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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
We have seen in several places that possessive pronouns and prenominal possessive noun phrases can alternate with postnominal van-PPs; we illustrate this again in (497). This section concludes our discussion of possessive pronouns by pointing out some differences between prenominal possessors and postnominal PPs.
| a. | Jans/zijn boek | |
| Jan’s/his book |
| b. | het boek van Jan/hem | |
| the book of Jan/him |
A first difference concerns the use of possessive pronouns in questions like (498). In the discussion of example (452) in Section 19.2.2.1 it was already pointed out that the use of the interrogative possessives wiens/wierwhose is rather formal. The colloquial way to ask the intended question is with a possessive van-PP, as in (498a'). The questions in (498) may evoke an elliptical answer, involving only the possessor. However, the (b)-examples show that using a possessive pronoun or genitive noun phrase leads to a degraded result; the more formal question in (498a) is also answered by the van-PP in (498b').
| a. | Wiens/Wier | boek | is dit? | |
| whosemasc/fem. | book | is this |
| a'. | Van wie | is | dit boek? | |
| of whom | is | this book |
| b. | *? | Jans/zijn. |
| Jan’s/his |
| b'. | Van Jan/hem. | |
| of Jan/him |
Similar contrasts can be found in other elliptical contexts, such as those in (499).
| a. | ?? | Zij | heeft | zijn/Jans boek | gelezen | en | hij | haar/Maries. |
| she | has | his/Jan’s book | read | en | he | her/Marie’s | ||
| 'She read her/Jan's book, and he her/Marieʼs.' | ||||||||
| b. | Zij | heeft | het boek van hem/Jan | gelezen | en | hij | dat | van haar/Marie. | |
| she | has | the book of him/Jan | read | and | he | that | of her/Marie |
The second difference concerns the form of the pronoun: example (500) shows that while the possessive pronoun can be either weak or strong, using a weak pronoun as the complement of the preposition van produces a marginal result.
| a. | mijn/m’n | boek | |
| my | book |
| b. | het boek | van mij/??me | |
| the book | of me |
However, the use of a weak pronoun is possible if we replace the definite article with the distal demonstrative dat: dat boek van methat book of mine, provided that the noun phrase is interpreted as referring to an entity familiar to the hearer; Section 19.2.3.2, sub IIB, discusses this particular construction in more detail.
A third difference concerns the use of the possessor in predicative post-copular position: the examples in (501) show that this is excluded with possessive pronouns and genitive noun phrases but possible with van-PPs.
| a. | *? | Het boek | is mijn/Jans. |
| the book | is my/Jan’s |
| b. | Het boek | is van mij/Jan. | |
| the book | is of me/Jan |
The examples in (502) illustrate a final difference: while the coordination of possessive pronouns and/or genitive noun phrases leads to a marked result, the coordination of pronouns and noun phrases within the van-PP is easily possible.
| a. | ?? | jouw en haar boek |
| your and her book |
| a'. | * | Peters en jouw boek |
| Peter’s and your book |
| b. | het boek van jou en haar | |
| the book of you and her |
| b'. | het boek van Peter en jou | |
| the book of Peter and you |
Finally, note that the differences between the possessive pronouns and the postnominal van-PP containing a personal pronoun correspond exactly to those between the strong and weak possessive pronouns discussed by Cardinaletti (1998); cf. Alexiadou et al. (2007:569-70) for a brief discussion of the relevant Italian data.
