Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

(103) a. Er ligt van alles op de grond.
there lies all kinds of thing on the floor
‘There were all kind of things lying on the floor.’
a′. Er liggen van die scherpe spijkers op de weg.
there lie such sharp nails on the road
‘There were such sharp nails lying on the road.’
b. Ik heb van alles gekocht.
I have all kind of things bought
c. Ik heb van alles een extra schoonmaakbeurt gegeven.
I have all kind of things an additional cleaning given
d. Ik heb over van alles nagedacht.
I have about all kind of things prt.-thought
‘I have reflected on all kinds of things.’
Pre-determiners 981
7.1.4.2. Distribution as predicates and adjuncts
In present-day Dutch, al does not occur independently as a predicate nominal; the
only exception is the poetic register, where al preceded by a possessive pronoun can
be used as a predicate nominal: Jij bent mijn al ‘You are my everything’. The forms
alle + Num/allebei and alle(n)/beide(n) do not occur as predicates either. The only
form of al that can be used as a predicate nominal is the quantifier alles, whose
argument functions are illustrated in (102). Note that in (104b) alles cannot be
replaced with spurious PP van alles: *Dat is van alles.
(104) a. *Dat is/zijn al/alle twee/allebei/alle(n)/beide(n).
that is/are all/all two/all-both/all/both
b. Dat is/*zijn alles.
that is/are all
‘That is all.’
Used as a nominal predicate, alles in (104b) is restricted to singular subjects. This is
not surprising given the singularity of the form alles, which is also evident from the
fact that it triggers singular verb agreement in example (102a): cf. Alles is/*zijn
geprijsd ‘All is/are priced’. An exception to this restriction is an example like (105)
where an evaluative voor-PP is added: in this case, the verb agrees with the plural
subject of the construction.
(105) Mijn kinderen zijn alles voor mij.
my children are all to me
‘My children are everything to me.’
Though bare al does show up as an adjunct in (106), there is no transparent link
between the use of al in this example (where it means “already”) and that of the
quantifier al in the examples discussed so far. The adverb al ‘already’ is an
abbreviated form of alreeds ‘already’. Another complex adverbial form, in which al
seems to act as a kind of premodifier, is alsmaar ‘constantly’.
(106) Het is al laat.
it is already late