Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

700 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(57) a. Een rat is meestal erg intelligent.
a rat is generally very intelligent
b. Ratten zijn meestal erg intelligent.
rats are generally very intelligent
We will start in Subsection A by discussing some differences between generic and
non-generic indefinite noun phrases. This is followed in Subsection B by a discussion
of the differences between singular and plural generic indefinite noun phrases.
A. Differences between generic and non-generic indefinite noun phrases
Generic indefinite noun phrases differ in syntactic behavior from the non-generic
ones. Consider the examples in (58). Non-generic indefinite DPs headed by an
indefinite article do not occur in the regular subject position, whereas generic
indefinite noun phrases introduced by the article een/∅ must occur in this position,
which is clear from the fact that they cannot enter the °expletive construction
discussed in Section 8.1.4; the noun phrases in (58a&a′) receive a non-generic
interpretation, whereas those in (58b&b′) receive a generic interpretation.
(58) a. Er zwemt een vis in het water. [non-generic]
there swims a fishsg in the water
a′. Er zwemmen vissen in het water. [non-generic]
there swim fishpl in the water
b. Een vis zwemt in het water. [generic]
a fishsg swims in the water
b′. Vissen zwemmen in het water. [generic]
fishpl swim in the water
It may be, however, that an exception must be made for generic statements of the
type in (59). These examples are generic but not in the same sense as the examples
discussed earlier: they do not involve a categorical statement about the members of
the set denoted by the NP goed mes ‘good knife’, but a generic statement about the
activity denoted by the noun phrase dit soort werk ‘this kind of work’; when one
does this (kind of) work, a good knife is/good knives are indispensable. Therefore,
if we want to categorize the subject noun phrases in (59) as non-generic, we must
rephrase our earlier findings a bit: it is only in generic clauses that indefinite noun
phrases introduced by een/∅ can occupy the regular subject position. Since, to our
knowledge, examples like (59) have not been discussed in the literature, we will not
address them any further.
(59) a. Een goed mes is onmisbaar voor dit (soort) werk.
a good knife is indispensable for this kind.of work
b. Goede messen zijn onmisbaar voor dit (soort) werk.
good knives are indispensable for this kind.of work
B. Differences between singular and plural generic indefinite noun phrases
So far, we have not discussed the difference between the singular and plural generic
indefinite noun phrases. Although at first sight it seems difficult to pinpoint a
difference in meaning, it is clear that they are not synonymous. This becomes