Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

(296) a. ?? Geheel/Helemaal in de war bleek hij te zijn.
whole/altogether the sucker turned.out he to be
b. *In de war bleek hij geheel/helemaal te zijn.
the sucker turned.out he whole/altogether to be
Pre-determiners 1047
To conclude this discussion of adverbially construed heel forms, we return to an
observation made in the discussion of the semantics of heel in Section 7.2.1. We
observed there that adnominal heel sometimes seems to quantify a constituent larger
than the noun phrase that it is syntactically construed with, and contributes a
semantics which is essentially the same as that of adverbial helemaal. Examples of
the type in (297) illustrate this. The interpretation of helemaal in (297c) is that of a
VP-level adverb; the semantic contribution of heel and hele in (297a&b) seems to
be completely on a par with that of helemaal.
(297) a. Heel de tafel zit onder de vlekken.
all the table sits under the stains
‘The whole table is stained.’
b. De hele tafel zit onder de vlekken.
the whole table sits under the stains
‘The whole table is stained.’
c. De tafel zit helemaal onder de vlekken.
the table sits altogether under the stains
‘The table is profusely covered with stains.’
In (298c), on the other hand, helemaal is not interpreted as a VP-level adverb but as
a modifier of in de hoek ‘in the corner’; helemaal in de hoek can be translated as all
the way in the corner. Correlated with the fact that helemaal is a PP-modifier rather
than a VP-level adverb is the fact that (298c) has no counterparts with adnominal
heel/hele: the examples in (298a&b) are entirely unacceptable.
(298) a. *Heel de tafel staat in de hoek.
all the table stands in the corner
b. *De hele tafel staat in de hoek.
the whole table stands in the corner
c. De tafel staat helemaal in de hoek.
the table stands altogether in the corner
‘The table is standing all the way in the corner.’
That helemaal and adnominal heel/hele cannot always be used interchangeably can
also be shown in the other direction by means of the examples in (299).
(299) a. Heel de stad ontwaakte.
all the town woke.up
b. De hele stad ontwaakte.
the whole town woke.up
c. *De stad ontwaakte helemaal.
the town woke.up altogether