Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

830 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
an occupant, the inferred relation reading simply expresses that the referent of the
possessive pronoun is living in the house in question, whereas on the possessive
reading this person is actually the owner of the house. Example (426a) is only
compatible with the inferred reading, whereas (426b) is compatible with the true
possessive reading (and it may also be compatible with the inferred reading, in
which case Jan is subletting the house).
(426) a. Jan huurt zijn huis van een Amerikaan.
Jan rents his house from an American
b. Jan verhuurt zijn huis aan een Amerikaan.
Jan rents.out his house to an American
II. Thematic relations
A special case of the inferred relation is the case in which the possessive
pronoun/noun phrase can enter into a °thematic relationship with the head noun.
This is especially clear with deverbal nouns like behandeling ‘treatment’, which is
derived from and inherits the thematic structure of the transitive verb behandelen
‘to treat’; cf. Section 2.2.3. Consider the examples in (427). In (427b) it is shown
that the agentive argument of the verb behandelen may appear as a prenominal
possessor in the noun phrase. When there is no postnominal van-PP, as in (427c),
the prenominal possessor may be interpreted as expressing the agent or the theme.
(427) a. Zij/MarieAgent behandelt hem/PeterTheme.
she/Marie treats him/Peter
‘She/Marie is treating him/Peter.’
b. haar/MariesAgent behandeling van hem/PeterTheme
her/Marie’s treatment of him/Peter
c. zijn/PetersAgent/Theme behandeling
his/Peter’s treatment
With non-derived nouns, the possessor may also be an argument of the noun.
Example (425a) above, which involves a kinship noun, may actually be used to
illustrate this: the noun moeder ‘mother’ selects an argument which is in a parentchild
relation with the referent of the noun phrase. Other nouns that typically have
this property are the so-called picture nouns like foto ‘photo’ in (428); cf. Section
2.2.5. The prenominal possessor in (428b) can be interpreted as the maker of the
picture, that is, with a similar semantic role as the subject of the sentence in (428a).
When the postnominal van-PP is absent, as in the (c)-examples, the prenominal
possessor can be interpreted either as the maker or as the person depicted. Of
course, all prenominal possessor in (428) can also be interpreted as the possessor of
the picture in question.
(428) a. Zij/MarieAgent maakt een foto van hem/PeterTheme.
she/Marie makes a photo of him/Peter
‘She/Marie is making a picture of him/Peter.’
b. haar/MariesAgent foto van hem/PeterTheme
her/Marie’s photo of him/Peter