- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological processes
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Word stress
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Monomorphemic words
- Diachronic aspects
- Generalizations on stress placement
- Default penultimate stress
- Lexical stress
- The closed penult restriction
- Final closed syllables
- The diphthong restriction
- Superheavy syllables (SHS)
- The three-syllable window
- Segmental restrictions
- Phonetic correlates
- Stress shifts in loanwords
- Quantity-sensitivity
- Secondary stress
- Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Stress in complex words
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Accent & intonation
- Clitics
- Spelling
- Morphology
- Word formation
- Compounding
- Nominal compounds
- Verbal compounds
- Adjectival compounds
- Affixoids
- Coordinative compounds
- Synthetic compounds
- Reduplicative compounds
- Phrase-based compounds
- Elative compounds
- Exocentric compounds
- Linking elements
- Separable complex verbs (SCVs)
- Gapping of complex words
- Particle verbs
- Copulative compounds
- Derivation
- Numerals
- Derivation: inputs and input restrictions
- The meaning of affixes
- Non-native morphology
- Cohering and non-cohering affixes
- Prefixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixation: person nouns
- Conversion
- Pseudo-participles
- Bound forms
- Nouns
- Nominal prefixes
- Nominal suffixes
- -aal and -eel
- -aar
- -aard
- -aat
- -air
- -aris
- -ast
- Diminutives
- -dom
- -een
- -ees
- -el (nominal)
- -elaar
- -enis
- -er (nominal)
- -erd
- -erik
- -es
- -eur
- -euse
- ge...te
- -heid
- -iaan, -aan
- -ief
- -iek
- -ier
- -ier (French)
- -ière
- -iet
- -igheid
- -ij and allomorphs
- -ijn
- -in
- -ing
- -isme
- -ist
- -iteit
- -ling
- -oir
- -oot
- -rice
- -schap
- -schap (de)
- -schap (het)
- -sel
- -st
- -ster
- -t
- -tal
- -te
- -voud
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Univerbation
- Neo-classical word formation
- Construction-dependent morphology
- Morphological productivity
- Compounding
- Inflection
- Inflection and derivation
- Allomorphy
- The interface between phonology and morphology
- Word formation
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
- 3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
- 3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
- 7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Phonology
-
- General
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological Processes
- Assimilation
- Vowel nasalization
- Syllabic sonorants
- Final devoicing
- Fake geminates
- Vowel hiatus resolution
- Vowel reduction introduction
- Schwa deletion
- Schwa insertion
- /r/-deletion
- d-insertion
- {s/z}-insertion
- t-deletion
- Intrusive stop formation
- Breaking
- Vowel shortening
- h-deletion
- Replacement of the glide w
- Word stress
- Clitics
- Allomorphy
- Orthography of Frisian
- Morphology
- Inflection
- Word formation
- Derivation
- Prefixation
- Infixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixes
- Verbal suffixes
- Adjectival suffixes
- Adverbial suffixes
- Numeral suffixes
- Interjectional suffixes
- Onomastic suffixes
- Conversion
- Compositions
- Derivation
- Syntax
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Unergative and unaccusative subjects
- Evidentiality
- To-infinitival clauses
- Predication and noun incorporation
- Ellipsis
- Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo
- Expression of irrealis
- Embedded Verb Second
- Agreement
- Negation
- Nouns & Noun Phrases
- Classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Partitive noun constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Nominalised quantifiers
- Kind partitives
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Bare nominal attributions
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers and (pre)determiners
- Interrogative pronouns
- R-pronouns
- Syntactic uses
- Adjective Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification and degree quantification
- Comparison by degree
- Comparative
- Superlative
- Equative
- Attribution
- Agreement
- Attributive adjectives vs. prenominal elements
- Complex adjectives
- Noun ellipsis
- Co-occurring adjectives
- Predication
- Partitive adjective constructions
- Adverbial use
- Participles and infinitives
- Adposition Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Intransitive adpositions
- Predication
- Preposition stranding
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
-
