In some cases, a definite article can be construed as an inherent part of the name. Some examples of such proper nouns are given in (87).

Examples such as (87) are not a purely lexical matter, since all kinds of subregularities can be found. We will not discuss these in detail here, but simply summarize the main findings of Haeseryn et al. (1997), to which we refer for further details and more examples. The definite article is common for geographical names, but not for names of continents, nations, counties and cities, except when the name is a syntactic plural (de Hebridenthe Hebrides) or when the organizational form is part of the name (de Sovjet Uniethe Soviet Union). Geographical names with a definite article include the names of mountains (de Snowdonsg the Snowdon; de Alpenpl the Alps), forests (het Zwarte Woudthe Black Forest), seas, lakes and rivers (de Noordzeethe North Sea; het IJsselmeer; de Rijnthe Rhine), and celestial bodies (de maanthe moon; de Melkwegthe Milky Way). Names of buildings, streets, parks, squares, etc. also take a definite determiner (de Westerkerk, het Damrak, het Vondelpark). The same goes for the names of organizations and societies (de Algemene Vereniging voor Taalwetenschapthe general society for linguistics), and the names of newspapers and magazines, especially when they contain the “kind” name (het Algemeen Dagblad the general daily versus Lingua). Finally, the names of cultural periods and certain festivities also take the definite article (de Renaissancethe Renaissance; het CarnavalCarnival).

Compare the examples in (94) with those in (95). The difference in acceptability is due to the fact that the adjective geborenborn in (95) expresses an individual-level property of the species (here: homo sapiens) to which the referent of the proper noun belongs, resulting in tautology in the case of the definite determiner, and nonsense in the case of the indefinite article. At least, this is true for the token reading of the proper noun, i.e. where the name is used with reference to the actual individual bearing that name.

On a type reading of the proper noun, however, these examples are acceptable. On this reading, Karl Marx does not represent the actual person who bears that name, but rather a set of properties that person is supposed to embody (e.g. being an intellectual with particular leadership skills). On this reading, the examples in (96) may be more or less equivalent to those in (97), where the common noun volksmennerdemagogue replaces Karl Marx.

The type reading imposed on the proper nouns in (96) also shows up in another context in which proper nouns are combined with the indefinite article een. In (98), een Kluivert denotes the set of salient properties embodied by the person named Kluivert (a famous Dutch soccer player), not the person himself. Omitting the indefinite article changes the meaning from the type reading to the token reading; We hebben Kluivert in de ploeg means that the person named Kluivert plays on our team. The type reading can be enhanced by adding the attributive adjective echttrue or typischtypical to the indefinite noun phrase; in this case dropping the indefinite article does not lead to a token reading, but results in unacceptability. For completeness, note that example (98a) with the indefinite article is also acceptable under the “representative of the proper noun set” reading to be discussed in Subsection V below.

In the examples in (98), the indefinite article can be replaced by the negative element geen, as in (99a). Note, however, that in some contexts the phrase geen Kluivert can actually designate the specific person whose name is Kluivert; example (99b) is a case in point.

The type reading of proper nouns preceded by the indefinite article is shown in a slightly different way in example (100c). Names of languages cannot normally be construed with an article, either definite or indefinite. But when the noun is postmodified, both the definite and the indefinite article are possible. The difference between (100b) and (100c) is on a par with that found in (88b) and (89a). The semantic contributions of the definite and indefinite articles are “the type of” and “a type of”, respectively. Note that it is not possible to replace the articles in (100b&c) with their (in)definite counterparts; the reason for this is not clear.

The indefinite article een, when combined with a proper noun, can have several other semantic effects. The first is what we may somewhat redundantly call a specific interpretation of the een + proper noun combination, instantiated by the examples in (101). In such examples, the indefinite article can easily be omitted without affecting the meaning, which is not surprising given that the proper noun itself already designates a specific person in the universe of discourse.

