Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Determiners: articles and pronouns 821
person personal pronoun je in (403a). This reading is not available for the strong
form jouw.
(403) a. In de bus moet je/ # jij oppassen voor zakkenrollers.
in the bus must one take.care for pickpockets
‘On the bus, one must beware of pickpockets.’
b. Je/*Jouw gezondheid is het belangrijkste in het leven.
one’s health is the most important in the life
‘One’s health is the most important thing in life.’
Generally speaking, referential possessive pronouns refer to [+ANIMATE]
entities. This is, of course, evident for the first and second person pronouns since
these refer to (referent sets including) the speaker and the listener, respectively, but
it also holds for the third person pronouns. So, whereas the examples in (404a&b)
have a counterpart involving a possessive pronoun, using the pronominal
counterparts of (404c&d) may lead to interpretative problems.
(404) a. de fiets van Jan a′. zijn fiets
the bike of Jan’s his bike
b. de riem van Bruno b′. zijn riem
the leash of Bruno’s his leash
c. het dak van het huis c′. $ zijn dak
the roof of the house its roof
d. de motor van de auto d′. $ zijn motor
the motor of the car its motor
The reason why the use of (404c′&d′) may occasionally have a questionable result
is connected to the fact that, when considered in isolation, the possessive pronouns
in the primed examples are unanimously interpreted as [+ANIMATE], or even
[+HUMAN]. This, in turn, may be related to the fact that the postnominal pronominal
PP ervan ‘of it’ in the primed examples of (405) must be interpreted as referring to
a [-ANIMATE] referent.
(405) a. de fiets van Jan a′. *de fiets ervan
the bike of Jan’s the bike of.it
b. de riem van Bruno b′. *de riem ervan
the leash of Bruno’s the leash of.it
c. het dak van het huis c′. het dak ervan
the roof of the house the roof of.it
d. de motor van de auto d′. de motor ervan
the motor of the car the motor of.it
This does not mean, however, that the possessive pronouns never have [-ANIMATE]
antecedents, but only that this use is more restricted. Haeseryn et al. (1997: 291 ff.)
correctly point out that the best result is obtained when the antecedent is an
argument of the clause that also contains the possessive pronoun, as in (406a); more
precisely, in terms of °binding, the result is fully acceptable when the possessive
pronoun is bound by a [-ANIMATE] antecedent. When the two are, e.g., in different
clauses, there is a certain preference to simply use a definite article instead of the