Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

884 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
The ungrammatical example in (39c) cannot be saved by assigning it a special
intonation pattern: cardinal numerals never precede the definite article. The same
thing holds for the D-linked demonstrative and possessive pronouns in (41). Note in
passing that the primed examples are acceptable when the numeral is preceded by
alle ‘all’; this will be discussed in Section 7.1.2.2.
(41) a. die boeken b. zijn vier dochters
those three books his four daughters
a′. *drie die boeken b′. *vier zijn dochters
Haeseryn et al. (1997) have claimed that the non-D-linked demonstrative
pronouns zo’n and zulke behave differently. The primeless examples in (42) show
that these demonstratives cannot be followed by a numeral: for (42a), this does not
come as a big surprise, of course, since we saw in (37) above that the article een ‘a’,
which acts here as part of the complex determiner zo’n ‘such a’, cannot be
combined with a cardinal numeral either; for (42b), on the other hand, no such
explanation seems available. The data become even more mysterious when we
consider the primed examples, which are certainly better than the primeless ones.
Although some speakers of Dutch reject examples like (42b′), the fact that these
examples are considered fully acceptable by at least some speakers pose a problem
for the assumption that the non-D-linked demonstratives are situated in the Dposition
of (39a), and suggest that they are actually lower in the nominal projection
than the cardinal numerals.
(42) a. *zo’n één boek a′. Eén zo’n boek maakt alles goed.
such a one book one such a book makes everything well
‘One book like that makes everything well.’
b. *zulke drie boeken b′. % drie zulke boeken maken alles goed
such three books three such a book makes everything well
‘Three book like that makes everything well.’
6.1.1.4. Modification
This section will show that it is possible to modify the cardinal numerals, and
discusses some of the means that can be used.
I. Adverbial approximative modifiers
Cardinal numerals can be readily modified by two types of adverbial phrases: those
of the first type are approximative modifiers, which indicate that the cardinality
expressed by the numeral is approximately correct, and those of the second type
indicate that the cardinality is precise. Examples of the former are bijna ‘nearly’,
circa ‘about’, ongeveer ‘approximately’, ruim ‘over’, and zowat ‘about’; examples
of the latter are precies ‘exactly’ and exact ‘exactly’.
(43) a. Jan bijna/ongeveer/ruim duizend boeken.
Jan has nearly/about/over thousand books
‘Jan has nearly/about/over a thousand books.’
b. Jan heeft precies/exact duizend boeken.
Jan has exactly/exactly thousand books
‘Jan has exactly a thousand books.’