Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

936 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
N-ellipsis is possible without quantitative er; see also Section A5.4. In fact, the
contrast between the two examples in (202) shows that quantitative er is blocked in
N-ellipsis contexts; (202b) is only acceptable when er is assigned a locative
interpretation. For this reason, we can immediately dismiss this analysis.
(202) a. Hij heeft [DP een blauwe [auto]] gekocht.
he has a blue car bought
‘He has bought a blue one(s).’
b. # Hij heeft er [DP een blauwe [auto]] gekocht.
Barbiers (2009) has put forth a second argument against the deletion analysis. First
observe that the examples in (203) show that elided nouns in N-ellipsis
constructions maintain their gender and number features: the article het and the
relative pronoun dat in (203a) show that the elided noun is neuter and singular;
(203b) shows that changing the number of the elided noun (which is of course
determined by the context) triggers changes in both the article and the relative
pronoun.
(203) a. Jan heeft [hetneuter,sg blauwe boekneuter,sg] datneuter,sg Peter wil hebben.
Jan has the blue book which Peter wants have
b. Jan heeft [depl blauwe boekenneuter,pl] dieneuter,pl Peter wil hebben.
Jan has the blue books which Peter wants have
Barbiers claims that speakers of the northern varieties of Dutch fail to make a
similar distinction in constructions with quantitative er: the (a)-examples in (204)
show that such speakers can use the relative pronoun die both when the interpretive
gap is interpreted as huis ‘house’, which is neuter in Dutch, and when it is
interpreted as auto ‘car’, which is non-neuter. Note that we have placed Northern
between quotation marks to indicate that some of our northern informants have the
southern judgments, which suggests that the stratification of the distinction is in
need of further research.
(204) a. Jan heeft er [één huis] die je gezien moet hebben. [“Northern” speakers]
Jan has ER one house which you seen must have
a′. Jan heeft er [één auto] die je gezien moet hebben.
b. Jan heeft er [één huis] dat je gezien moet hebben. [Southern speakers]
Jan has ER one house which you seen must have
b′. Jan heeft er [één auto] die je gezien moet hebben.
B. The interpretative gap is base-generated as a pronominal element
According to this analysis, proposed in Kester (1996), the presence of quantitative
er is required to license some phonetically empty, base-generated pronominal-like
element pro: eri ... [Num/Q [ proi ]]. When we assume that the licensing relation
involves °binding, the analysis can be used to account for at least some of the basic
properties of the relation between quantitative er and its nominal associate. For
example, given that binding requires that the binder c-command the pronominal
element, we correctly predict that er must precede its associate noun phrase (when
they are situated in the middle field of the clause).