Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

636 Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases
The examples in (173) with the indefinite article een are all are acceptable but only
on a reading similar to (172c). Note that addition of an attributive adjective triggers
a more referential reading of the noun soort, which makes the example
unacceptable.
(173) a. een # (*mooie) soort van aap
a beautiful species of monkey
b. een # (*duur) soort van auto’s
an expensive kind of cars
c. een (*lekkere) soort van appel
a tasty kind of apple
‘an apple-like thing’
The examples in (174) show that with nouns like kleur ‘color’, kwaliteit ‘quality’
and maat ‘size’, insertion of van gives rise to an unacceptable result. These nouns
therefore seem to pattern again with the non-neuter noun soort ‘species’.
(174) a. *die kleur van behang
that color of wallpaper
b. *deze kwaliteit van stof
this quality of fabrics
c. *deze maat van schoen/schoenen
this size of schoe/shoes
VI. The syntactic status of N2 (number agreement)
The constructions in (158) also differ with respect to the question what the syntactic
head of the construction is. Example (175a) is only fully acceptable when the nonneuter
noun soort ‘species’ triggers agreement on the finite verb, which must
therefore be considered the syntactic head of the construction. In (175b), on the
other hand, agreement can be triggered either by N1 or by N2, which shows that
either of the two nouns can act as the syntactic head of the construction. With the
noun soort ‘N-like entity’, it is always N2 that functions as the syntactic head of the
construction that triggers agreement.
(175) a. Deze/die soort vogels is/ *? zijn moeilijk te oberveren.
this/that species [of] birds is/are hard to observe
b. Dit/dat soort vragen is/zijn moeilijk te beantwoorden.
this/that kind [of] questions is/are hard to answer
c. Er liggen/*ligt een soort appels op de tafel.
there lie/lies a kind [of] apples on the table
Note, however, that when the neuter noun soort ‘kind of’ is preceded by the definite
article and functions as the antecedent of a relative clause, agreement of N2 and the
verb in the matrix clause gives rise to a degraded result. When the relative pronoun
takes N2 as its antecedent, as in (176b), agreement between N2 and the finite verb
becomes perhaps slightly better, but the result is still marked.
(176) a. Het soorti vragen dati jij stelt is/ *? zijn moeilijk te beantwoorden.
this kind [of] questions that you ask is/are hard to answer