Edward chia .M.

A320190040

Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation

Introduction

Like verbs and nouns, adjectives can combine with other phrases to form a bigger °
projection. Other phrases that combine adjectives can be divided into arguments and
modifiers. Adjectives such as angry "angry" in (1a), for example, PP to his father "at his
father" as a complement, and can also be modified by an amplifier like very "very". The
(very) angry projection of his father thus acts as a constituent, which is clear from the fact
illustrated by (1b) that he can be moved as a whole to the initial position of the clause; cf. °
constituency test. However, adjectives and their complement can also occur uninterruptedly,
as illustrated in (1c & d).

1. a. Jan was never very angry with his father.

b. Jan was never angry or very angry with his father.

c. Jan was never very angry with his father.

d. Jan was never (very) angry with his father.

1.1. Prepositional complements.

The examples in (2) show that complements of adjectives are normally PPs, which are often
optional.

(2) a. Jan is not angry about that remark.

b. Jan is not satisfied with his reward.

The examples in (3) further show that complements of adjectives can sometimes be
clauses, which are introduced by the (often optional) °anticipatory pronominal PP
er + P ‘P + it’; given that, due to the phonological weakness of the pronominal
element er, this PP is normally split by means of °R-extraction, we will use italics
to make it easier for the reader to detect the constituting parts of this PP.

(3) a. Jan is there angry about that Peter not come is ‘Jan is angry (about it) that
Peter did not come.’
b. Jan is there satisfied with that he received is ‘Jan is satisfied (about it) that
he has been received.’
 The option of having an anticipatory pronominal PPs in (3) indicates that these
examples are related to the examples in (2). The following two sections will
discuss examples of this sort more extensively.

1.1.1. Prepositional complements: Adjective + P-NP

Adjectives typically select a PP as their complement. Although this PP-

complement can often either precede or follow the adjective, it is normally
assumed that its baseposition is the one following the adjective, whereas the pre-
adjectival position is derived by leftward movement.

(4). A. Jan is about that remark angry

B. Jan is about his reward satisfied

There are at least two arguments in favor of the claim that the pre-adjectival
position is derived by movement. The first argument is based on the fact that
stranded prepositions must occupy their base-position, as expressed by the so-
called °freezing principle; the fact that the stranded preposition over must follow
the adjectives in the examples in (5) therefore shows that the PP originates in
postadjectival position.

(5). A. Jan is there about angry.

B. Jan is there about satisfied.

The second argument is based on the general claim that complements are generated
closer to the selecting head than modifiers; if the PP is base-generated in
preadjectival position, we wrongly predict that it should be able to follow
modifiers like erg ‘very’; the fact that PP-complements can only precede such
modifiers therefore shows that the pre-adjectival placement of PP-complements is
the result of leftward movement. This discussion suffices for our present limited
purpose, but we will see in Section 2.3.1 that there are various complicating
factors.

(6). A. Jan is about that remark very angry.

B. Jan is about his reward very satisfied.

From the examples above we may conclude that PP-complements are

basegenerated in post-adjectival position. This is further supported by the examples
in (7); if the PP is base-generated in post-adjectival position, we would expect that
the string A–PP forms a constituent, and the fact that this string can be preposed
into the clause-initial position shows that this expectation is indeed borne out; cf.
the °constituency test.
(7). A. angry about that remark is Jan no.
B. satisfied with his reward is Jan not.

That the PPs in (4) are complements of (selected by) the adjectives is clear from
the fact that the latter determine which prepositions must be used: the small sample
of adjectives in Table 1 shows that we are dealing with fixed adjective-preposition
collocations. The PP-complements in Table 1 are all optional. Some adjectives can
be combined with more than one prepositional complement at the same time, as
can be exemplified by means of boos op Peter over die opmerking ‘angry with
Peter about that remark’. The actual choice of the preposition is largely
unpredictable. However, when the adjective is derived from a verbal stem, such as
verbaasd or afhankelijk, the selected preposition often coincides with the
preposition that is used with the verb. This is shown in the examples in (8).

(8). A. Jan is astonished about the story.

B. Jan wonders REFL about the story.
C. the obtaining of support depends prt. on a positive report.

Some adjectives obligatorily take a prepositional object. Three cases can be

distinguished: (i) the adjective shows an unpredictable shift in meaning when the
prepositional object is dropped, (ii) the meaning of the adjective remains constant
but the adjective must appear in a different syntactic frame when the prepositional
object is omitted, and (iii) no form exists without a prepositional object.
In this connection, it should be noted that the adjectives from Table 4 below that
obligatorily take a PP-complement also require an animate SUBJECT. Given that
the adjectives marked with “#” in Table 1 may take an inanimate subject regardless
of whether the PP-complement is present or not, we may perhaps conclude that
adjectives that take an obligatory PP-complement are special in that they must
denote properties of human (or, at least, animate) entities. An important difference
between the adjectives with and the adjectives without a PP-complement is that the
logical SUBJECTs of the former can be singular whereas the logical SUBJECTs of
the latter must be plural. This is illustrated in the final column of the table. Apart
from the fact that the relation holding between the entities involved is expressed in
an asymmetric way when the PP-complement is present and in a symmetric way
when it is absent, the two cases are more or less synonymous.

