Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Binominal constructions 581
II. Demonstrative pronouns (gender/number agreement)
That both N1 and N2 may act as the syntactic head of the construction can also be
shown on the basis of demonstrative pronouns. Demonstratives agree with the head
noun in gender and number: when the head noun is [+NEUTER, SINGULAR], the
proximate and distal demonstrative are, respectively, dit ‘this’ and dat ‘that’,
whereas in all other cases they are respectively deze ‘this/these’ and die ‘that/those’;
cf. Section 5.2.3.1. The examples in (16), which contain a neuter, singular N1, show
that the proximate demonstrative can indeed agree with both nouns. In the primeless
examples the proximate demonstrative agrees with the neuter N1, whereas in the
primed examples it is the plural/non-neuter N2 that triggers agreement. Some people
object to the primed examples, but the pattern is very common, especially with the
noun paar: a Google search on the string [die paar] in November 2008 resulted in
nearly two million hits, and the first 50 cases all instantiated the construction.
Examples like (16b′) are less numerous but they do occur: a search on the string
[die pond] resulted in 3000 hits, and 6 out of the first 50 cases instantiated the
construction.
(16) a. dat paar eenden a′. die paar eenden
that couple [of] ducks those couple [of] ducks
b. dat pond kaas b′. die pond kaas
that pound [of] cheese that pound [of] cheese
The same thing can be shown for the proximate demonstratives, although the
numbers are not as impressive as in the case of the distal ones: our search on the
string [deze paar] resulted in 14,000 hits, and 46 out of the first 50 instantiated the
construction; our search on the string [deze pond] resulted in just a single instance
of the desired construction.
(17) a. dit paar eenden a′. deze paar eenden
this couple [of] ducks these couple [of] ducks
b. dit/dat pond uien b′. deze pond kaas
this/that pound [of] onions this pound [of] cheese
As expected, the two options in (16) and (17) differ in interpretation. This is
clearest in the (a)-examples with the noun paar: in the primeless examples, the QC
refers to two ducks that belong together and form a couple; in the primed examples,
on the other hand, the noun paar has a purely quantificational meaning: it merely
refers to a small number of ducks. Something similar holds for the (b)-examples: in
the primeless examples, the QC refers to a single piece of cheese, whereas no such
implication holds for the primed examples. This suggests again that agreement with
N1 is only possible when it is referential: when it is purely quantificational, it is N2
that enters the agreement relation. This conclusion seems to be supported by the
fact, illustrated in (18), that diminutive formation is blocked when N2 agrees with
the demonstrative: this suggests that N1 has lost its referential status in this case. We
will return to this in Section 4.1.1.3.1.