Previous studies on the intransitive-locative alternation in Dutch

intransitive agentive verbs, motion verbs, and posture verbs has a resultative syntax and semantics based on its similarities with the transitive-locative alternation, which also takes the adjective vol ‘full’ in Dutch in the Location-Subject order, or Totally-Affected variant in Mulder’s terms. This notwithstanding, I will argue that, while this may be true for transitive verbs, agentive verbs, and intransitive motion verbs, this analysis does not hold true for posture verbs. As shown in chapter 3, these verbs behave as non-dynamic process verbs in the simple position sense, which hinders the possibility to obtain a resultative meaning by means of the addition of a path phrase. Let us see it in detail. Mulder’s analysis of the intransitive-locative alternation in Dutch with motion verbs such as stromen ‘flow’ (6) and schieten ‘shoot, rush’ (7), and process posture verbs such as zitten ‘sit’ (8), standen ‘stand’ (9), and liggen ‘lie’ (10) seem to show similar properties in their argument structures as all of them allow a locative subject when the adjective vol ‘full’, accompanied by a prepositional phrase expressing the locatum, follows the verb.

(6) a. het water stroomt in het bad (Dutch)

the water pours in the bath b. het bad stroomt vol met water the bath flows full with water

(7) a. de tranen schieten in zijn ogen the tears shot in his eyes b. zijn ogen schieten vol met tranen his eyes shoot full with tears

(Mulder 1992:168, (8))

(8) a. de knikkers zitten in de zak the marbles sit in the bag b. de zak zit vol met knikkers the bag sits full with marbles

(9) a. het nieuws staat in de krant the news stands in the paper b. de krant staat vol met nieuws the paper stands full with news

(10) a. de boeken liggen op de tafel the books lie on the table b. de tafel ligt vol met boeken the table lies full with books

(Mulder 1992:168, (4-6))

Mulder adopts the view that posture verbs contain a small-clause complement in their argument structures, where the location and locatum arguments are enclosed. The argument structure proposed by Mulder for the Location-Subject order of these verb classes in the intransitive locative-alternation is similar to the one proposed by Hoekstra

& Mulder (1990) and Mulder & Wehrmann (1989), who argue for an unaccusative argument structure, since the DP in subject position, in either order, does not seem to be properly selected by the verb; thus, this DP would be required to raise from its subject position in the small-clause to Spec,IP to receive nominative case (11).

(11) Totally Affected Reading: V [SC NPloc A PPmat]

The novelty of their approach lies in the assumption that in the Totally-Affected alternant, that is, in the location as subject variant, the adjective vol is the head of the small-clause complement, which may as well be realized either as a phonetically null element or as the affix be- (see section 2.2). Additionally, it is argued that the

“completeness” meaning is conveyed by the small-clause, which is consistent with the meaning of the adjective. In the configuration, the adjective vol ‘full’ is considered to be

the head of the small-clause and its omission results in the unacceptability of the sequences, as shown below for the agentive verb gieten ‘pour’ (12). An additional proof of the head status of the adjective is the fact that it may incorporate into the verb, an option which is restricted to heads (13).⁵⁸

(12) dat hij de tank *(vol) gooit (met benzine) that he the tank full throws with gasoline

(Mulder 1992:177, (34))

(13) a. dat hij de tank {vol wil gooien/wil volgooien} met benzine that he the tank full wants throw/ wants full-throw with gasoline b. dat hij de kast {snel wil schilderen/*wil snelschilderen}

that he the closet fast wants paint/ wants fast-paint

(Mulder 1992:176, (33))

In contrast, the material, expressed by means of a prepositional phrase with the preposition met ‘with’, may be omitted or extraposed without affecting the grammaticality of the sequence. As a matter of fact, the preposition met and its material complement may appear either pre- or post-verbally (14). Thus, this element is shown to play the role of an adjunct, or modifier of the small-clause.

58 Equivalent results are obtained with the Partially-Affected alternant of intransitive motion verbs and agentive verbs in Dutch, for which Mulder (1992) also argues for a small-clause analysis containing the location and locatum arguments (i), based on the ungrammatical results of extraposing the prepositional phrase that denotes the location (ii-iii), which can be conceived as the final location of the material in the event.

(i) Partially Affected Reading: V [SC NPmat PPloc]

(ii) a. *dat het water stroomt in het bad (Dutch)

that the water flows in the bath b. *dat det tranen schieten in zijn ogen that the tears shoot in his eyes (ii) a. *dat hij het water giet in het bad that he the water pours in the bath b. *dat hij de boeken zet op de plank that he the books puts on the shelf c. *dat hij de snoepjes doet in de tas that he the candies puts in the bag

(Mulder 1992:169-170, (13-14))

(14) a. dat hij het bad vol (met water) giet (met water) that he the bath full with water pours with water b. dat hij zijn brood (met boter) besmeert (met boter) that he his bread with butter full-spreads with butter

(Mulder & Wehrmann 1989:112, (8))

Mulder’s conclusion is that the two possible orders are not related derivationally to each other, but rather they are resultative structures containing a small-clause argument, whose subject and complement may vary in the way they appear realized depending on the intended semantics, namely, if the material is conceived to undergo a change of location, the Partially Affected-alternant, i.e., the Locatum-Subject variant, is selected;

however, if the location is conceived to be completely affected, or occupied by the material, then the Totally Affected-alternant, i.e., the Location-Subject variant, is chosen instead. Note that it is not immediately clear how this interpretation may be applied to process posture verbs as these verbs are non-dynamic. Additionally, Mulder holds that this analysis is also applicable to the transitive locative-alternation, which is also argued to instantiate a small-clause complement along with a true external argument to the verb (see section 2.2). In clear resemblance to the intransitive-locative alternation, these verbs also allow the presence of the resultative particle vol ‘full’ in the Totally-Affected alternant (15), that is, in those cases where the location is realized as the subject of the small-clause complement, or the prefix be- in Dutch as an alternative to express the resultative meaning component (16). The same would also be true for the agentive verbs that take vol ‘full’ in Dutch, among which Mulder includes gieten ‘pour’ (17), zetten ‘set’

(18), and doen ‘do’ (19).

(15) hij laadde de wagen (vol) met hooi he loads the wagon full with hay

(16) a. hij (be-)laadde de wagen met hooi he be-loaded the wagon with hay b. hij laadde het hooi op de wagen he loaded the hay on the wagon

(Mulder 1992:178-179, (42a, 36))

(17) a. hij giet het water in het bad he pours the water in the bath

b. hij giet het bad vol met water he pours the bath full with water

(18) a. hij zet de boeken op de plank he puts the books on the shelf b. hij zet de plank vol met boeken he puts the shelf full with books

(19) a. hij doet de snoepjes in de tas he does the candies in the bag b. hij doet de tas vol met snoepjes he does the bag full with candies

(Mulder 1992:168, (9-11))

In summary, intransitive agentive verbs, motion verbs, and posture verbs are argued to have a resultative syntax and semantics based on their similarities with the transitive-locative alternation, which also takes the adjective vol ‘full’ in Dutch in the Totally-Affected variant, i.e., Location-Subject variant. While this may be true for agentive verbs and intransitive motion verbs, posture verbs behave as non-dynamic process verbs in the simple position sense, which disqualifies them to have resultative semantics. In the next section, I look at what other linguists have said about the transitive-locative alternation to conclude that posture verbs in the intransitive-locative alternation do not share the same first phase syntax as transitive and intransitive verbs in the same configuration.