- General
- Morphology
- Morphology
- 1 Word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 1.1.1 Compounds and their heads
- 1.1.2 Special types of compounds
- 1.1.2.1 Affixoids
- 1.1.2.2 Coordinative compounds
- 1.1.2.3 Synthetic compounds and complex pseudo-participles
- 1.1.2.4 Reduplicative compounds
- 1.1.2.5 Phrase-based compounds
- 1.1.2.6 Elative compounds
- 1.1.2.7 Exocentric compounds
- 1.1.2.8 Linking elements
- 1.1.2.9 Separable Complex Verbs and Particle Verbs
- 1.1.2.10 Noun Incorporation Verbs
- 1.1.2.11 Gapping
- 1.2 Derivation
- 1.3 Minor patterns of word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 2 Inflection
- 1 Word formation
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
- 0 Introduction to the AP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of APs
- 2 Complementation of APs
- 3 Modification and degree quantification of APs
- 4 Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative
- 5 Attribution of APs
- 6 Predication of APs
- 7 The partitive adjective construction
- 8 Adverbial use of APs
- 9 Participles and infinitives as APs
- Nouns and Noun Phrases (NPs)
- 0 Introduction to the NP
- 1 Characteristics and Classification of NPs
- 2 Complementation of NPs
- 3 Modification of NPs
- 3.1 Modification of NP by Determiners and APs
- 3.2 Modification of NP by PP
- 3.3 Modification of NP by adverbial clauses
- 3.4 Modification of NP by possessors
- 3.5 Modification of NP by relative clauses
- 3.6 Modification of NP in a cleft construction
- 3.7 Free relative clauses and selected interrogative clauses
- 4 Partitive noun constructions and constructions related to them
- 4.1 The referential partitive construction
- 4.2 The partitive construction of abstract quantity
- 4.3 The numerical partitive construction
- 4.4 The partitive interrogative construction
- 4.5 Adjectival, nominal and nominalised partitive quantifiers
- 4.6 Kind partitives
- 4.7 Partitive predication with a preposition
- 4.8 Bare nominal attribution
- 5 Articles and names
- 6 Pronouns
- 7 Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- 8 Interrogative pronouns
- 9 R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive
- 10 Syntactic functions of Noun Phrases
- Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases (PPs)
- 0 Introduction to the PP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of PPs
- 2 Complementation of PPs
- 3 Modification of PPs
- 4 Bare (intransitive) adpositions
- 5 Predication of PPs
- 6 Form and distribution of adpositions with respect to staticity and construction type
- 7 Adpositional complements and adverbials
- Verbs and Verb Phrases (VPs)
- 0 Introduction to the VP in Saterland Frisian
- 1 Characteristics and classification of verbs
- 2 Unergative and unaccusative subjects and the auxiliary of the perfect
- 3 Evidentiality in relation to perception and epistemicity
- 4 Types of to-infinitival constituents
- 5 Predication
- 5.1 The auxiliary of being and its selection restrictions
- 5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
- 5.3 The auxiliary of continuation and its selection restrictions
- 5.4 The auxiliary of coming and its selection restrictions
- 5.5 Modal auxiliaries and their selection restrictions
- 5.6 Auxiliaries of body posture and aspect and their selection restrictions
- 5.7 Transitive verbs of predication
- 5.8 The auxiliary of doing used as a semantically empty finite auxiliary
- 5.9 Supplementive predication
- 6 The verbal paradigm, irregularity and suppletion
- 7 Verb Second and the word order in main and embedded clauses
- 8 Various aspects of clause structure
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
-
- General
- Phonology
- Afrikaans phonology
- Segment inventory
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
- The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
- The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
- The rounded high back vowel /u/
- The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
- The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
- The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
- Overview of Afrikaans consonants
- The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
- The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
- The bilabial nasal /m/
- The alveolar nasal /n/
- The velar nasal /ŋ/
- The trill /r/
- The lateral liquid /l/
- The alveolar fricative /s/
- The velar fricative /x/
- The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
- The approximants /ɦ/, /j/ and /ʋ/
