Noun phrases are prototypically used as arguments. Although noun phrases can also act as arguments of adjectives and adpositions, the discussion here will be confined to their function as arguments of verbs. That noun phrases can be used as arguments is related to the fact that they typically refer to (possibly singleton) sets of entities. As pointed out in Section 15.1.2, the NP part of the noun phrase provides the descriptive information needed for identifying the set of entities in question, and the DP part determines the referential or quantificational properties of the noun phrase as a whole. These sets of entities function as participants in the state of affairs denoted by the verb; they are assigned the thematic roles of agent, theme, recipient, etc. by the verb. The examples in (16) provide some prototypical examples.

Semantic roles are typically associated with particular syntactic functions in the clause: the agent is usually realized as the subject of an active clause (16a-c), the theme as the direct object (16b-c), and the recipient as the indirect object (16c). However, there is not always a one-to-one mapping between semantic role and syntactic function. The passive variants involve the same semantic roles but the syntactic realization of the theme has changed: the agents are now expressed in a door-PP, while the themes in (17b-c) have become subjects, as is clear from the fact that they agree with the finite verb. In the krijgen-passive in (17c'), it is the recipient that has become the subject.

So-called unaccusative verbs like komen to come’ and bevallento please and undative verbs like krijgento get/receive are like passive constructions in that they realize non-agentive arguments as their subject.

The discussion above has shown that noun phrases can function as nominal arguments of verbs; it essentially reviews the classification of verbs in Table 4 from Section V2.1, which may be helpful in reading the discussion of nominalization in Sections 15.3 and 16.2.3. Note in passing that impersonal verbs are like the impersonal passive construction in (17a) in that they do not take a nominal argument.

There is much more to say about the distribution of nominal arguments, for which we refer the reader to Sections V2, A25.2, and P34.1.

Although noun phrases are typically used as arguments, they can also function as predicates, in which case the noun phrase is used not to refer to an entity or a set of entities, but to predicate a property of another noun phrase. Typical cases are found in the copular and vinden-constructions in (19). In the primeless examples, the noun phrase een aardige jongen is predicated of a logical subject Jan: only Jan is referential, een aardige jongen is not. The predicative relationship between the two noun phrases is syntactically reflected in the fact illustrated in the primed examples that they must agree in number; cf. Section 22.2.2 for an exception to this agreement requirement.

A small number of noun phrases can be used as adverbial phrases modifying the clause. These noun phrases include head nouns with a temporal denotation, as in (20a&b), or nouns that can be used to indicate a period of time, as in (20c). More or less the same meaning can be conveyed by a PP introduced by gedurendeduring.

However, there are a number of subtle meaning differences between constructions with an adverbial DP and an adverbial PP introduced by gedurende. Apart from the fact that the latter is more formal, the use of the adjunct DP deze week seems to suggest that Marie has been working hard all week; the use of the PP gedurende deze week does not trigger this interpretation (even making it implausible). Moreover, the period of time referred to can vary: the DP deze week in (20a) refers to the span of time stretching from Monday to Sunday directly preceding or including the speech time, whereas the PP gedurende deze week can only refer to a specific week in the past. Note that the choice of demonstrative pronoun can also play a role here: if the proximate demonstrative dezethis in the adverbial DP deze week is replaced by the distal demonstrative diethat, a reference to the week including speech time becomes impossible, leaving only a reference to a specific week in the past (or the future).