Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

1014 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(207) a. Ik had het hele mens niet gezien.
I had the whole person not seen
‘I didn’t even see the person/woman at all.’
b. Ik zou die hele jongen nog niet eens een hand willen geven.
I would that whole boy yet not even a hand want give
‘I wouldn’t even want to shake hands with that boy.’
c. Ik had in geen jaren meer over dat hele idee nagedacht.
I had in no years anymore about that whole idea thought
‘I hadn’t thought about that idea in years.’
d. Ik was die hele Bert Mulder allang weer vergeten.
I was that whole Bert Mulder already.long again forgotten
‘I had long forgotten about this Bert Mulder.’
A. D-linking
Negative polar heel phrases in (207) are typically °D-linked, that is, they cannot be
uttered out of the blue, but must refer to some active discourse topic. Example
(207a), for instance, would be typically used in a context like (208).
(208) Mijn buurvrouw was erg beledigd omdat ik haar niet gegroet had,
my neighbor was very offended because I her not greeted had
maar ik had het hele mens niet gezien.
but I had the whole person not seen
‘My neighbor was very offended because I didn’t greet her, but I hadn’t seen
the woman at all.’
That D-linking is required is also suggested by the fact illustrated by (216) that,
unlike definite noun phrases, negative polar heel phrases obligatorily scramble
across adverbial phrases like nog nooit; see Section 8.1.3 for a discussion of the
restrictions on scrambling.
(209) a. Ik heb nog nooit gezien.
I have my neighbor yet never seen
‘I have never seen my neighbor so far.’
b. Ik had nog nooit gezien.
I had the whole person yet not seen
‘I didn’t ever see the person/woman at all so far.’
B. The licensing of negative polar heel
The fact that (207d) is grammatical raises a question concerning the licensing of
negative polar heel. When we restrict ourselves to negative contexts, run-of-the-mill
negative polarity items like ook maar iemand ‘anyone’ are normally licensed by
means of a syntactically expressed negation: this negation can be expressed on
some other °c-commanding argument in the sentence, as illustrated in (210a&a′), or
by the negative adverb niet provided that it is part of some higher clause, as is
illustrated by the contrast between (210b) and (210b′).