Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

(268) Inflectible heel and personal pronouns
SINGULAR PLURAL
1 ST PERSON *hele ik/me/mij *hele wij/ons
2 REGULAR *hele jij/je/jou *hele jullie
ND
PERSON POLITE *hele u
3 MASCULINE *hele hij/’m/hem
FEMININE *hele zij/’r/haar
RD
*hele zij/hen/hun
PERSON
NEUTER *hele het/’t
Pre-determiners 1037
Generally speaking, inflectible heel cannot be combined with proper nouns
either. However, when the proper noun is modified, as in (269a′), and can hence be
preceded by a determiner, inflectible heel becomes possible. Heel as a negative
polarity item contributing condescension on the part of the speaker, as in (269b′), is
possible also; in that case the distal demonstrative die is also present.
(269) a. *hele Europa
whole Europe
a′. het (hele) Europa *(van voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog)
the whole Europe from before the Second World War
b. *hele Jan
whole Jan
b′. Ik ken die hele Jan niet.
I know that whole Jan not
Another exception involves proper nouns preceded by a definite determiner. Some
examples are given in (270).
(270) a. Ik ben de hele Antillen doorgereisd.
I am the whole Antilles traveled.through
‘I have traveled through all the Antilles.’
b. Ze hebben de hele Westertoren gerestaureerd.
they have the complete Westertoren restored
‘They have restored the complete Westertoren.’
7.2.2.3. Heel/hele versus geheel/gehele
We close this discussion of the noun phrase internal distribution of heel/hele with a
note about its morphological form. While post-determiner heel often alternates with
geheel, as seen in (271a), pre-determiner bare heel never alternates with geheel in
the present-day vernacular; (271b) is unacceptable. (The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche
Taal lists a variety of examples in which bare geheel linearly precedes the
determiner, but these all sound archaic and/or awkward, and we will not include
them here.)
(271) a. de hele/gehele wereld
the whole world
b. heel/*geheel de wereld
all the world