Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Determiners: articles and pronouns 795
most one individual/entity that satisfies the description provided by the verb phrase.
This will be clear from the fact that the question-answers pairs given in (336)
constitute a perfectly coherent piece of interaction.
(336) a. Komt er vanavond iemand? Ja, Jan en Peter met hun partner.
comes there tonight someone yes Jan and Peter with their partner
‘Is there anyone coming tonight? Yes, Jan and Peter with their partner.’
b. Zit er nog iets in die doos? Ja, een paar boeken.
sits there still something in that box yes a couple of books
‘Is there still something in that box? Yes, a couple of books.’
Whereas the semantic contribution of the existential quantifiers resembles that
of the indefinite noun phrases, the universal quantifiers instead resemble the definite
noun phrase: they express that in the domain of discourse (domain D), all entities
that satisfy the description of the pronoun (human/non-human) are included in the
intersection A ∩ B, that is, that A - (A ∩ B) = ∅.
(337) a. Iedereen loopt op straat.
everyone walks in the.street
a′. iedereen: A - (A ∩ B) = ∅ & |A ∩ B| ≥ 1
b. Alles zit in de doos.
everything is in the box
b′. alles: A - (A ∩ B) = ∅ & |A ∩ B| ≥ 1
Now that we have seen that the existential and the universal personal pronouns
resemble noun phrases containing, respectively, an indefinite and a definite article,
it will probably not come as a surprise that the negative existential personal
pronouns resemble noun phrases containing the negative article geen: they express
that the intersection (A ∩ B) is empty.
(338) a. Er loopt niemand op straat.
there walks no.one in the.street
‘There is no one walking in the street.’
a′. niemand: |A ∩ B| = ∅
b. Er zit niets in die doos.
there sits nothing in that box
‘There is nothing in that box.’
b′. niets: |A ∩ B| = ∅
II. Number
The examples in (339) and (340) show that the quantificational pronouns are,
formally, third person, singular pronouns. This is clear from subject agreement with
the finite verb, which must also be third person singular, and from the fact that the
third person singular possessive pronoun zijn ‘his’ can take these pronouns as its
antecedent.