Participial adjectives such as getrouwd (met) ‘married (to)’ and verloofd (met)
‘engaged (to)’ may also belong to this class, although the adjective without a
PPcomplement does occasionally occur with a singular noun phrase, as shown in
(9c); perhaps, we may assume that the PP-complement has been left implicit or
underspecified in this case.

(9). A. Marie turned.out married/engaged to Jan.

 B. Marie and Jan turned.out married/engaged.
C. Marie turned.out married/engaged.

1.1.2. Clauses introduced by the anticipatory PP-complement er + P

This section discusses clausal complements of the adjectives introduced by the

anticipatory PP er + P. The clausal complement can be finite or infinitival; we will
discuss the two types in separate subsections.

I. Finite clauses.

Many of the adjectives discussed in Section 2.1.1 can also occur with a clausal
complement, especially those that express a mental state of their SUBJECT. The
adjectives boos ‘angry’, tevreden ‘satisfied’ and verontwaardigd ‘indignant’ in
(11), for example, may take a declarative clausal complement, while the adjectives
benieuwd ‘curious’ and geïnteresseerd ‘interested’ in (12) sometimes take an
interrogative clausal complement. The examples in (11) and (12) also show that the
clausal complement is not adjacent to the selecting adjective, but placed after the
verbs in clause-final position.

(11). • Declarative clausal complement.

a. that Jan there angry about is that Peter not invited is ‘that Jan is
angry (about it) that Peter is not invited.’

b. that Jan there satisfied about is that Peter invited is ‘that Jan is
satisfied (about it) that Peter is invited.’

c. that Jan there indignant about is that Els not allowed.to come ‘Jan
is indignant (about it) that she was not allowed to come.’

(12). • Interrogative clausal complement.

A. that Jan there curious about is whether he invited has.been ‘that

Jan is eager to know whether he has been invited.’

A’. that Jan there curious about is who Peter invited has ‘that Jan is
eager to know who Peter invited.’

B. that Jan there in interested was whether Els would come ‘that Jan
was interested in whether Els would come.’

B’. that Jan there in interested was who there would come ‘that Jan
turned out to be interested in who would come.’
It is plausible that the clausal complements in (11) and (12) are in fact not the
syntactic complements of the adjective. The reason for this is that, as the material
within parentheses shows, an °anticipatory pronominal PP can be added to these
examples, which acts as the semantic complement of the adjective and in which the
element er is a “place-holder” of the clause-final sentence; see V4 for a discussion
of comparable cases in the verbal domain. Observe in passing that the °stranded
preposition is placed to the right of the adjective benieuwd ‘curious’ in (12a) and
to the left of the adjective geïnteresseerd ‘interested’ in (12b); see Section 2.3.1.3
for a discussion of this fact. The examples in (13) and (14) show that the
anticipatory pronominal PP becomes obligatory when the clausal complements of
the examples in (11) and (12) are placed in clause-initial position. The primeless
examples show that the PP has the demonstrative form daar P ‘P that’, which
suggests that we are dealing with a form of °left dislocation in these examples.
That we are not dealing with topicalization is clear from the fact, illustrated in the
primed examples, that the clause cannot occupy the clause-initial position
immediately preceding the finite verb, irrespective of whether the pronominal PP
er + P is present or not.

(13). A. [Dat Peter niet uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan boos over.

A’. *[Dat Peter niet uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) boos (over).

B. [Dat Peter uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan tevreden over.

B’. *[Dat Peter uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) tevreden (over).

C. [Dat Els niet mocht komen] daar is Jan verontwaardigd over.

C’. *[Dat Els niet mocht komen] is Jan (er) verontwaardigd (over).

(14). A. [Of Peter uitgenodigd is] daar is Jan benieuwd/nieuwsgierig naar.

A’. *[Of Peter uitgenodigd is] is Jan (er) benieuwd/nieuwsgierig (naar).

B. [Of Els zou komen] daar bleek Jan in geïnteresseerd.

B’. *[Of Els zou komen] bleek Jan (er) (in) geïnteresseerd.

The possibility of omitting the anticipatory pronominal PP is restricted to those

adjectives that optionally take a PP-complement; with the adjectives in Table 2 and
Table 4 the anticipatory pronominal PP must therefore be present, as shown by the
examples in (15).
(15). • Obligatory pronominal prepositional complement

A. Jan is there fed.up with that you continually nag ‘Jan is fed up with it
that you are nagging all the time.’

A’. *Jan is ziek [dat jij steeds zeurt].

B. Jan is there against opposed that Marie invited is ‘Jan is opposed to

it that Marie is invited.’

