Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

1018 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
(220) a. Ik ken dat hele mens/wijf/vrouwtje/meisje/Marietje niet.
I know that whole woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje not
b. Ik ken dit hele ? mens/ ? wijf/ ?? vrouwtje/ ?? meisje/*Marietje niet.
I know this whole woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje not
c. Ik ken het hele mens/wijf/ ? vrouwtje/ ?? meisje/*Marietje niet.
I know the whole woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje not
The examples in (221) show that use of the indefinite article een ‘a’ also leads
to ungrammaticality. The unacceptability of these examples need not be related to
the presence of negative polar heel, however, given that the direct object has been
scrambled to the left of negation and we know independently that scrambling of
nonspecific, indefinite noun phrases is impossible, as will also be clear from the fact
that the examples in (221) are equally unacceptable without heel; cf. Section 8.1.3.
(221) a. *Ik had een (heel) mens niet gezien.
I had a whole person not seen
b. *Ik ken een (hele) vent niet.
I know a whole guy not
To control for the scrambling effect with preservation of the licensing environment
for the negative polar heel, the direct object would have to follow niet. However, as
is discussed in Section 5.1.5, linear sequences of sentential niet and the indefinite
article een are typically avoided, the determiner geen ‘no’ being used instead, as in
in (222). These examples, to the extent that they are acceptable in any context at all,
certainly lack the specialized semantics of heel that we saw in the examples in
(207).
(222) a. *Ik had geen heel mens gezien.
I had no whole person seen
b. *Ik ken geen hele vent.
I know no whole guy
We may conclude from this that negative polar heel cannot be used in indefinite
noun phrases headed by the articles een and geen, but it is still not clear whether this
is due to a co-occurrence restriction between these determiners and negative polar
heel, or to some other reason: we have already seen that the unacceptability of the
examples in (221) is probably due to the ban on scrambling of nonspecific,
indefinite noun phrases, and the unacceptability of the examples in (222) may be
due to the restriction, discussed in the previous subsection, that negative polar heel
phrases c-command their licenser. That we are dealing with a co-occurrence
restriction is, however, suggested by the fact that negative polar heel is also blocked
in indefinite phrases with the determiner zo’n ‘such a’: the examples in (223) show
that such phrases may be scrambled, whereas negative polar heel is excluded in
both the base and the derived position of such phrases.
(223) a. Ik had nog nooit eerder gezien.
I had such a person yet never before seen
‘I have never seen such a person before.’
a′. *Ik had nog nooit gezien.