Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Pre-determiners 957
the fact that noun phrases quantified by veel/weinig are indefinites and can
accordingly occur in expletive er ‘there’ constructions. Since (36) shows that noun
phrases modified by al te veel pattern with noun phrases quantified by te veel in this
respect, the assumption that al acts as a modifier of te veel seems reasonable. It is
also plausible from a semantic point of view; besides a too-degree interpretation, al
te veel can also receive a high degree paraphrase with heel erg veel ‘very much’,
where heel erg premodifies veel as well.
(36) Er is (al) te veel ellende op de wereld.
there is all too much misery on the world
‘There is too much misery in the world.’
The pre-determiner al can also be used when the noun phrase contains a
numeral, although we find a split in the set of determiners: whereas the
demonstratives and possessives in (37b-d) can be preceded by al, the definite article
de in (37a) cannot.
(37) a. al de (*drie) boeken
all the three books
b. al deze/die (drie) boeken
all these/those three books
c. al mijn (drie) boeken
all my three books
d. al mijn vaders/mijn vader z’n (drie) boeken
all my father’s/my father his three books
We have marked example (37a) as unacceptable with a numeral, despite the fact
that Haeseryn et al. (1997) mention al de tien leerlingen ‘all the ten pupils’ as a case
on which speakers have varying judgments; we have found that speakers as a rule
reject noun phrases of this type, although we must add that we did find a small
number of examples on the internet. Note that the intended meaning of example
(37a) can be expressed by means of alle drie de boeken ‘all three the books’ (similar
alternants exist for (37b&c): alle drie die/mijn boeken); see Section 7.1.2.2.1 for
discussion and comparison.
D. Personal pronouns and proper nouns
It is impossible for pre-determiner bare al to be construed with pronouns. Since al
requires a plural noun phrase (when headed by a count noun), this is illustrated in
(38) for the plural pronouns only. These examples are all ungrammatical with al
added, regardless of the order of al and the pronoun.
(38) a. *al wij/ons b. *al jullie c. *al zij/hen/hun
all we/us all youpl all they/them/them
The examples in (39) show that pre-determiner bare al cannot occur with
proper nouns either, which may be surprising given that English all or French tout
can be used in contexts like (39a). Section 7.2.2.1, sub IID, will show that Dutch
uses heel ‘all/whole’ in contexts of this kind.