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- Word stress
- The phonetic properties of stress
- Primary stress on monomorphemic words in Afrikaans
- Background to primary stress in monomorphemes in Afrikaans
- Overview of the Main Stress Rule of Afrikaans
- The short vowels of Afrikaans
- Long vowels in monomorphemes
- Primary stress on diphthongs in monomorphemes
- Exceptions
- Stress shifts in place names
- Stress shift towards word-final position
- Stress pattern of reduplications
- Phonological processes
- Vowel related processes
- Consonant related processes
- Homorganic glide insertion
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Phonotactics
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Afrikaans syntax
- Nouns and noun phrases
- Characteristics of the NP
- Classification of nouns
- Complementation of NPs
- Modification of NPs
- Binominal and partitive constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Partitive constructions with nominalised quantifiers
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Binominal name constructions
- Binominal genitive constructions
- Bare nominal attribution
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- Syntactic uses of the noun phrase
- Adjectives and adjective phrases
- Characteristics and classification of the AP
- Complementation of APs
- Modification and Degree Quantification of APs
- Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative degree
- Attribution of APs
- Predication of APs
- The partitive adjective construction
- Adverbial use of APs
- Participles and infinitives as adjectives
- Verbs and verb phrases
- Characterisation and classification
- Argument structure
- Verb frame alternations
- Complements of non-main verbs
- Verb clusters
- Complement clauses
- Adverbial modification
- Word order in the clause: Introduction
- Word order in the clause: position of the finite Verb
- Word order in the clause: Clause-initial position
- Word order in the clause: Extraposition and right-dislocation in the postverbal field
- Word order in the middle field
- Emphatic constructions
- Adpositions and adposition phrases
The quantificational personal pronouns can also be divided into +human and -human forms. The former consist of the existential quantifier iemand'someone' and the universally quantified pronoun iedereen (in writing, the formal forms (een)ieder and elkeen can also be found, the latter of which is generally considered archaic). The -human counterparts of these pronouns are iets'something', or its more colloquial alternate wat, and alles'all'. Both the +human and -human existential quantifiers have negative counterparts, which are, respectively, niemand'nobody' and niets or its more colloquial alternant, niks'nothing'.
[+human] | [-human] | ||
existential | positive | iemand‘someone’ | iets/wat‘something’ |
negative | niemand‘nobody’ | niets/niks‘something’ | |
universal | iedereen‘everybody’ | alles‘everything’ |
The following subsections will discuss some properties of the quantificational nouns shown in Table 7. Before we do this we want to note that in traditional grammar, forms like sommige(n)'some', vele(n)'many' and alle(n)'all' are also categorized as personal pronouns. However, since these forms can be considered nominalizations of the corresponding quantificational modifiers, they will be discussed in Section 6.2.
The easiest way of explaining the core meaning of quantification personal pronouns is by using Figure 1 from Section 1.1.2, sub IIA, repeated below, to represent the subject-predicate relation in a clause. In this figure “A” represents the set denoted by the subject NP and “B” the set denoted by the verb phrase. The intersection A ∩ B denotes the set of entities for which the proposition expressed by the clause is claimed to be true. In an example such as Jan wandelt op straat, for example, it is claimed that the set denoted by A, viz. {Jan}, is properly included in set B, which is constituted by the people walking in the street. In other words, it expresses that A - (A ∩ B) = ∅.
In the discussion below we will not be interested in the fact that the +human and-human pronouns are associated with two mutually exclusive denotation sets: with the former, set A is a (possibly contextually defined) set of individuals, whereas with the latter set A is a (possibly contextually defined) set of non-human entities. We will rather focus on the implication of the pronouns for the intersection A ∩ B and the remainder of set A, that is, A - (A ∩ B).
