Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

(153) • Exclamative wat een N!
a. Wat *(een) boek is dat!
what a book is that
b. Wat *(een) boeken zijn dat!
what a books are that
(154) • Exclamative een N!
a. Dat is me toch *(een) boek!
that is me PRT a book
b. Dat zijn me toch (een) boeken!
that are me PRT a books
Determiners: articles and pronouns 733
When the article is followed by a singular count noun, the evaluation must involve
some property of the book, which may be related to its contents, its physical
properties, its appearance, etc. The same thing holds when the noun is plural, but in
this case the evaluation may also involve the number of books.
(155) Een boeken dat hij heeft!
a books that he has
‘He’s got an enormous amount of books!’
Perhaps the interrogative wat voor constructions in (156) can be brought under
the same rubric of “evaluativity”, since the speaker is asking the listener for a
further characterization of the set denoted by the NP in question. This further
characterization can (but need not) be expressed by means of an evaluative
attributive adjective: a prototypical answer to (156a) would be een interessant/saai
boek ‘an interesting/boring book’.
(156) • Interrogative wat voor een N?
a. Wat voor (een) boek is dat?
what for a book is that
b. Wat voor (een) boeken zijn dat?
what for a books are that
One might wish to also include the N of a N construction in (157), where the
evaluative part should be found in the metaphorical comparison inherently
expressed by this construction. Note, however, that Section 4.2.1, sub VI, has
claimed that for many speakers the use of een in the plural example (157b) leads to
a highly marked result.
(157) • N of a N
a. een schat van *(een) kind
a darling of a child
b. schatten van ( % een) kinderen
darlings of a children
II. Stressed definite articles: “Par excellence”
This subsection discusses a special use of the definite articles, which is illustrated in
(158). This use is easily recognizable by the heavy accent assigned to the article,
which is marked in writing by means of an acute accent on the vowel symbol. Note