This chapter discusses the use of numerals and quantifiers in the nominal projection. In general, these elements occur in prenominal position after the determiners, as in (1a&b). This has been taken into account by assuming that the structure of the noun phrase is as in (1c), where D indicates the position of the determiner and Num (or perhaps Q) indicates the position that can be occupied by a numeral or a quantifier.

The examples in (2a&b), in which the numeral/quantifier is modified, show that this proposal is in fact a simplification: since the sequences bijna honderd and erg veel are phrases, they cannot be inserted in the head position Num in (1c). Rather, Num is a phonetically empty functional head expressing number (i.e. the feature [±plural]), and the numeral/quantifier is part of a phrase located in the specifier position of this head, which acts as a modifier of the Num head, as in (2c).

This chapter therefore tentatively takes the position that numerals and quantifiers are not functional but lexical heads; they project larger phrases that can be used as modifiers of noun phrases; cf. Corver (2001) and Corver and Zwarts (2005) for an alternative proposal with similar properties. Section 20.1 deals with numerals, while Section 20.2 deals with quantifiers. Section 20.3 provides a detailed discussion of so-called quantitative er, which is associated with a phonetically empty NP; this element occurs in association with indefinite noun phrases with a cardinal numeral or a well-defined subset of quantifiers, as in (3a&b).

Section 20.4 concludes this chapter with a discussion of the partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions illustrated in (4). Partitive constructions like (4a) or (4b) refer to a subset of a contextually determined set of entities (here: cookies). However, example (4b) also has a so-called pseudo-partitive reading, which is not partitive at all, but expresses a meaning close to “four/many cookies of the kind you (the addressee) are familiar with”.