The existential pronouns iemand and iets behave in a way similar to indefinite noun phrases in that they indicate that A ∩ B is not empty, and do not imply anything about the set A - (A ∩ B), which may or may not be empty.
a. | Er | loopt | iemand | op straat. | |
there | walks | someone | in the.street | ||
'There is someone walking in the street.' |
a'. | iemand: |A ∩ B| ≥ 1 |
b. | Er | zit | iets | in die doos. | |
there | sits | something | in that box | ||
'There is something in that box.' |
b'. | iets: |A ∩ B| ≥ 1 |
In contrast to what we did with singular indefinite noun phrases in Section 5.1.1.1, we follow the philosophical tradition here in assuming that these quantification pronouns have the cardinality ≥ 1. The reason for this is that the existential pronouns can be used in yes/no-questions without the implication that there is at most one individual/entity that satisfies the description provided by the verb phrase. This will be clear from the fact that the question-answers pairs given in () constitute a perfectly coherent piece of interaction.
a. | Komt | er | vanavond | iemand? | Ja, | Jan en Peter | met hun partner. | |
comes | there | tonight | someone | yes | Jan and Peter | with their partner | ||
'Is there anyone coming tonight? Yes, Jan and Peter with their partner.' |
b. | Zit | er | nog | iets | in die doos? | Ja, | een paar boeken. | |
sits | there | still | something | in that box | yes | a couple of books | ||
'Is there still something in that box? Yes, a couple of books.' |
Whereas the semantic contribution of the existential quantifiers resembles that of the indefinite noun phrases, the universal quantifiers instead resemble the definite noun phrase: they express that in the domain of discourse (domain D), all entities that satisfy the description of the pronoun (human/non-human) are included in the intersection A ∩ B, that is, that A - (A ∩ B) = ∅.
a. | Iedereen | loopt | op straat. | |
everyone | walks | in the.street |
a'. | iedereen: A - (A ∩ B) = ∅ & |A ∩ B| ≥ 1 |
b. | Alles | zit | in de doos. | |
everything | is | in the box |
b'. | alles: A - (A ∩ B) = ∅ & |A ∩ B| ≥ 1 |
Now that we have seen that the existential and the universal personal pronouns resemble noun phrases containing, respectively, an indefinite and a definite article, it will probably not come as a surprise that the negative existential personal pronouns resemble noun phrases containing the negative article geen: they express that the intersection (A ∩ B) is empty.
a. | Er | loopt | niemand | op straat. | |
there | walks | no.one | in the.street | ||
'There is no one walking in the street.' |
a'. | niemand: |A ∩ B| = ∅ |
b. | Er | zit | niets | in die doos. | |
there | sits | nothing | in that box | ||
'There is nothing in that box.' |
b'. | niets: |A ∩ B| = ∅ |
The examples in (343) and (344) show that the quantificational pronouns are, formally, third person, singular pronouns. This is clear from subject agreement with the finite verb, which must also be third person singular, and from the fact that the third person singular possessive pronoun zijn'his' can take these pronouns as its antecedent.
a. | Er | heeft/*hebben | iemandi | zijni auto | verkeerd | geparkeerd. | |
there | has/have | someone | his car | wrongly | parked |
b. | Er | heeft/*hebben | niemandi | zijni auto | verkeerd | geparkeerd. | |
there | has/have | no.one | his car | wrongly | parked |
c. | Iedereeni | heeft/*hebben | zijni auto | verkeerd | geparkeerd. | |
everyone | has/have | his car | wrongly | parked |
a. | Er | ligt/*liggen | ietsi | uit | zijni doos. | |
there | lies/lie | something | out.of | his box | ||
'There is something out of its box.' |
b. | Er | ligt/*liggen | nietsi | uit | zijni doos. | |
there | lies/lie | nothing | out.of | his box | ||
'There is nothing out of its box.' |
c. | Allesi | ligt/*liggen | in zijni doos. | |
everything | lies/lie | in his box | ||
'Everything is in its box.' |
The fact that the existentially quantified subject pronouns in (343a) and (344a) co-occur with the expletive er'there' shows that they can be weak noun phrases. The examples in (345) show, however, that these quantificational pronouns can also be strong, that is, can also appear in the regular subject position.
