Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

776 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(280) a. Men zegt dat hij gestorven is.
one says that he died is
‘Rumors are saying that he has died.’
b. Meni is zijni leven niet zeker in deze stad.
one is his life not sure in this city
‘One is jeopardizing one’s life in this city.’
The pronoun men is somewhat formal and mainly used in writing. In speech, there
are two alternatives for (280a) that enable the speaker to conceal the identity of the
source of information: either the weak plural pronoun ze ‘they’ in (281a) is used, or
the passive construction in (281a′). General statements like (280b) are normally
expressed by using the weak singular second person pronoun je ‘one’, as in (281b).
(281) a. Ze zeggen dat hij gestorven is.
they say that he died is
‘Rumors are saying that he has died.’
a′. Er wordt gezegd dat hij gestorven is.
there is said that he died is
‘It is said that he is dead.’
b. Jei bent jei leven niet zeker in deze stad.
you are your life not sure in this city
‘One is jeopardizing one’s life in this city.’
Finally, it can be noted that although the feminine pronoun haar is normally
singular it is sometimes also used as a plural pronoun it is sometimes also used as a
plural pronoun in partitive construction of the type sommigen van haar ‘some of
them’. This option is not available for the masculine pronoun hem.
5.2.1.1.2. Interpretation
Referential personal pronouns are normally used when the speaker assumes that the
addressee is able to identify the intended referent without the aid of a noun phrase
with more descriptive content. In order to establish the referent, the addressee can
use clues from both the linguistic and the non-linguistic context. At least the
following three subcases can be distinguished. We will conclude with a brief remark
on so-called impersonal het.
I. Deictic pronouns
We can speak of deictic use of the referential pronoun when its referent set is
determined by the non-linguistic situation in which the sentence is uttered. The first
and second singular pronouns ik “I’ and jij ‘you’ are typically used in this way as
they refer to, respectively, the speaker and the addressee. The plural pronouns wij
‘we’ and jullie ‘you’ can also be used deictically, in which case they refer to a group
of people present at the time of utterance: wij refers to a group of people including
the speaker (and possibly the addressee) and jullie to a group of people including
the addressee (but not speaker). The deictic use of third person pronouns is
generally accompanied by some gesture, or more specific linguistic information that
will enable the addressee to select the intended entity or individual.