Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

618 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
II. Prepositional phrases
Modifying PPs never intervene between N1 and N2, regardless of whether it is N1 or
N2 that is modified. First, consider the examples in (117): the PPs met een deksel ‘with
a lid’ and met statiegeld ‘with deposit money’ clearly belong to the container nouns
doos and krat (which is also clear from the fact that N2 can be dropped), but
nevertheless they follow N2. This fact that the PP cannot be placed between N1 and N2
suggests that the PP actually modifies a phrase containing both N1 and N2, not just N1.
If this is indeed correct, the structure of these noun phrases is as indicated in the
primed examples.
(117) a. een doos (sigaren) met een deksel
a box [of] cigars with a lid
a′. [een [[doos sigaren] met een deksel]]
b. een krat (bier) met statiegeld
a crate [of] beer with deposit
b′. [een [[krat bier] met statiegeld]]
In the examples in (117), the referential meaning of the N1s is highlighted at the
expense of their quantificational force; (117a), for example, does not refer to a
quantity of cigars but simply to a box containing cigars; the construction is more or
less synonymous with een doos met sigaren ‘a box with cigars’. Consequently it is
N1, and not N2, that acts as the semantic head of the examples in (117). This also
clear from the fact that examples like (118), where the verb forces a reading in which
N2 acts as the semantic head of the QC, are semantically anomalous when a PPmodifier
of N1 is present.
(118) a. Jan heeft gisteren een doos sigaren ( $ met een deksel) gerookt.
Jan has yesterday a box [of] cigars with a lid smoked
b. Ik heb gisteren een krat bier ( $ met statiegeld) opgedronken.
I have yesterday a crate [of] beer with deposit prt.-drunk
Since modification of N1 by means of a PP suppresses the quantificational meaning
of N1, we expect that purely quantificational nouns cannot be modified by a PP: that
this is borne out is clear from the fact that the examples in (119) only allow an
interpretation in which uit die pot/fles modifies N2, which is clear from the fact that
N2 cannot be dropped. However, given that we have seen that the PP may also
modify the complete QC, one might want to argue that these examples can be
ambiguous between the structures in the primed and doubly-primed example; we
leave it to future research to discuss whether the examples in (119a&b) are really
ambiguous in this way.
(119) a. een aantal *(bonen) uit die pot
a number [of] beans from that pot
a′. [een aantal [bonen uit die pot]]
a′′. [een [[aantal bonen] uit die pot]]
b. een liter ?? (water) uit die fles
a liter water from that bottle
b′. [een liter [water uit die fles]]
b′′. [een [[liter water] uit die fles]]