Chapter 18
The expressive en maar-construction
Hans Broekhuis | Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Meertens Institute, Amsterdam
Norbert Corver | Utrecht University, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS
This article discusses constructions of the type En maar zeuren! ‘You keep on nagging’, which express a negative attitude of the speaker towards the proposition expressed by the construction. We will argue that en ‘and’ should be seen as a regular conjunction conjoining a phonetically empty clause with an overt infinitival clause: [[Ø] en [maar zeuren]]. The proposition expressed by the empty clause is determined by the common ground and contrasts with the propositional content of the second clause. This contrast is essential for obtaining the expressive meaning, but is potentially problematic in light of the regular interpretation of en. We solve this by claiming that the contrastive reading is expressed by the conjunction in tandem with the discourse particle maar, which can also be used as a contrastive/oppositional conjunction.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The infinitive
- 2.1Root infinitive versus nominal infinitive
- 2.2What is the “clausal size” of the root infinitive?
- 3.On the syntactic behaviour and interpretation of maar
- 4.Some speculations on the expressivity of ‘en’
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
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Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Bogaards, Maarten, Ronny Boogaart & Sjef Barbiers
Doreleijers, Kristel & Norbert Corver
2021.
Adviserend beter*.
Nederlandse Taalkunde 26:1
► pp. 3 ff.
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