Dutch Verb Clusters

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Dutch Verb Clusters

Consider the following Dutch subordinate sentences.

$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} dat Arie wil slapen \\ that Arie wants to-sleep \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} dat Arie Bob wil slaan \\ that Arie Bob wants to-hit \\ that Arie wants to hit Bob \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} * dat Arie Bob wil slapen\\ * that Arie Bob wants to-sleep\\ * that Arie wants to sleep Bob \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

$\begin{exam} * dat Arie wil Bob slaan \end{exam}$
$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} dat Arie Bob cadeautjes wil geven \\ that Arie ... ...nt to-give \\ that Arie wants to give presents to Bob \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} * dat Arie Bob wil cadeautjes geven\\ * dat Arie wil Bob cadeautjes geven \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

$\begin{exam} \begin{flushleft} dat Arie Bob zou moeten kunnen willen kussen \\ ... ...kiss \\ that Arie should be able to want to kiss Bob \end{flushleft}\end{exam}$

The examples 1-3 indicate that in Dutch the arguments of a main verb can be realized to the left of an intervening auxiliary verb, such as a modal verb. Furthermore the sentences in 4-6 indicate that in such constructions the arguments must be realized to the left of the auxiliary verbs. In 7 it is illustrated that there can be any number of auxiliaries.

Noord G.J.M. van
1998-09-29