This section provides a semantic classification of nouns on the basis of the kind of entity they denote. Typically, the semantic differences between the noun classes that we will distinguish are also reflected in their syntactic and morphological properties. Although there seem to be as many different typologies of Dutch nouns as there are grammatical descriptions, there nevertheless are a number of distinctions that are more or less generally accepted. In traditional grammar, the distinctions in (19a-c) have generally been used for classifying nouns; cf. Haeseryn et al. (1997: 140ff). More recently, theory-specific approaches like Dikʼs (1997) Functional Grammar and Lexical Functional Grammar have added the distinctions in (19d-e). Unfortunately, the relation(s) between these various distinctions is not always clear: some are complementary, some overlap, whereas others operate independently. In what follows, we will describe the distinctions in (19) in some detail in an attempt to clarify the relations between them. In addition, examples will be given of non-prototypical uses of the various noun types, that is, of the ways in which nouns belonging to one category can be used, semantically as well as syntactically, as though they belonged to another category.

This section presents a classification that includes all five distinctions in (19) but reduces them to three partly overlapping, but nevertheless independent, main categories. The discussion is structured as follows. Section 1.2.1 starts with a discussion of the differences between proper nouns, such as Jan and De Alpen'The Alps', and common nouns, such as jongen'boy' and berg'mountain'. In Section 1.2.2, common nouns will be divided into concrete and abstract nouns, which will each in their turn be divided into several other subclasses, as shown in Table 4. The table also shows that some of the resulting subclasses will be further divided into subcategories.

Section 1.2.3, finally, discusses the differences between relational nouns like vader'father' versus non-relational nouns like jongen'boy'. Chapter 2 will discuss in more detail the differences between the classes distinguished above with regard to complementation within the NP.