Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Pre-determiners 1005
I. Adjectival heel can be combined with pre-determiner bare heel
The first indication that adjectival heel is non-quantificational in nature comes from
the fact that it combines with quantificational pre-determiner heel, as illustrated in
the examples in (180).
(180) a. Heel deze hele taart is beschimmeld (maar die is nog goed).
all this whole cake is moldy but that.one is still fine
‘This complete cake is moldy in its entirety, but that one is still fine.’
b. Heel mijn hele baan wordt wegbezuinigd.
all my whole job is economized.away
‘My full-time job is being cut in its entirety.’
II. Adjectival heel can be combined with niet helemaal
Another indication comes from example (181). The first conjunct Hij at de hele
taart is ambiguous between a quantificational and an adjectival interpretation for
heel, that is, between “He ate the entire cake” and “He ate (of) the cake that was
complete/had no slice missing”. The second conjunct disambiguates the example,
since it contradicts the first conjunct under the quantificational reading: He ate the
entire cake but not entirely.
(181) Hij at de hele taart, maar niet helemaal.
he ate the whole cake but not entirely
‘He ate [of] the cake that was complete, but he did not finish it.’
III. Adjectival heel alternates with the adjective half ‘half’
Adjectival heel alternates with half ‘half’, which can also receive a purely adjectival
interpretation and which, like adjectival heel in (180), can be combined with predeterminer
bare heel into a single noun phrase.
(182) a. Heel deze halve taart is beschimmeld.
all this half cake is moldy
‘This complete half cake is moldy in its entirety.’
b. Heel mijn halve baan wordt wegbezuinigd.
all my half job is economized.away
‘My half-time job is being cut in its entirety.’
For completeness’ sake, note that predicative use of half results in a severely
degraded result, just like the predicative use of heel in (179a&b).
(183) a. *De cake is half.
the cake is half
b. *Mijn baan is half.
the cake is half
Example (184) shows that adjectival heel/half can be immediately preceded by
post-determiner quantificational heel/half: although they need highly specialized
contexts to be usable, these examples seem perfectly grammatical. This option
unambiguously shows that a distinction should be made between adjectival and
quantificational instantiations of inflectible heel (and half). Note that quantifica-