The extraposition of prepositional objects of adjectives in Dutch

Abstract

In this article I present a corpus-based analysis of Dutch extraposition constructions that contain an adjective which combines with a prepositional object. I discuss two models that explain extraposition constructions in general: the minimalist model of Koster (1994) and Zwart (1993), and the functionalist model of Vandenbosch (1985). Though both models constitute useful approaches to extraposition constructions in Dutch, they cannot account for the most important finding of the corpus investigation, namely that the prepositional object of some adjectives occurs more frequently in extraposition constructions than the prepositional object of other adjectives. I argue that this result can only be explained by the underlying analogy between constructions in which the adjective combines with a prepositional object and constructions in which the adjective combines with a pronominal adverb. Also, I show that the methodology of the corpus investigation(s), the results, and the interpretation of the results can be neatly integrated into the framework of radical construction grammar (Croft 2001).