Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

622 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
It is important to note here that our use of the notion pseudo-partitive construction
differs from the one found in the literature, where it is often used to refer to
binominal constructions like een kop koffie ‘a cup of coffee’, which were discussed
in Section 4.1.1.
4.1.1.6.1. Partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions
This section briefly discusses the partitive and the pseudo-partitive construction.
We will show that partitive constructions contain a phonetically empty noun
preceding the van-PP, which implies that examples like (128a′) are in fact
concealed QCs. Pseudo-partitive constructions do not contain a phonetically empty
noun, but are special in that they contain a noun phrase in the guise of a spurious
PP, which implies that (128b′) must also be analyzed as a QC.
I. Partitive constructions
Partitive constructions are noun phrases that refer to a subset of some set
presupposed in discourse. They consist of a cardinal numeral or a quantifier
expressing the cardinality or size of the subset, followed by a van-PP the
complement of which denotes the presupposed set. Some examples are given in
(129), in which the noun phrase de koekjes ‘the cookies’ refers to the presupposed
set. In (129a) the cardinal numeral vier indicates that the cardinality of the subset is
4, and in (129b) the quantifier veel expresses that the subset is bigger than some
implicitly assumed norm. Example (129c) shows that the universal quantifier alle
‘all’ cannot be used, possibly because it conveys redundant information: (129c)
refers to the same set as the noun phrase de/alle studenten ‘the/all students’ does.
Example (129d) with the distributive quantifier elk ‘each’, on the other hand, is
acceptable: here reference is made not to the set as a whole, but to the entities
making up this set.
(129) a. vier van de koekjes c. *alle van de koekjes
four of the cookies many of the cookies
b. veel van de koekjes d. elk van de koekjes
all of the cookies each of the cookies
The partitive construction is syntactically headed by the numeral/quantifier, not by
the complement of van. This is clear from the fact that the latter does not trigger
number agreement on the finite verb; (130) shows that it is the numeral/quantifier
that determines agreement (or, rather, the phonetically empty noun following it; cf.
the discussion of (134)).
(130) a. Eén van de studenten is/*zijn gisteren vertrokken.
one of the students is/are yesterday left
‘One of the students has left yesterday.’
b. Vier van de studenten zijn/*is gisteren vertrokken.
four of the students are/is yesterday left
Given that nouns appearing as N1s in QCs have quantificational meaning, it
does not really come as a surprise that they can also occur in the partitive
construction. Example (131) shows, however, that container and collective nouns