Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Syntactic uses of noun phrases 1109
B. Names of months
Noun phrases containing the names of months can also be used adverbially. They
then refer to a certain time interval, and are normally modified by a quantifier like
heel ‘whole’, as in (155a). Using the modifier half ‘half’, as in (155b), leads to
ambiguity: it can express that the proposition holds for a large part of the month, or
that it holds around the 15 th of that month. In the latter use it has a similar function
as the numeral in (155c), in which case, however, the adverbial phrase is preferably
realized as a PP headed by op ‘at’.
(155) a. Jan is *(heel) april in de Verenigde Staten.
Jan is whole April in the United States
‘Jan will be in the US during April.’
b. Jan is half april in de Verenigde Staten.
Jan is half April in the United States
‘Jan will be in the US during a large part of April/around April 15 th .’
c. Jan is (op) 13 april in de Verenigde Staten.
Jan is at 13 April in the United States
‘Jan will be in the US on April 13 th .’
Noun phrases headed by the names of months are not used to refer to a certain point
in time, nor do the names of months appear in genitive phrases. Instead, a PP is
used, headed by the temporal preposition in: in januari ‘in January’. Note that the
names of months are normally not preceded by a determiner.
C. Names of seasons
Noun phrases headed by the name of a season can be used adverbially to refer to a
certain time interval, as in (156a). Unlike the names of months, names of seasons
must then be preceded by a determiner. Normally, a modifier like heel ‘whole’ is
present. When used to denote a certain position on the time axis, the noun phrase
optionally contains a determiner, as shown in (156b). As is shown in (156c), a
modifier like komende is required, unless the determiner is a demonstrative.
(156) a. Ik ben *(de) hele lente/zomer/herfst/winter in de Verenigde Staten.
I am the whole spring/summer /fall/winter in the United States
b. Ik ga (de) komende lente/zomer/herfst/winter niet op vakantie.
I go the next spring/summer /fall/winter not on holiday
‘I won’t go on holiday next spring/summer /fall/winter.’
c. Ik ga deze/*de winter niet op vakantie.
I go this/the winter not on holiday
‘I won’t go on holiday this (coming) winter.’
The use of the genitive form to refer to a certain season within a contextually
determined time is not very natural: using (157a) to refer to, say, the winter of 1981
seems forced. It is very common, however, to use the genitive form as an adverbial
phrase of frequency, as in (157b). In this use, the genitive form alternates with the
PP in de winter ‘in winter’; this option is, of course, the only one available for the
nouns lente ‘spring’ and herfst ‘fall’, since they do not have a genitive form.