oa Weet jij wanneer je op gaat splitsen? Onderzoek naar de voorkeur voor het bijeenhouden of splitsen van partikelwerkwoorden in de bijzin

Particle verbs are particle-verb combinations of which the constituting elements may or may not appear separately. This article looks at a subgroup of particle verbs with a preposition as their first part, like opbellen [to call]. When using a particle verb in a verbal cluster at the end of a clause, a Dutch speaker is free to choose between keeping particle and verb together or separating them. These possibilities are both grammatically correct. By asking participants to repeat sentences after a short pause, which were constructed to vary the distance between particle and verb (non-separated, separated by one or two verbs), we aimed to get insight into speakers’ preferred use of particle verb constructions. Results show that there is a general preference for the non-separated form of the particle verb. In addition, we observed the tendency that the larger the verbal cluster at the end of a subordinate clause, the smaller the chance that a speaker will separate the particle verb.