Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

606 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(82) a. Hoeveel boeken heb je gelezen?
how.many books have you read
b. drie/veel
three/many
b′. een boel/paar
a lot/couple
In (83), it is shown that the same thing holds for the measure noun liter ‘liter’ and
the container noun glas ‘glass’. Note that the N1s can undergo pluralization and
diminutivization, and can be preceded by a cardinal numeral. This clearly shows
that we are dealing with referential nouns.
(83) a. Hoeveel bier heb je gedronken?
how.much beer have you drunk
‘How much beer did you drink?’
b. Een/één liter/litertje. b′. Een/één glas/glaasje.
a/one liter/literdim a/one glass/glassdim
c. Twee liter/ ? liters/litertjes. c′. twee glazen/glaasjes.
two liter/liters/litersdim two glasses/glassesdim
Similarly, part and collective nouns in (84) and (85) can be used as answers to
questions involving hoeveel, although there seems to be an additional restriction:
when the part noun plak ‘slice’ or the collective noun groep ‘group’ is preceded by
the indefinite article een ‘a’, as in (84b) and (85b), the size of the slice/group must
be indicated by means of diminutivization or addition of an attributive adjective like
dik ‘big’ or groot ‘big’; this is not needed when these nouns are preceded by a
numeral, as in (84c) and (85c).
(84) a. Hoeveel cake heb je gegeten?
how.much cake have you eaten
‘How much cake did you eat?’
b. Een plakje/ *? (dikke) plak.
a slicedim./big slice
c. Eén plak/twee plakken.
one slice/two slices
(85) a. Hoeveel toeristen heb je rondgeleid?
how.many tourists have you prt.-guided
b. een groepje/ ?? (grote) groep
a groupdim/big group
c. Eén groep/twee groepen.
one group/two groups
II. Weak versus strong quantification constructions
QCs can be either °weak or strong noun phrases. On the weak reading, exemplified
in the primeless examples in (86), these noun phrases get a nonspecific indefinite
interpretation, that is, they simply refer to a set of new discourse entities. On the
strong reading, exemplified in the primed examples, these noun phrases get a
partitive interpretation, that is, they refer to a subset of a larger set of entities