Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

834 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
have an antecedent in its own clause, and men is possible as an antecedent. The
personal pronoun hij ‘he’ in (436b), on the other hand, cannot take an antecedent in
its own clause, and men is not possible as an antecedent; (436b) is only acceptable
when hij ‘he’ refers to a contextually determined referent. The translation in (436b)
is the intended interpretation, and not the actual one with hij referring to some
contextually determined person.
(436) a. Men moet zich(zelf) goed verzorgen.
one must himself well look after
‘One must look well after oneself.’
b. *Men is hier zeer gastvrij, zodat hij je graag zal ontvangen.
one is here very hospitable so that he you gladly will receive
‘People are very hospitable here, so that they will gladly receive you.’
B. Universally quantified antecedents
The examples in (437) show that when the antecedent of the personal pronoun is
quantified, a third person referential possessive pronoun is used. In what follows we
will focus on the cases with a universally quantified antecedent.
(437) a. Er is iemand met zijn huiswerk bezig.
there is someone with his homework busy
‘There is someone working on his homework.’
b. Iedereen/Iedere leerling is met zijn huiswerk bezig.
everyone/every pupil is with his homework busy
‘Everyone/Every pupil is working on his homework.’
When the antecedent is universally quantified, the number of the possessive
pronoun depends on the syntactic relation between the pronoun and its antecedent.
When the antecedent is the subject of the clause, and the possessive pronoun is part
of a noun phrase in the same clause, as in (438a), the possessive pronoun is
singular. The same thing holds when the noun phrase containing the possessive
pronoun is more deeply embedded, as in (438b). However, when the antecedent and
the possessive pronoun are not part of the same sentence, as in (438c), the plural
pronoun must be used. The examples contain the universally quantified personal
pronoun iedereen, but the same results arise when a universally quantified noun
phrase like iedere leerling ‘every pupil’ is used.
(438) a. Iedereen moet zijn/*hun huiswerk maken.
everyone must his/their homework make
‘Everyone has to do his homework.’
b. Iedereen denkt dat zijn/*hun leraar te veel huiswerk geeft.
everyone thinks that his/their teacher too much homework gives
‘Everyone thinks that his teacher gives too much homework.’
c. Iedereen had een huisdier mee naar school genomen.
everyone had a pet prt. to school taken
‘Every pupil brought a pet to school.’
Hun/*Zijn leraar vertelde iets over elk dier.
their/his teacher told something about each animal
‘Their/His teacher told something about each animal.’