Noun phrases can occur in all argument functions. Some typical examples are given in (1) to (4). In (1) the noun phrase acts as the (nominative) subject of the clause, in (2) as the (accusative) direct object, in (3) as the (dative) indirect object, and in (4), finally, as the complement of a preposition: the primeless examples in (4) involve a prepositional indirect object and the primed ones involve PP-complements of the verb, but examples could also be given for PPs with, e.g., an adverbial function. The (a)- and (b)-examples of each set illustrate, respectively, non-neuter and neuter singulars, and the (c)-examples exemplify plurals. For each of these types a definite and an indefinite example are given. The definite noun phrases are headed by the definite article de/het'the', but they can be replaced by any other type of definite noun phrase: replacing the noun phrase de man'the man' by, e.g., noun phrases like die man'that man' or mijn vriend'my friend', a personal pronoun like hij/hem'he/him' or the universal quantifier iedereen'everyone' does not affect the grammaticality judgments. Neither will the grammaticality judgments change if we replace the indefinite singular noun phrase een man/kind by the existential quantifier iemand or the indefinite plural DP [∅ mensen]'persons' by some other plural indefinite noun phrase like verschillende/veel/vier mensen'several/many/four persons'.

      In the examples above, two things leap to the eye. First, it can be observed that the plural indefinite noun phrases in the (c)-examples in (4) give rise to a marked result. This is related to the fact that the indefinite noun phrase has a nonspecific reading; if the plural noun phrase has a generic reading, as in (5), the result is fine.

Second, it can be noted that the indefinite subjects in the primed examples in (1) normally occur in an expletive construction. This also has to do with the fact that the indefinite noun phrase is construed non-generically. We will come back to this in Section 8.1.4.