B’. *Jan is gekant [dat Marie uitgenodigd wordt]

The unacceptability of (16c) is probably related to the fact illustrated by (17) that
examples like (16a) do not allow R-extraction from any of the two
PPcomplements; the fact noted earlier that anticipatory pronominal PPs
obligatorily split immediately accounts for the impossibility of (16c). Note further
that the ungrammaticality of (17b) may in principle be due to the fact that the
stranded preposition over is not immediately adjacent to the selecting adjective; cf.
Section P5.3.4. The fact that the example is also excluded when the stranded
preposition over precedes the op-PP (*Jan is er boos over op Peter) shows,
however, that more is going on than a simple violation of some adjacency
requirement.

(17). A. a. *Jan is er boos op over die opmerking .

B. *Jan is er boos op Peter over.

C. *Jan is er boos op over

II. Infinitival clauses

The clausal complements in the previous subsection are finite clauses, but they can
also appear in the form of an infinitival clause. This is illustrated in (18), in which
the infinitival clause is given within square brackets. A property of these examples
is that the reference of the implied subject of the infinitival clause, which is
indicated by °PRO, is controlled by the subject of the matrix clause, that is, the
subject and PRO refer to the same referent, which is indicated here by means of
coindexing. Like in (11), the anticipatory pronoun can be dropped in (18), although
this may sometimes give rise to a somewhat marked result. The examples in (18).
also show that the clausal complement is not adjacent to the selecting adjective but
placed after the verbs in clause-final position.
(18). • Optional pronominal prepositional complement.

A. that Jan there angry about is not invited to have.been ‘that Jan
is angry (about it) not to have been invited.’

B. that Jan there satisfied about is invited to have.been ‘that Jan is

satisfied (about it) to have been invited.’

C. that Jan there indignant about is not to be.allowed come ‘that

Jan is indignant (about it) not to be allowed to come.’

Unlike finite clauses, infinitival clauses cannot readily be fronted. The examples in
(19) show that, insofar as this is acceptable, the anticipatory pronominal PP must
be present in the demonstrative form daar P ‘P that’. The primed examples show
again that we are dealing with left dislocation, and not with topicalization of the
clause into the clause-initial position immediately preceding the finite verb.

(19). a. ?[PRO niet uitgenodigd te zijn] daar is Jan boos over.

a′. *[PRO niet uitgenodigd te zijn] is Jan (er) boos (over).

b. ?[PRO uitgenodigd te zijn] daar is Jan tevreden over.

b′. *[PRO uitgenodigd te zijn] is Jan tevreden.

c. ?[PRO niet te mogen komen] daar is Jan verontwaardigd over.

c′. *[PRO niet te mogen komen] is Jan (er) verontwaardigd (over).

The possibility of omitting the anticipatory pronominal PP is again restricted to

those adjectives that optionally take a PP-complement; the examples in (20) show
that the adjectives in Table 2 and Table 4 require the pronominal PP to be present.

(20). • Obligatory pronominal prepositional complement

A. that Jan there fed.up with is always after his sister to have.to look
‘that Jan is fed up with it to be obliged to look after his sister all the time.’

a′. *dat Jan ziek is [PRO steeds op zijn zusje te moeten passen].

b. that Jan there against opposed is Marie prt. to invite ‘that Jan is
opposed to it to invite Marie.’

b′. *dat Jan gekant is [PRO Marie uit te nodigen]

 Finally, the examples in (21) and (22) seem to show that the possibility of omitting
the anticipatory pronominal PP correlates with the possibility of introducing the
infinitival clause by means of the complementizer om: when the pronominal PP is
optional, the complementizer om cannot be used, whereas the complementizer can
be freely added when the PP is obligatory. We are not aware of any proposal that
aims at accounting for this correlation (if true at all).
(21) a. *Jan is (er) boos (over) [om PRO niet uitgenodigd te zijn].
b. *Jan is (er) tevreden (over) [om PRO uitgenodigd te zijn].
c. *Jan is (er) verontwaardigd (over) [om PRO niet te mogen komen].
(22) a. Jan is er ziek van [om PRO steeds op zijn zusje te moeten passen]
b. Jan is er tegen gekant [om PRO Marie uit te nodigen].

I.1.3. A note on adjectives modified by te, genoeg, and voldoende.

Many adjectives do not readily take a prepositional complement. Consider for

instance the examples in (23); the number sign indicates that (23b) is acceptable
but only on an adverbial reading of the PP voor de training “before the training”,
which is irrelevant here.

(23). A. Jan is young/old for the disco.

B. Els turned.out recuperated for the training.

These examples in (24) show that this becomes fully acceptable, however, once the
adjectives are modified by an intensifier like te ‘too’, genoeg ‘enough’, voldoende
‘sufficiently’, or tamelijk/behoorlijk/nogal.

(24). A. Jan is too/fairly young for the disco.

B. Marie is old enough for the disco.

C. Els turned.out sufficiently recuperated for the training.

That the modified adjective and the PP in (24) form a constituent is clear from the
fact illustrated by (25) that they can be preposed as a whole; cf. the °constituency
test.

(25). A. too young for the disco is Jan not.

B. old enough for the disco is Marie not yet.

C. sufficiently recuperated for the training is Els not yet.

Broekhuis Hans. 2013. Syntax of Dutch Adjectives and Adjective Phrases.

AMSTERDAM: AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS.