The syntax of progressive and ingressiveaanhet-constructions in Dutch

Abstract

This paper presents a novel syntactic analysis of the much-debated Dutch aanhet-construction, e.g. Pieter is aan het opruimen ‘lit. Peter is on the cleanup: Peter is cleaning up’. We show that the construction’s syntactic behavior varies with the matrix verb: progressive zijn ‘be’ versus ingressive gaan ‘go’ and slaan ‘hit’. Based on this variation, we argue that there are two aanhet-projections occupying different synchronic positions on a functional-to-lexical cline.

Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Approaches to Aspect: The Case of the Dutch Prepositional Progressive

“…The Dutch construction known as the aan het -progressive, or the prepositional progressive (for example, Lemmens 2015, Bogaards et al 2022) consists of a constituent aan het V INF paired with the matrix verb zijn ‘be’. It presents the situation denoted by the variable infinitive as dynamic and ongoing, with the subject of zijn construed as the logical subject of the infinitive.…”

“…I should point out, however, that there is some notable work that goes beyond examining aan het V INF zijn as an isolated progressive construction, which the present study takes as a starting point. For example, Bogaards et al (2022) compare the aan het -progressive to the ingressive variants with gaan ‘go’ or slaan ‘hit’ as the matrix verb, as in 2a. They conclude that these are two different syntactic constructions and situate the aan het -progressive higher on a synchronic lexical-to-functional cline than the aan het -ingressive (that is, the former is more grammaticalized) 8 .…”

“…Starting out not from their aspectual meaning (the top-down approach) but from their form, one can see that these structures consist of the preposition aan ‘on’, a definite article, het/de , and a variable slot that can be filled by an infinitive, a verbal stem or a noun. The matrix verb in these constructions is optional (Van Pottelberge 2004:50, Bogaards et al 2022). A schematic representation of these constructions is given in 6.…”

“…To substantiate the general claim that a bottom-up approach is of added empirical and theoretical value to top-down studies of (progressive) aspect, this paper presents a case study conducted within the CxG framework. The study examines the Dutch pattern known as the aan het -progressive, or prepositional progressive (see, among others, Lemmens 2015 and Bogaards et al 2022). This construction is illustrated in 1 4…”

“…It expresses that the situation denoted by the infinitive (here: zwemmen ‘swim’) is ongoing. This paper aims to show that this pattern shares crucial properties with certain other patterns built around aan -constituents, which differ from the aan het -progressive primarily with respect to the matrix verb or the variable element: The aan het -ingressives (Bogaards et al 2022) in 2a combine with the matrix verbs gaan ‘go’ or slaan ‘hit’ rather than zijn , and the patterns in 2b,c select a variable verb stem and noun, respectively, rather than an infinitive. …”