwera & Dirk Geeraerts (eds), 93–110. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Bree, Cor
1987 Historische Grammatica van het Nederlands. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Van der Lubbe, Henricus F.A.
1958 Woordvolgorde in het Nederlands: Een Synchrone Structurele Beschouwing. Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Van de Velde, Freek
2006 Herhaalde exaptatie. Een diachrone analyse van de Germaanse adjectiefflexie. In Nederlands tussen Duits en Engels, Matthias Hüning, Arie Verhagen, Ulrike Vogl & Ton van der Wouden (eds), 47–69. Leiden: Stichting Neerlandistiek Leiden.Google Scholar
2009 De Nominale Constituent. Structuur en Geschiedenis. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
2010 The emergence of the determiner in the Dutch NP. Linguistics 48(2): 263–299. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 Anaphoric adjectives becoming determiners. A corpus-based account. In The Noun Phrase in Romance and Germanic. Structure, Variation, and Change [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 171], Petra Sleeman & Harry Perridon (eds), 241–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van de Velde, Freek & van der Horst, Joop
2013 Homoplasy in diachronic grammar. Language Sciences 36: 66–77. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Dijk, Johannes A.
1862 De verbuiging van enkele telwoorden. De Taalgids 4: 65–70.Google Scholar
Van Leuvenste?n, Arjan & Dekker, M.C.H.
1990 Adnominale flexie en genusmarkering in 16de-eeuws Brugs. Leuvense Bijdragen – Leuven Contributions in Linguistics and Philology 79: 257–278.Google Scholar
Van Loon, Jozef
1988 Zwakke, sterke en pronominale adjectiefflexie in het Oudnederlands. Naamkunde 20: 37–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Marle, Jaap
1995 On the fate of adjectival declension in overseas Dutch (with some notes on the history of Dutch). In Historical Linguistics 1993 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 124], Hennig Andersen (ed.), 283–294. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Roey, Jacques
1974 A Contrastive Description of English and Dutch Noun Phrases. Brussel: AIMAV.Google Scholar
Vincent, Nigel
1995 Exaptation and grammaticalization. In Historical Linguistics 1993 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 124], Hennig Andersen (ed.), 433–445. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weerman, Fred
2003 Een mooie verhaal. Veranderingen in uitgangen. In Waar gaat het Nederlands naartoe? Panorama van een Taal, Jan Stroop (ed.), 249–260. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.Google Scholar
2005  Adverbia als adjectiva. In A.D. 2005 Taalkundige Artikelen voor Ad Welschen, Els Elffers & Fred Weerman (eds). Amsterdam: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
2006 It’s the economy, stupid! Een vergelijkende blik op men en man. In Nederlands tussen Duits en Engels, Matthias Hüning, Arie Verhagen, Ulrike Vogl & Ton van der Wouden (eds), 19–47. Leiden: Stichting Neerlandistiek Leiden.Google Scholar
Weerman, Fred, Bisschop, Jannetje & Punt, Laura
2006 L1 and L2 acquisition of Dutch adjectival inflexion. ACLC Working Papers 1: 5–36.Google Scholar
Willis, David
2010 Degrammaticalization and obsolescent morphology: evidence from Slavonic. In Grammaticalization: Current Views and Issues [Studies in Language Companion Series 119], Ekaterini Stathi, Elke Gehweiler & Ekkehard König (eds), 151–178. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wischer, Ilse
2010 Sekretion und Exaptation als Mechanismen in der Wortbildung und Grammatik. In Prozesse sprachlicher Verstärkung. Typen formaler Resegmentierung und semantischer Remotivierung, Rüdiger Harnisch (ed.), 29–40. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
WNT: Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal
2003 ’s-Gravenhage: Sdu. Cd-rom version of: Matthias de Vries & Lammert te Winkel (1882–1998). Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal. ’s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Ziemann, Hendrikje, Fred Weerman & Esther Ruigendijk
2011 Nederlands later geleerd: Gebruik van lidwoorden en flexie van bijvoeglijke naamwoorden door Duitstalige kinderen en volwassenen. Internationale Neerlandistiek 49(3): 183–207. CrossrefGoogle Scholar

Appendix: Corpora

CONDIV
: see Grondelaers et al. (2000).Google Scholar
MOROCCORP
see Ruette & Van de Velde (Forthcoming).
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Norde, Muriel & Graeme Trousdale
2016.  In Exaptation and Language Change [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 336], ► pp. 163 ff. Crossref logo
Van de Velde, Freek
2018.  In The Construction of Words [Studies in Morphology, 4], ► pp. 519 ff. Crossref logo
Van de Velde, Freek & Muriel Norde
2016.  In Exaptation and Language Change [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 336], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 04 june 2021. 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.