Consider the use of the Dutch indefinite article in combination with the family name Jansen in the answer in (102b) to question (102a). Here, Jansen refers to the set of members of the family named Jansen, and the use of een picks out one particular member from that set. In this particular context, the semantics of een is similar to the [+specific] meaning found when een is construed with common nouns.

Surnames can also be used in the plural to refer to multiple members of a family; for example, (103a) can be used to refer to a representative set of a family, such as a married couple and their children. In (103b), the noun phrase is used for all members of the family.

The sentence uttered by speaker B in (102) is unambiguous in the context given; but out of context it allows an alternative reading in which the semantic contribution of een is that of English a certain, as in (104). In this reading, the indefinite article is optionally followed by the adjective zekerecertain. The implication of using this construction is that the speaker does not know the person in question: for the speaker, the name is merely a description that distinguishes the referent from people with other surnames, and does not (uniquely) identify this referent. In fact, the implication is that the addressee may not know the person either.

In this usage, the indefinite article may also appear in a schwa-inflected form, spelled as ene and pronounced with the full vowel of the numeral één: [e:nə]. When ene is used, zekere cannot be inserted, as shown in (105). The use of ene has a slightly pejorative connotation: not only does the speaker not know the person in question, but he is also indifferent to him.

This use of een/ene with proper nouns can be thought of as the opposite of the emphatic use of the definite article in examples of the type in (106). What the emphatic definite article expresses in the speaker’s response is that the person in question is not just any mortal named Eunice Burns, but that she is the unmistakable, well-known, famous, etc. Eunice Burns. Further discussion of emphatic definite articles can be found in Section 19.1.4.3, sub II.

With family names, the use of the attributive adjective echt/typisch results in a reading of “prototypical member of the family”. For example, (107) expresses that Philip IV has all the prototypical traits (in character or appearance) that are assumed to be common to individual members of the House of Habsburg.

This use of proper nouns comes fairly close to the case where a proper noun is not used to refer to the (set of) entities normally referred to by a particular name, but instead is used metaphorically to refer to some property normally associated with that entity. Thus, in the examples in (108), the names of well-known persons or figures with a remarkable feature or talent are used to ascribe that feature or talent to another person. In these cases, the proper noun appears in predicative position and is often accompanied by some form of evaluation.

A case where articles are combined with (personal) proper nouns is instantiated by the examples in (109). Here, the proper noun acts as a substitute for a noun denoting an object created by the bearer of the name in question; een Van Gogh refers to a painting by Van Gogh, a so-called “effected object” (hence the label).

One might wonder whether examples of this kind involve direct construal of definite articles with a proper noun. An alternative approach would be to say that the article is actually construed with an elliptical (common) noun denoting the work painted by Van Gogh. If so, the structure of the relevant noun phrases in (109) will be as indicated in (110a), with ∅ standing for the presumed elliptical noun. One potential problem with such an approach, however, is that in the case of definite reference, the “elliptical” construction requires the use of dethe, i.e. the non-neuter form of the definite article, whereas the (b)-examples show that the overtly expressed head can be either the non-neuter tekeningdrawing or the neuter noun schilderijpainting. The (a)-example and the two (b)-examples also differ in that the preposition van is obligatory in the latter, but impossible in the former.

This suggests that the analysis in (110a) is not feasible and that we have to assume that the proper noun is construed directly with the determiner, i.e. acts like a regular common noun. This also accounts for the fact illustrated in (111) that these proper nouns allow a plural form.

Further evidence for direct construal of the proper noun and determiner can be found in Flemish Dutch, which differs from standard Dutch in that it has different articles for feminine and masculine nouns. The point is that the examples in (112) accept only the masculine articles den (definite) and nen (indefinite), while the putative elliptical nouns schilderyepainting and beeldsculpture are feminine and neuter, respectively; example (112b) shows that the choice of article is also independent of the biological sex of the creator, as the sculptor in question is a woman.