Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

716 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(101) a. Er staat ene Eunice Burns voor de deur. [speaker A]
there stands a Eunice Burns in.front.of the door
b. Niet ene Eunice Burns, dé Eunice Burns. [speaker B]
not a Eunice Burns the Eunice Burns
VII. Prototypical/metaphorical reading
With family names, the use of the attributive adjective echt/typisch results in a
reading of “prototypical member of the family”. Example (102), for instance,
expresses that Philip IV has all the prototypical characteristics (in character or
appearance) assumed to be common to the individual members of the house of
Habsburg.
(102) Philips de vierde is een echte Habsburger.
Philip IV is a true Habsburgian
‘Philip IV is prototypical member of the house of Habsburg.’
This use of proper nouns comes fairly close to the case where a proper noun is not
used to refer to the (set of) entities normally referred to by means of a particular
name, but is, instead, used metaphorically to refer to some property normally
associated with this entity. Thus in the examples in (103), the names of well-known
persons or figures with a remarkable feature or talent are used to ascribe these
features or talents to some other person. In these cases the proper noun appears in
predicative position and is often accompanied by some form of evaluation.
(103) a. Hij is een echte Nero.
he is a real Nero
‘He is a bad person.’
b. Hij is bepaald geen Bouwmeester.
he is certainly no Bouwmeester
‘He is not exactly a great actor.’
c. Ze beschouwen hem als de Nederlandse Pavarotti.
they regard him as the Dutch Pavarotti
‘He is a great tenor.’
VIII. “Effected object”
One case in which articles are combined with (personal) proper nouns is instantiated
by the examples in (104). Here the proper noun acts as a stand-in for a noun
denoting an object created by the bearer of the name in question; een Van Gogh
refers to a painting by Van Gogh, a so-called “effected object” (whence the label).
(104) a. De Van Gogh bij ons aan de muur is niet echt.
the Van Gogh with us on the wall is not real
b. We hebben een Van Gogh aan de muur.
we have a Van Gogh on the wall
One may wonder whether examples of this type involve direct construal of definite
articles with a proper noun. An alternative approach would be to say that what the
article is actually being construed with is an elliptic (common) noun denoting the
work painted by Van Gogh. In that case, the structure of the relevant noun phrases