Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Binominal constructions 575
modification of the nouns in QCs. Finally, Section 4.1.1.6 concludes by providing a
discussion of two related constructions, which we will refer to as the partitive and
pseudo-partitive construction.
4.1.1.1. Types of N1s and N2s
This section briefly characterizes the types of nouns that can be used as N1 or N2 in
a quantificational binominal construction (QC).
I. Types of N1s
Example (2) gives several types of nouns that are frequently used as N1s in a QC.
These nouns share the semantic property that they can be used to refer to a certain
number of entities or a certain quantity of a substance denoted by N2.
(2) Semantic types of N1s in quantificational binominal constructions
QUANTIFIER
NOUNS (QNS)
MEASURE NOUNS
(MNS)
CONTAINER NOUNS
(CONNS)
PART NOUNS
(PARTNS)
COLLECTIVE
NOUNS (COLNS)
EXAMPLES OF NOUNS EXAMPLE
aantal ‘number’, (hele)boel ‘lot’, hoop
‘lot’, paar ‘couple’, stel ‘couple’, etc.
kilo ‘kilo’, liter ‘liter’, meter ‘meter’,
dozijn ‘dozen’, gros ‘gross’, etc.
doos ‘box’, emmer ‘bucket’, krat
‘crate’, etc.
brok ‘piece’, klontje ‘lump’, reep ‘bar’,
stuk ‘piece’, etc.
dozijn ‘dozen’, groep ‘group’, kudde
‘flock’, paar ‘pair’, rij ‘row’, stapel
‘pile’, serie ‘series’, zwerm ‘swarm’
een hoop problemen
a lot [of] problems
een kilo bonen
a kilo [of] beans
een doos pillen
a box [of] pills
een stuk cake
a piece [of] cake
een groep studenten
a group [of] students
Often, some nouns act as belonging to more than one group, which may give rise to
ambiguity. This holds especially for quantifier nouns, which often may be either
purely quantificational (that is, without any descriptive content), or more referential,
that is, with descriptive content that enables them to refer to an entity. A clear
example is the noun paar ‘couple’. The QC in (3a) is ambiguous between two
readings. On the first reading, the noun paar acts as a quantifier noun and can be
translated as “couple/number of”: the noun has a purely quantificational function
and QC refers to a small number of shoes. On the second reading, the noun acts as a
collective noun and must be translated as “pair of”: the noun has descriptive content
that enables it to denote a certain set of entities, and the QC refers to two shoes that
form a pair. Observe that the quantificational reading is not available when N1 is
preceded by a definite article, as in (3b).
(3) a. een paar schoenen
a couple/pair [of] shoes
b. het paar schoenen
the pair [of] shoes
Another example involves the noun aantal ‘number’ in (4). Example (4a) shows
that the noun aantal can be used as a quantifier noun when it is preceded by the