Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

750 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
scope over the noun phrase containing geen. Negation can also have scope over a
subpart of the noun phrase containing geen, as will be shown in Subsection III. Subsection
IV will show that, unlike sentential niet, geen cannot take some other
constituent of the clause in its scope.
I. Scope outside the containing noun phrase
The core semantics of geen is that of negation, but although geen forms a syntactic
constituent with the noun it precedes, the scope of negation is not necessarily
confined to the noun phrase; in the majority of cases, the negation in geen takes
sentential scope. This is particularly clear from the fact illustrated in (205) that geen
can license °negative polarity items like ooit ‘ever’ and ook maar X ‘any X’, which
can only be used in the presence of a structurally superior negative element; note
that this holds regardless of whether the geen phrase is an argument, as in (205a), or
an °adjunct, as in (205b). That it is really the presence of geen that licenses these
negative polarity items is clear from the fact that geen does not alternate with een in
(205), though this would be possible in the absence of the negative polarity items.
(205) a. Ik zou geen/*een auto ooit aan ook maar iemand cadeau geven.
I would no/a car ever to anyone present give
‘No car would I ever give to anyone as a present.’
b. Ik zou geen/*een moment ook maar ergens met hem willen praten.
I would no/a moment anywhere with him want talk
‘At no time would I want to talk to him at any place.’
The examples in (206) and (207) also support the conclusion that geen can take
sentential scope. First, observe from the contrast in (206a&b) that the sentential
negative adverb niet cannot occur in clause-initial position; example (206b′) shows
that this is even excluded when niet is pied piped by a topicalized participial verb
phrase.
(206) a. Ik heb die brief niet geschreven.
I have that letter not written
‘I didn’t write that letter.’
b. *Niet heb ik die brief geschreven.
b′. *[VP Niet geschreven] heb ik die brief.
Crucial for our argument is that the ungrammaticality of (206b′) shows that phrases
containing sentential negation cannot be topicalized (whereas this is possible in the
case of constituent negation), as this allows us to conclude from the
ungrammaticality of (207b) that the noun phrase geen brief expresses sentential
negation. This argument is somewhat weakened, however, by the fact that the
stronger form of negation geen enkele ‘not a single’ is not subject to this restriction;
we will discuss this in Section 5.1.5.1.3.
(207) a. Ik heb geen brief geschreven.
I have no letter written
‘I didn’t write a letter.’
b. *[NP Geen brief] heb ik geschreven.