- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
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- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
- 3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
- 3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
- 7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Coordination and Ellipsis
- Nouns and noun phrases (JANUARI 2025)
- 15 Characterization and classification
- 16 Projection of noun phrases I: Complementation
- 16.0. Introduction
- 16.1. General observations
- 16.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 16.3. Clausal complements
- 16.4. Bibliographical notes
- 17 Projection of noun phrases II: Modification
- 17.0. Introduction
- 17.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 17.2. Premodification
- 17.3. Postmodification
- 17.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 17.3.2. Relative clauses
- 17.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 17.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 17.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 17.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 17.4. Bibliographical notes
- 18 Projection of noun phrases III: Binominal constructions
- 18.0. Introduction
- 18.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 18.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 18.3. Bibliographical notes
- 19 Determiners: Articles and pronouns
- 19.0. Introduction
- 19.1. Articles
- 19.2. Pronouns
- 19.3. Bibliographical notes
- 20 Numerals and quantifiers
- 20.0. Introduction
- 20.1. Numerals
- 20.2. Quantifiers
- 20.2.1. Introduction
- 20.2.2. Universal quantifiers: ieder/elk ‘every’ and alle ‘all’
- 20.2.3. Existential quantifiers: sommige ‘some’ and enkele ‘some’
- 20.2.4. Degree quantifiers: veel ‘many/much’ and weinig ‘few/little’
- 20.2.5. Modification of quantifiers
- 20.2.6. A note on the adverbial use of degree quantifiers
- 20.3. Quantitative er constructions
- 20.4. Partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions
- 20.5. Bibliographical notes
- 21 Predeterminers
- 21.0. Introduction
- 21.1. The universal quantifier al ‘all’ and its alternants
- 21.2. The predeterminer heel ‘all/whole’
- 21.3. A note on focus particles
- 21.4. Bibliographical notes
- 22 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- 23 Referential dependencies (binding)
- Syntax
-
- General
This section discusses the second group of determiners: pronouns. Before entering into a detailed discussion of the pronominal types, we will make some general remarks about the classification of pronouns. In most Dutch traditional (school) grammars, pronouns are divided into the subclasses given in (321); cf. Haeseryn et al. (1997:§5).
| a. | Personal pronouns, e.g. hij/zij ‘he/she’ and hem/haar ‘him/her’ |
| b. | Reflexive/reciprocal pronouns, e.g. zichzelf ‘himself’ and elkaar ‘each other’ |
| c. | Possessive pronouns, e.g. zijn/haar ‘his/her’ |
| d. | Demonstrative pronouns, e.g. dit ‘this’ and dat ‘that’ |
| e. | Interrogative pronouns, e.g. wie ‘who’, wiens ‘whose’ and welk(e) ‘which’ |
| f. | Relative pronouns, e.g. die ‘that’ and dat ‘that’ |
| g. | quantificational pronouns, e.g. iemand ‘someone’ and sommige ‘some’ |
| h. | Exclamative pronoun: wat |
The classification in (321) is unsatisfactory, because there are several elements that could in principle belong to more than one subclass. This becomes clear when we consider the set of interrogative pronouns: this class is assumed to contain the pronouns wiewho, wienswhose and welk(e)which, based on the semantic criterion that they are all interrogative words. On syntactic grounds, however, it seems equally justified to say that wiewho is a personal pronoun because it can be used in the same positions as the pronouns hijhe and hemhim, that wienswhose is a possessive pronoun because it can be used in the same positions as the possessive pronoun zijnhis, and that welkwhich is a demonstrative pronoun because it can be used in the same positions as the demonstrative pronouns die/datthat.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with making a classification based on semantic considerations, provided that it is done in a consistent way. However, traditional grammar fails in this respect by including adverbs like wanneerwhen and hoehow not in the class of interrogative elements, but simply in the class of adverbs. This again results in a classification in which certain elements could in principle belong to more than one subclass, while some classes fail to include all relevant elements. Another example is the subclass of “indefinite” pronouns, in which Haeseryn et al. (1997) include not only pronominal quantifiers such as iemand, but also quantificational elements such as sommigesome, which seem more related to numerals such as driethree than to pronouns.
It seems that these problems are caused by the fact that the traditional classification is based on a mixture of syntactic and semantic criteria; cf. Broekhuis (2002). In order to avoid these problems, or at least to make them visible, it seems better to apply the syntactic and semantic criteria in a more consistent way. A first attempt is presented in Table 6.
| argument: personal pronouns | referential | Hij is ziek. ‘He is ill.’ |
| interrogative | Wie is ziek? ‘Who is ill?’ | |
| quantificational | Iedereen is ziek. ‘Everyone is ill.’ | |
| relative | de man die ziek is ‘the man who is ill’ | |
| reflexive | Jan wast zichzelf. ‘Jan is washing himself.’ | |
| reciprocal | Zij wassen elkaar. ‘They wash each other.’ | |
| modifier: possessive pronouns | referential | Zijn kat is ziek. ‘His cat is ill.’ |
| interrogative | Wiens kat is ziek? ‘Whose cat is ill?’ | |
| quantificational | Iemands kat is ziek. ‘Someoneʼs cat is ill.’ | |
| relative | de jongen wiens kat ziek is ‘the boy whose cat is ill’ | |
| reciprocal | Zij verzorgen elkaars kat. ‘They look after each otherʼs cats.’ | |
| argument or modifier: demonstrative pronouns | non-interrogative | Die (kat) is ziek. ‘That cat is ill.’ |
| interrogative | Welke (kat) is ziek? ‘Which cat is ill?’ |
In Table 6, a first division is made on the basis of the syntactic distribution of these pronouns: are they used as independent arguments or as dependent modifiers of the noun phrase? On the basis of this formal criterion, the pronouns can be divided into the three main groups in (322). This division seems to be partly reflected in the semantics of the pronouns: while the personal and possessive pronouns have a limited amount of descriptive content, such as the ability to express that their referent is [±animate] (e.g. iemandsomeone versus ietssomething) or masculine/female (e.g. hijhe versus zijshe), the demonstrative pronouns seem to lack such descriptive content; the latter are mainly deictic elements that allow the addressee to determine the referent of the noun phrase they modify.
| a. | Personal pronouns: pronouns used as arguments |
| b. | Possessive pronouns: pronouns used as modifiers of a noun phrase |
| c. | Demonstrative pronouns: pronouns used either as arguments or as modifiers of a noun phrase |
The three groups in (322) can be divided into smaller subclasses on the basis of semantic criteria (which can also be applied to adverbial phrases): are the pronouns referential, interrogative, or quantificational, or does their reference depend on an antecedent, as is the case with relative, reflexive, and reciprocal pronouns? Since demonstrative pronouns have virtually no descriptive content, it is not surprising that they cannot be divided into as many semantic subclasses as the personal and possessive pronouns.
The following sections discuss the three main classes of pronouns in Table 6: personal pronouns are discussed in Section 19.2.1, possessive pronouns in Section 19.2.2, and demonstrative pronouns in Section 19.2.3. Reflexive, reciprocal, and at least some occurrences of referential pronouns are dependent on some syntactically expressed antecedent, and we therefore conclude our discussion of pronouns with a discussion of some restrictions on these dependencies, as expressed in the so-called binding theory in Chapter 23.
