Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

1078 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
It is not easy to decide whether indefinite nominal objects preceding sentential
negation allow a nonspecific interpretation or not. Although the noun phrase vier
boeken can be placed either before or after the clause adverb waarschijnlijk, a
nonspecific interpretation is not readily obtained. Rather, the nominal object
following waarschijnlijk seems to be interpreted specifically (and the one preceding
it seems to prefer a partitive reading). It seems that the quantifier iemand ‘someone’
in (67b) also receives a specific interpretation in both positions, although the
judgments seem a bit murky in this case.
(67) a. Jan heeft waarschijnlijk niet gelezen.
Jan has four books probably not read
b. Jan heeft waarschijnlijk < ? iemand> niet gezien.
Jan has someone probably not seen
A clearer picture arises in the case of the adverbs of frequency. In (68a), the
nominal object precedes the adverbial phrase, and therefore we are clearly dealing
with a specific indefinite noun phrase. As we have seen in Section 8.1.3.1, sub III,
indefinite nominal objects following adverbs of frequency must be given a
nonspecific interpretation. The fact that example (68b) is marked therefore suggests
that indefinite nominal objects preceding the negative adverb niet cannot readily
receive a nonspecific interpretation. For completeness’ sake, (68c) shows that, in
accordance with our earlier observation, the indefinite nominal object cannot follow
the negative adverb niet either.
(68) a. Jan heeft twee boeken al drie keer niet kunnen lenen.
Jan has two books already three times not can borrow
‘Already three times Jan couldn’t borrow two books.’
b. ?? Jan heeft al drie keer twee boeken niet kunnen lenen.
c. * Jan heeft al drie keer niet twee boeken kunnen lenen.
It is not clear whether there is a syntactic reason for the fact that indefinite
nominal objects preceding the negative adverb niet cannot readily be construed as
nonspecific: since the negative adverb normally follows the clause adverb (cf.
(62a)), there is no a priori reason to assume that scrambling of a nonspecific
indefinite nominal object across it is blocked. It might just as well be the case that
there are more pragmatic reasons to assume that nonspecific indefinite nominal
objects cannot precede and, hence, fall outside the scope of negation: it simply does
not seem very informative to claim about some unidentified entity that a certain
proposition does not apply to it. Of course, it does make sense to have a nonspecific
nominal object within the scope of negation, since that would amount to having a
negative existential quantifier, as in the English example I didn’t see a thing.
However, Dutch uses special negative forms in such cases: the negative article geen
‘no’, and the negative quantifiers niets ‘nothing’ and niemand ‘nobody’.
8.1.3.5. Conclusion
This section has discussed scrambling of nominal objects and has shown that
different types of noun phrases have different scrambling options: generally
speaking, we can say that definite pronouns scramble more often than definite noun