Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Syntactic uses of noun phrases 1099
c. dat hij natuurlijk is.
that he a pedant.schoolmaster of course is
‘that he of course behaves like a pedant schoolmaster.’
It seems, however, that the definite noun phrases behave differently with respect to
the negative adverb niet: whereas, e.g., adjectival complementives must follow this
adverb, as shown in (124a), the (b)-examples in (124) show that definite predicative
noun phrases may occur on either side of it. The interpretation is similar to that with
direct objects: when the noun phrase follows niet, we are dealing with constituent
negation; when the noun phrase precedes niet, we are dealing with sentential
negation.
(124) a. dat Jan niet is.
that Jan nice not is
b. dat Jan niet de DIRECTEUR is (maar de EIGENAAR).
that Jan not the director is but the owner
b′. dat Jan de directeur niet is.
that Jan the director not is
‘that Jan isn’t the manager.’
It is less clear whether the placement of definite predicative noun phrases is also
more free with other adverbs that normally follow the clause adverbs: placement of
the definite predicative noun phrase in (125b) in front of al ‘already’ gives rise to a
much better result than movement of the nominal predicate in (125a&c), but it still
seems marked compared to its placement left-adjacent to the verb cluster.
(125) a. Jan heeft altijd al willen zijn.
Jan has always director already want be
b. Jan heeft altijd < ? de directeur> al willen zijn.
Jan has always the director already want be
c. Jan heeft altijd al willen zijn.
Jan has always a director already want be
8.2.3. Copular constructions with a singular neuter pronoun as subject
This section concludes the discussion of nominal complementives with a look at of
copular constructions like (126), which have given rise to a debate about whether
the neuter pronoun het/dat/dit or the noun phrase aardige jongens functions as
subject of the construction. In our discussion below, we will use examples headed
by the copula zijn ‘to be’, but such constructions also occur with other copulas like
worden ‘become’ or blijven ‘to stay’.
(126) a. Het is een aardige jongen. a′. Het zijn aardige jongens.
it is a nice boy it are nice boys
b. Dat/Dit is een aardige jongen. b′. Dat/Dit zijn aardige jongens.
that/this is a nice boy that/this are nice boys
Bos (1961), following De Groot (1949:153), argued that it is the noun phrase that
functions as subject and the pronoun that functions as predicate. One reason is that
the finite verb in the primed examples in (126) agrees in number with the plural