Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Syntactic uses of noun phrases 1091
Using a nominal predicate introduced by tot is the normal way of expressing a
result. Whereas bare adjectival predicates like boos or dood can be used in all kinds
of resultative constructions, the option of using a bare nominal predicate seems to
be restricted to the verb maken.
(100) a. Ik maak Peter boos.
I make Peter angry
a′. Jan sloeg de mug dood.
Jan hit the mosquito dead
b. We maken Peter het hoofd van de afdeling.
we make Peter the head of the department
b′. We slaan Peter tot ridder.
we hit Peter to knight
‘We knight Peter.’
We must add immediately that, in accordance to what we have already observed
with respect to the examples in (98), many cases of the sort in (100b′) seem to be
lexically restricted. An example like (101a) is unacceptable, despite the fact that it
seems to make perfect sense semantically; cf. the acceptability of (101b) with the
adjectival complementive fit.
(101) a. Marie zwom zich *( ?? tot) wereldkampioen op de honderd meter schoolslag.
Marie swam REFL to world.champion on the hundred meter breaststroke
b. Marie zwom zich fit
Marie swam REFL fit
‘Jan swam herself fit.’
All of the examples discussed above involve a set/subset relation. The
predicative als-phrase can, however, also be used to express an identity relation, in
which case the noun phrase is typically definite.
(102) a. Ik beschouw Jan als de beste leerling in jaren.
I consider Jan as the best pupil in years
‘I consider Jan the best pupil in years.’
b. Ik beschouw Jan als de aanstichter van de rel.
I consider Jan as the instigator of the riot
Finally, example (103) shows that noun phrases introduced by als can also be
used as °supplementives. Note that the noun phrase in this example does not contain
an article, just like the noun phrase in (98b). This is a typical property of
predicatively used nouns denoting a profession or social function; we will discuss
this extensively in Section 8.2.2, where we will also discuss examples like (103) in
more detail.
(103) Als student werkte Marie in het ziekenhuis.
as student worked Marie in the hospital
‘As a student, Marie worked in the hospital.’