Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

c. Zij/ze is naar school.
she is to school
c′. Het/’t ligt op de tafel.
it lies on the table
Determiners: articles and pronouns 785
A special case is the weak third person masculine subject pronoun -ie ‘he’, which
cannot appear in clause-initial position. This is probably due to the fact that it forms
a phonologically unit with its preceding element: note that when the preceding
element ends in a vowel, as in (304c), an intervocalic -d- appears.
(304) a. Toen heeft-ie gezegd dat hij ziek was.
then has-he said that he ill was
b. dat-ie toen gezegd heeft dat hij ziek was.
that-he then said has that he ill was
c. Toen zei-d-ie dat hij ziek was.
then said-he that he ill was
The weak feminine form of third person singular pronoun has two allomorphs:
’r and d’r. The alternation is mainly phonologically conditioned: ’r is used after
non-nasal consonants; d’r is used after schwa; after nasal consonants, tensed vowels
and diphthongs the two forms seem to freely alternate. Note that lax vowels mainly
occur in closed syllables and are therefore not relevant here.
(305) a. Ik heb ’r gisteren ontmoet.
I have her yesterday met
‘I met her yesterday.’
b. Ik ontmoette d’r gisteren nog.
I met her yesterday only
‘I met her only yesterday.’
c. Ik kan ’r/d’r morgen halen.
I can her tomorrow get
‘I can pick her up tomorrow.’
d. Ik zie ’r/d’r morgen.
I see her tomorrow
‘I will see her tomorrow.’
III. Semantic restrictions
The use of the strong form is also semantically restricted: whereas the (a)-examples
in (306) show that the strong third person plural pronouns can refer to [+ANIMATE]
referents, the (b)-examples show they cannot refer to [-ANIMATE] referents; in order
to refer to an inanimate referent, the weak form ze must be used. This holds both for
the subject and the object pronouns, although the effect is weaker with the former.
(306) a. Ze/Zij zijn ziek.
they are ill
‘They (the girls) are ill.’
a′. Ik heb ze/hen gisteren gesproken.
I have them yesterday spoken
‘I spoke with them (the girls) yesterday.’