Dutch uses cardinal posture verbs (/zitten/ ‘to sit’, /staan/ ‘to stand’, and /liggen/ ‘to lie’) for all sorts of purposes, many of which have received considerable research attention — like the...Show moreDutch uses cardinal posture verbs (/zitten/ ‘to sit’, /staan/ ‘to stand’, and /liggen/ ‘to lie’) for all sorts of purposes, many of which have received considerable research attention — like the posture progressive, e.g. /zitten te lezen/ ‘lit. sit to read: to be reading’. This thesis investigates an understudied posture verb pattern in which a posture verb is combined with a complementive past participle, e.g. /zitten vastgeplakt/ 'lit. sit stuck: to be stuck' and /staan volgepriegeld/ 'lit. stand scribbled full: to be scribbled full'. Previous analyses disagree on the status of this pattern in terms of its productivity (is it fixed or are new combinations possible?), meaning (what does the pattern as a whole express?), and structure (is the complementive participle verbal or adjectival?). By examining over 6,000 attestations of the pattern in a corpus of written Dutch, this thesis evaluates these competing accounts, concluding that (i) the patterns are indeed productive; (ii) constraints on that productivity can be accounted for in terms of the meaning of the pattern as a whole, i.e. 'locativity' and 'resultativity'; and (iii) the pattern's syntax appears highly heterogeneous: some past participles behave like adjectives, others like verbs. Finally, I show that this heterogeneity is compatible with the semantic properties of past participles in general, and of the posture verb-participle pattern in particular.Show less
As humans, we spend most of our time by standing, sitting or lying. These verbs that are used to refer to states of being in a position are used more extensively than one would expect at first...Show moreAs humans, we spend most of our time by standing, sitting or lying. These verbs that are used to refer to states of being in a position are used more extensively than one would expect at first sight. In different languages, these posture verbs can be used in a grammaticalized way. This is the case with Tsafiki and Cha'palaa, two languages spoken in the northwest of South America. In these two languages, the verb 'sit' (in Tsafiki) and 'lie' (in Cha'palaa) are grammaticalized into continuative markers. These are the main instances of grammaticalized posture verbs in these languages, besides other minor examples.Show less
This MA thesis presents the results of a study which focused on ascertaining whether language influenced the way of thinking of English and Dutch respondents with respect to locating objects in...Show moreThis MA thesis presents the results of a study which focused on ascertaining whether language influenced the way of thinking of English and Dutch respondents with respect to locating objects in space. Speakers of Dutch make use of three different cardinal posture verbs, staan, liggen and zitten (to stand, to lie and to sit, respectively) when locating inanimate objects in space, whereas speakers of English prefer to use the neutral verb to be. By means of a classification experiment and a memorization experiment it became clear that speakers of Dutch do not have a different way of thinking (e.g. classifying and remembering) about the objects due to their more diverse lexical field. This can be due to the fact that English and Dutch do not differ sufficiently in their use of posture verbs, as English does have the verbs to stand, to lie and to sit and does use these verbs for locating objects. It can also be because the use of the three different posture verbs has conventionalized in Dutch, causing the respondents to refrain from conceptualizing the position of the object. Thus, the language does not inspire any thoughts, which means that it cannot influence the speakers’ way of thinking.Show less
