Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

726 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
I. Een boek lezen ‘to read a book’
Section 5.1.1.3 has shown that an indefinite noun phrase like een boek ‘a book’ in
(131a) can have at least two interpretations: it can be nonspecific, in which case it
refers to some book unknown to the speaker and the addressee, or it can be specific,
in which case it refers to a book known to the speaker but not to the addressee.
There is, however, a third, non-referential reading of this example, which expresses
that the speaker wants to be engaged in a “book-reading event”. On this reading, the
interpretation of the example comes very close that of a sentence like (131b) where
the direct object is not expressed: in other words, on the reading in question een boek
lezen ‘to read a book’ comes very close to acting like a complex verbal predicate.
(131) a. Ik wil vanavond een boek lezen.
I want tonight a book read
‘I want to read a book tonight.’
b. Ik wil vanavond lezen.
It seems that the direct object must be sufficiently “general” in order for it to be
construed as part of a “complex” verbal predicate. The examples in (132), for
instance, do not readily allow the intended non-referential readings; the direct object
must be construed either specifically or non-specifically.
(132) a. # Ik wil vanavond een roman lezen.
I want tonight a book read
b. # Ik wil vanavond een gedicht lezen.
I want tonight a poem read
c. # Ik wil vanavond een krant lezen.
I want tonight a newspaper read
II. De krant lezen ‘to read the paper’
The examples in (133) show that definite noun phrases can also be construed as
being part of a complex verbal predicate. Example (133a), for example, normally
does not imply that the speaker has a certain movie or cinema in mind, but that he
wants to see some movie in some cinema. Similarly, (133b) does not focus on a
certain newspaper: when the reader has a subscription to three newspapers he may
intend to read all three issues of that day, and perhaps also some issues of the
previous days.
(133) a. Ik ga vanavond naar de film/bioscoop.
I go tonight to the movie/cinema
b. Ik wil een uurtje de krant lezen.
I want an hour the newspaper read
‘I want to read the newspaper for an hour.’
In these cases, we are also dealing with more or less fixed combinations. This will
become clear from the constructions in (134), where we compare the acceptability
judgments on noun phrases taken from more or less the same semantic domain
(“art” in a broad sense). In (134), we see that noun phrases like het toneel ‘the
play/theater’ and het concert ‘the concert’ cannot be used in constructions like (133a).