Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

722 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
There are many examples of coordinated bare singular count nouns. In (121) some
typical examples are given involving kinship nouns: we may add vader en moeder
‘father and mother’ although we may be dealing with vocatives in this case. All of
these cases seem idiomatic in the sense that the order of the conjuncts is rigid and
sometimes the meanings are not compositional: man en vrouw refers to a couple,
and moeder en kind typically refers to a mother and her newborn baby.
(121) a. man en vrouw a′. *vrouw en man
man and woman
‘husband and wife’
b. broer en zuster b′. *zuster en broer
brother and sister
c. moeder en kind c′. *kind en moeder
mother and child
‘mother and her baby’
Other examples involve nouns referring to objects that are typically used together.
A typical example is mes and vork ‘knife and fork’ from example (120), but there
are many more: a small and random set is given in (122).
(122) a. draad en naald c. pen en papier
thread and needle pen and paper
b. huis en tuin d. pijl en boog
house and garden arrow and bow
Another clearly idiomatic example is dag en nacht ‘day and night’ in (123), which
is rather special in that it is used, not as an argument, but as an adverbial phrase
meaning something like “continuously for a very long time”.
(123) Hij huilde dag en nacht.
he cried day and night
Note that the conjunction need not be en ‘and’ but can also be noch ‘neither ..nor’.
It is clear from the meaning that we are dealing with fixed expressions in (124). We
have not been able to find examples with the disjunctive coordinator of ‘or’, which
do occur in English: cf. It is feast or famine these days for a working fisherman
(Carole Boster, p.c.).
(124) a. Hij heeft kind noch kraai.
he has child nor crow
‘He has no family at all.’
b. Hij geeft taal noch teken.
he gives language nor sign
‘There is no sign of life from him.’
Using coordinated bare count nouns in prepositional adverbial phrases is very
common, as shown by the examples in (125). Note that all these constructions often
have a “high degree” reading; see Postma (1995) for discussion.