TABU-day | University of Groningen | June 6th 2008

Against PathP in Dutch

Kees de Schepper

Radboud University Nijmegen

Optimal Communication

Three PP-types in Dutch

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 2

a. Jan loopt op de berg [preposition] ‘John walks on the mountain’

b. Jan loopt de berg op [postposition] ‘John walks up the mountain

c. Jan loopt om de berg heen [circumposition] ‘John walks around the mountain’

Post- and circumpositions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 3

a. Postposition b. Circumposition de berg op om de berg heen ‘up the mountain’ ‘around the mountain’

Prepositions and FP

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 4

a. Preposition stacking b. Directional preposition tot in de winkel naar de winkel ‘well into the store’ ‘to the store’

(Koopman 2000, Helmantel 2002, den Dikken to appear)

Overview

Universality of PathP

Postpositions

Circumpositions

Preposition stacking

Directional prepositions

Conclusions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 5

Universality of PathP

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 6

Proposed universal projections for PPs

a. [V [Dir [Loc [N ] ] ] ] walk from under table

(van Riemsdijk & Huijbregts 2001)

Early Indo-European

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 7

Early IE Ps were adverbs, see Sanskrit prati ‘among’ (Whitney 1913):

a. gacchet kadācit svajanaṁ(ACC) prati ‘One day she might go among her own people’

b. gacchet kadācit svajanāt(ABL) prati ‘One day she might go from among her own people’

c. [[V [N-Dir]] Loc]

Dir is close to N and Loc is on top of V

→ [V [Dir [Loc [N] ] ] ] is not universal

Postpositions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 8

Dutch postpositions:

a. Point locatives in, op, binnen in on inside

b. Path locatives door, over, langs, voorbij, uit, om through over along past out around

Circumpositions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 9

Path meaning is not in particle

a. Er zat een strikje om de boom heen ‘There was a ribbon around the tree’

b. Er zat een strikje om de boom ‘There was a ribbon around the tree’

Circumpositions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 10

some particles never bring path-reading

a. om / door / over de boom heen ‘around / through / over the tree’

b. *naast / *in / *op de boom heen ‘along beside / in / on the tree’

Preposition stacking

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 11

a. circumposition [PP over [DP de muur]] (heen) ‘over the wall’

b. preposition stacking [PP (tot) [PP over [DP de muur]]] ‘over the wall’

Path meaning may be in inner P

Preposition stacking

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 12

Comparing the outer Ps:

a. circumposition ([[P DP] P]) → heen, toe, vandaan, weg, mee to to from away with → cannot take DP complement b. preposition stacking ([P [P DP]]) → tot, van, voor to from for → can take DP complement

Why does it move?

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 13

a. Preposition stacking b. Circumposition tot over de muur over de muur heen ‘over the wall’ ‘over the wall’

Status of the particle

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 14

particle in circumpositions may be an adjunct

a. [PP’ [PP om [DP de boom]] [XP heen]] ‘around the tree’

b. [DP’ [DP de man] [XP zelf]] ‘the man himself’

naar and toe

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 15

Directional preposition naar:

a. Jan is naar de winkel (toe) gelopen ‘John walked to the store’

b. Jan is er naar *(toe) gelopen ‘John walked to it’

c. *[PathP [XP er] [Path’ naar]] ← no R-pronoun in spec,PathP

d. [PathP [PP [XP er] [P’ naar]] [Path’ toe]]

(Helmantel 2002)

naar and toe

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 16

Not limited to R-words:

a. Jan nam de verantwoordelijkheid op zich ‘John took full responsibility’

b. Jan trok de verantwoordelijkheid naar zich (*toe) ‘John took on the responsibilty’

c. Ik sprong op ‘m ‘I jumped on him’

d. Ik sprong naar ‘m (*toe) ‘I jumped toward him’

naar and toe

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 17

a. Die boom, daar is Jan IN / *in geklommen ‘Into that tree John has climbed’

→ with directional PPs stress on PP

b. Die boom, daar heeft Jan *IN / in geklommen ‘In that tree John has clambered around’

→ with locational PPs stress on verb

naar and toe

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 18

a. Stapte Jan OP of NAAST het podium? ‘Did John step onto the stage or beside it?’

b. Stapte Jan OP (/*NAAR) of *VAN het podium? ‘Did John step onto (/to) the stage or off it?’

c. Stapte Jan het podium OP of AF? ‘Did John step onto the stage or off it?’

→ naar and van cannot be stressed

naar and toe

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 19

→ with directional PPs stress on PPs→ naar and van cannot be stressed

a. Jan is er *NAAR / naar TOE gelopen ‘John walked to it’

b. Jan is er *VAN / van AF gesprongen ‘John jumped off it’

Conclusions

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 20

PathP is not universal

DPs in postpositions do not move to get a path interpretation

Particles in circumpositions are not inherently directional

Preposition stacking is just preposition stacking

Ungrammaticality of directional ernaar can be accounted for without appealing to PathP

There is no PathP in Dutch

Thank you

den Dikken, Marcel. to appear. On the functional structure of locative and directional PPs. In: G. Cinque & L. Rizzi (eds), The cartography of prepositional phrases. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

Helmantel, Marjon. 2002. Interactions in the Dutch adpositional domain. Ph.D. diss., Leiden University/ULCL.

Koopman, Hilda. 2000. Prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions and particles: The structure of Dutch PPs. In Hilda Koopman (ed.), The syntax of specifiers and heads. London: Routledge; 204–60.

Riemsdijk, Henk van & Riny Huybregts. 2001. Location and locality. Ms., Tilburg University.

Whitney, William Dwight. 1913. A Sanskrit grammar : including both the classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana. Boston: Ginn.

case

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 23

a. een maal een koning waardig ‘a meal fit for a king’

b. de weg de berg op ‘the road up the mountain’

case

“Against PathP”, de Schepper 2008 Slide 24

a. met, tot, (af)

- prepositions

b. mee, toe, af

- intransitive Ps - verb particles - R-pronouns (cf. *de winkel heen vs. daarheen)

- postpositions