a. | Er | heeft | iemand | gebeld. | |
there | has | someone | called | ||
'Someone has called.' |
b. | Er | is | iets | gevallen. | |
there | is | something | fallen | ||
'Something has fallen.' |
a'. | ? | Iemand heeft gebeld. |
b'. | ?? | Iets is gevallen. |
The primed examples are marked, however, in the sense that they require a special intonation pattern: they are only natural if the quantificational pronoun is assigned accent. The pronouns in the primed examples then receive a specific indefinite reading, which can be paraphrased by means of een zeker persoon/ding'a certain person/thing'. The pronouns in the primeless examples, on the other hand, can be interpreted non-specifically, which is clear from the fact that they can be paraphrased by means of een of ander persoon/ding'some person/thing'. The examples in (346) show that the more colloquial existential pronoun wat differs from iets in that it can only occur with the expletive, which shows that wat can only be interpreted non-specifically.
a. | Er | is | wat | gevallen. | |
there | is | something | fallen | ||
'Something has fallen.' |
b. | * | Wat is gevallen. |
The fact that the quantificational pronouns in (345a&b) can be interpreted non-specifically does not mean that they must be interpreted this way. Actually, there is reason for assuming that they can have both a nonspecific and a specific reading. The two readings can be made prominent by adding a quantified adverbial phrase like verschillende keren'several times' to the sentence. If the existential quantifier follows the adverbial phrase, as in (347a), it can only be interpreted non-specifically, which is clear from the fact that the quantifier may then range over a non-singleton set of entities, that is, that several persons have called or several things have fallen. This reading is normally expressed by assuming that the existential quantifier is in the scope of the quantified adverbial phrase verschillende keren.
a. | Er | heeft | verschillende keren | iemand | gebeld. | |
there | has | several times | someone | called |
b. | Er | is | verschillende keren | iets/wat | gevallen. | |
there | has | several times | something | fallen |
If the existential quantifier precedes the adverbial phrase, on the other hand, it must receive a specific interpretation; in (348a) the phone calls were all made by the same person, the identity of whom is concealed by the speaker; in (348b) it is a certain thing, which is not further specified, which has fallen several times. Note that iets in (348b) cannot be replaced by wat, which supports the claim made on basis of (346) that wat is inherently nonspecific.
a. | Er | heeft | iemand | verschillende keren | gebeld. | |
there | has | someone | several times | called |
b. | Er | is | iets/*wat | verschillende keren | gevallen. | |
there | has | something | several times | fallen |
Although the specific interpretation can in principle be expressed by assuming that the existential quantifier takes the quantified phrase in its scope, doing this may be beside the point given that a similar meaning difference can be found in (349), in which the adverbial phrase is not quantificational in nature. It therefore seems easier to simply assign iemand/iets the reading “a certain person/thing” if it occurs in front of a clausal adverb; see Hornstein (1984) for a similar claim concerning English existentially quantified noun phrases.
a. | Er | heeft | gisteren | iemand | gebeld. | |
there | has | yesterday | someone | called |
b. | Er | heeft | iemand | gisteren | gebeld. | |
there | has | someone | yesterday | called |
Note that although we can paraphrase the specific and nonspecific readings of iemand and iets by means of indefinite noun phrases preceded by the indefinite article een, the former differs from the latter in not allowing a generic interpretation: whereas the generic sentence in (350a) is fully acceptable, example (350b) can certainly not be interpreted generically.
a. | Een mens | is sterfelijk. | |
a human being | is mortal | ||
'Man is mortal.' |
b. | *? | Iemand | is sterfelijk. |
someone | is mortal |
Possible exceptions to the general rule that iemand and iets cannot be used generically are given in (351), taken from Haeseryn et al. (1997), which are special in that they contain two conjoined predicates that are mutually exclusive.
a. | Iemand | is getrouwd of ongetrouwd. | |
someone | is married or not.married |
b. | Iets | is waar of niet waar. | |
something | is true or not true |
Of course, generic meanings can be and are in fact typically expressed by means of the universal personal pronouns: cf. Iedereen is sterfelijk'Everyone is mortal' and Alles is vergankelijk'Everything is fleeting'.
