- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- 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 negative element geenno. Although geen is always part of a noun phrase, it usually takes clausal scope, i.e. it expresses sentential negation. As a result, it often expresses more or less the same meaning as the combination of the negative adverb nietnot and an indefinite noun phrase with the indefinite article eena. A pair of examples illustrating the alternation between geen N and niet + een N is given in (235).
| a. | Ik | koop | natuurlijk | geen auto | met het stuur aan de rechterkant. | |
| I | buy | of course | no car | with the steering wheel on the right.side | ||
| 'Of course, I donʼt buy a car that has the steering wheel on the right-hand side.' | ||||||
| b. | Ik | koop | natuurlijk | niet een auto | met het stuur aan de rechterkant. | |
| I | buy | of course | not a car | with the steering wheel on the right.side | ||
| 'Of course, I donʼt buy a car that has the steering wheel on the right-hand side.' | ||||||
The alternation in (235) has led to the idea that geen is the result of a fusion of the negative adverb and the indefinite article; cf. Haeseryn et al. (1997:§29.4). However, Table 3 shows for noun phrases headed by a non-neuter noun that this cannot be true for all contexts in which geen can be used; geen occurs with a greater variety of noun phrases than the indefinite article een, such as those headed by plural and non-count nouns; cf. also Section 19.1.5.2, sub I.
| count nouns | non-count nouns | ||
| singular | plural | ||
| definite | de vrouw the woman | de vrouwen the women | de wijn the wine |
| indefinite | een vrouw a woman | ∅ vrouwen women | ∅ wijn wine |
| negative | geen vrouw no woman | geen vrouwen no women | geen wijn no wine |
Furthermore, Section 19.1.5.1 will show that there are also several syntactic constructions in which the replacement of the combination niet een by geen fails. For these reasons, it seems difficult to maintain that geen is the result of the fusion of the negative adverb niet and the indefinite article een.
In fact, it is by no means clear that geen is a determiner: we have suggested in several places that een should perhaps be analyzed as a numeral, and for geen there is even more evidence to support such an assumption. For example, geen differs from all determiners in that it can be used in constructions with quantitative er. The examples in (237) show that in this respect geen rather resembles numerals such as driethree or weak quantifiers such as enkelesome
| a. | Ik | heb | er | [drie/enkele [e]] | gezien. | |
| I | have | er | three/some | seen | ||
| 'I have seen three/some birds.' | ||||||
| b. | Ik | heb | er | [geen [e]] | gezien. | |
| I | have | er | no | seen | ||
| 'I haven't seen any birds.' | ||||||
The same applies to the partitive construction in (237): in this construction, geen can be replaced by a numeral and certain quantifiers, but not by a determiner.
| a. | Ik | heb | drie/enkele | van die boeken | gekocht. | |
| I | have | three/some | of those books | bought | ||
| 'I have bought three/some of those books.' | ||||||
| b. | Ik | heb | geen | van die boeken | gekocht. | |
| I | have | no | of those books | bought | ||
| 'I have bought none of those books.' | ||||||
Finally, the examples in (238) show that geen can be modified by adverbial phrases like vrijwel/bijna, an option it shares with some numerals and quantifiers, but which is never available for determiners. Given these data, it might be fully justified to consider geen not as an article, but as a numeral or quantifier.
| a. | Ik | heb | bijna | geen/honderd/alle boeken | gelezen. | |
| I | have | nearly | no/hundred/all books | read |
| b. | Ik | heb | vrijwel geen/alle boeken | gelezen. | |
| I | have | virtually no/all books | read |
Despite all this, we will discuss the element geen here and not in Chapter 20 on numerals and quantifiers, for the practical reason that the analysis of geen as an article seems to be the more common one in the Dutch literature. We are aware of the controversy surrounding this decision, so in order to emphasize the existence of the alternative analysis, we will use the term negative quantifier for the remainder of this section.
Section 19.1.5.1 begins with a brief discussion of the semantic contribution of geen. This is followed in Section 19.1.5.2 by a discussion of the distribution of geen within the noun phrase. Section 19.1.5.3 concludes with a discussion of the distribution of noun phrases containing geen and some remarks on the use of geen as an independent constituent.
