- 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
Since the input nouns of denominal nouns will have an argument structure only incidentally, they are less interesting from the perspective of inheritance of argument structure. Indeed, nouns such as vaderschapfatherhood, derived from the relational noun vaderfather, suggest that no inheritance takes place; example (237b) differs from (237a) in that the relation of the proper noun Jan to the head noun is completely different: whereas in (237a) Jan refers to the son of the referent of the full noun phrase, (237b) expresses that Jan is the father of a number of unmentioned persons.
| a. | de vader van Jan | |
| the father of Jan | ||
| 'Jan's father' |
| b. | # | het vaderschap van Jan |
| the fatherhood of Jan |
For this reason, the following discussion of denominal nouns will be very brief. For a more comprehensive overview, we refer the reader to De Haas & Trommelen (1993) and Haeseryn et al. (1997), and Booij (2020a).
The diminutive suffix -je and its allomorphs are probably the most productive nominal affixes (apart from the plural affixes discussed in Section 15.1.1). The phonetic realization of the diminutive suffix depends on the phonological properties of the stem.
| a. | The suffix ‑etje is used after the nasal consonants /m/, /n/ or /N/ or the liquids /l/ or /r/ if they are immediately preceded by a short vowel carrying stress: kam ‘comb’ – kammetje; pen ‘pen’ – pennetje; slang ‘snake’ – slangetje; bel ‘bell’ – belletje; kar ‘cart’ – karretje. |
| b. | The suffix ‑tje is used with words ending in /n/ or a liquid, unless these sounds are preceded by a short, stressed vowel: tuin ‘garden’ – tuintje; zaal ‘room’ – zaaltje; deur ‘door’ – deurtje. The suffix is also added to words ending in a long vowel, diphthong or schwa; la ‘drawer’ – laatje; kooi ‘cage’ – kooitje; tante ‘aunt’ – tantetje. |
| c. | The suffix ‑pje is found after words ending in /m/, unless this sound is immediately preceded by a stressed short vowel: raam ‘window’ – raampje; cf. the (a)-examples. |
| d. | The suffix ‑kje is found after the unstressed suffix-like ending ‑ing, which is pronounced as /IN/; koning ‘king’ - kóninkje. Exceptions are cases where the syllable preceding ‑ing is unstressed (cf. wándelingetje ‘stroll’) and person nouns with the affix –ling (cf. léerlingetje ‘little pupil’). |
| e. | The suffix ‑je is used in other cases; pak ‘parcel’ – pakje; aap ‘monkey’ – aapje. |
Some of the person suffixes discussed in Section 15.3.1.5 can also take a nominal base: the suffix -er, for example, can be added to a (typically non-human) noun to form a noun denoting a person; cf. Van Santen (1992). We will call these derived nouns “neutral” person nouns, in contrast to the feminine person nouns that will be discussed shortly. Both the type of input noun and the semantic relation between the input noun and the derived noun vary.
The input noun of the “neutral” person names can be abstract like wetenschapscience, concrete like kluishermitage or molenmill, and it can even be an abbreviation like PvdA (political party) or AOW (pension law). The referents of these derived nouns are all related to the denotation of the input noun. The noun wetenschapper denotes the set of people who practice science, kluizenaarhermit denotes the set of people who live in a secluded environment, and an AOW-er is someone who receives a pension on the basis of the old-age pension law.
A more systematic set is constituted by the geographical person names derived from geographical place names. Here we give examples derived by means of the suffixes -aan and -ees; cf. Section A24.3.3, sub II, for a complete overview of the affixes deriving geographical person nouns. Another systematic group is the group of feminine person nouns derived from “neutral” person nouns by means of the suffixes -in, -e, and -es (among others).
| person noun | nominal stem | derived form |
| “neutral” -er/aar | wetenschap ‘science’ | wetenschapper ‘scientist’ |
| kluis ‘hermitage’ molen ‘mill’ | kluizenaar ‘hermit’ molenaar ‘miller’ | |
| PvdA ‘labor party’ AOW ‘old age pension’ | PvdA-er ‘labor party member’ AOW-er ‘old age pensioner’ | |
| geographical -er/aan/ees | Amsterdam Holland | Amsterdammer Hollander ‘Dutchman’ |
| Amerika ‘America’ Afrika ‘Africa’ | Amerikaan ‘American’ Afrikaan ‘African’ | |
| Vietnam China | Vietnamees ‘Vietnamese’ Chinees ‘Chinese’ | |
| feminine -in/es/e | vriend ‘friend’ keizer ‘emperor’ | vriendin ‘girl-friend’ keizerin ‘empress’ |
| voogd ‘guardian’ baron ‘baron’ | voogdes ‘(woman) guardian’ barones ‘baroness’ | |
| agent ‘policeman’ student ‘student’ | agente ‘policewoman’ studente ‘female student’ |
In addition to the more productive affixes discussed above, there are a number of unproductive endings that cause a specific semantic change. The most common of these endings are listed in the following subsections.
Derived nouns ending in -dom denote a group of entities each of which belongs to the denotation of the input noun, as in (239a&b), or to an area (historically) ruled or governed by the entity denoted by the input noun, as in (239c&d).
| a. | mens ‘human being’ |
| a'. | mensdom ‘human race’ |
| b. | priester ‘priest’ |
| b'. | priesterdom ‘priesthood’ |
| c. | prins ‘prince’ |
| c'. | prinsdom ‘principality’ |
| d. | bisschop ‘bishop’ |
| d'. | bisdom ‘bishopric’ |
A noun followed by the suffix -schap can refer either to a specific capacity, function, or rank, as in the examples in (240a-c), or to a branch of industry, as in (240d-g).
| a. | moederschap ‘motherhood’ |
| b. | vijandschap ‘enmity’ |
| c. | leiderschap ‘leadership’ |
| d. | agentschap ‘branch office’ |
| e. | genootschap ‘society’ |
| f. | landbouwschap ‘agricultural board’ |
| g. | waterschap ‘district water board’ |
This compound affix typically changes an individual noun, which denotes a particular entity, into a mass noun, which denotes a group of such entities.
| a. | berg ‘mountain’ |
| a'. | gebergte ‘mountain range’ |
| b. | boef ‘villain’ |
| b'. | geboefte ‘scum’ |
| c. | been ‘bone’ |
| c'. | gebeente ‘bones/skeleton’ |
| d. | steen ‘stone’ |
| d'. | gesteente ‘rock’ |
| e. | vogel ‘bird’ |
| e'. | gevogelte ‘fowl’ |