The negative existential pronouns niemand'no one' and niets/niks'nothing' are normally used as weak quantifiers, which is clear from the fact that, as subjects, they are preferably used in an expletive construction. Examples like (352a'&b') are acceptable, but generally require emphatic focus: the quantifier then receives an emphatic reading comparable with the “not a single N” reading of noun phrases with geen; cf. Section 5.1.5.1, sub III.
a. | Er | heeft | niemand | gebeld. | |
there | has | nobody | called | ||
'Nobody has called.' |
b. | Er | is | niets | gevallen. | |
there | is | nothing | fallen | ||
'Nothing has fallen.' |
a'. | Niemand | heeft | gebeld. | |
nobody | has | called | ||
'Not a single person called.' |
b'. | Niets | is gevallen. | |
nothing | is fallen | ||
'Not a single thing fell.' |
The negative quantifiers niemand and niets can probably best be considered as the negative counterparts of the nonspecific quantifiers iemand and iets: if we want to negate a sentence containing the specific forms of these quantifiers, negation is not expressed on the quantifier, but by means of the negative adverb niet. Example (353)s show that the specific quantificational pronoun must precede this adverb. For completeness’ sake, note that, in accordance with the earlier suggestion that it is inherently nonspecific, wat cannot substitute for iets in (353b).
a. | Er | heeft | iemand | niet | gebeld. | |
there | has | someone | not | called | ||
'A certain person didnʼt call.' |
b. | Er | is iets/*wat | niet | gevallen. | |
there | is something | not | fallen | ||
'A certain thing didnʼt fall.' |
In contrast to the existential quantifiers (cf. (350b)), the negative existential quantifiers in (354) can readily be used in generic statements. In examples like these, the negative quantifiers behave like strong quantifiers, that is, they cannot be used in an expletive construction.
a. | Niemand | is | onsterfelijk. | |
nobody | is | immortal | ||
'Nobody is immortal.' |
b'. | Niets | is tevergeefs. | |
nothing | is in.vain | ||
'Nothing is in vain.' |
a'. | *? | Er is niemand onsterfelijk. |
b'. | *? | Er is niets tevergeefs. |
Quantificational pronouns can be used in all regular argument positions. In (355) and (356) this is illustrated for, respectively, the subject and the object position.
a. | Er | ligt | iemand/iets | op mijn bed. | |
there | lies | someone/something | on my bed | ||
'There is someone/something lying on my bed.' |
b. | Er | ligt | niemand/niets | op mijn bed. | |
there | lies | no.one/nothing | on my bed | ||
'There is no one/nothing lying on my bed.' |
c. | Iedereen/Alles | ligt | op mijn bed. | |
everybody/everything | lies | on my bed |
a. | Jan heeft | iemand/iets | weggebracht. | |
Jan has | someone/something | brought.away | ||
'Jan has brought away someone/something.' |
b. | Jan heeft | niemand/niets | weggebracht. | |
Jan has | no.one/nothing | brought.away | ||
'Jan has brought away no one/nothing.' |
c. | Jan heeft | iedereen/alles | weggebracht. | |
Jan has | everyone/everything | brought.away | ||
'Jan has brought everyone/everything away.' |
The examples in (357) show that +human quantificational personal pronouns can also be used as the complement of a preposition. The existential pronoun in (357a) can be either specific or nonspecific, and the negative existential pronoun in (357b) is interpreted with its normal, non-emphatic, reading.
a. | Jan wil | op iemand | wachten. | |
Jan wants | for someone | wait | ||
'Jan wants to wait for someone.' |
b. | Jan wil | op niemand | wachten. | |
Jan wants | for no.one | wait | ||
'Jan doesnʼt want to wait for anyone.' |
c. | Jan wil | op iedereen | wachten. | |
Jan wants | for everyone | wait | ||
'Jan wants to wait for everyone.' |
The situation is somewhat more complex with the -human pronouns due to the fact that they can undergo R-pronominalization, that is, the primeless examples in (358) alternate with the primed examples.
a. | P iets |
a'. | ergens ... P | existential |
b. | P niets |
b'. | nergens ... P | negative existential |
c. | P alles |
c'. | overal ... P | universal |
The examples in (359) show that the existential pronoun iets alternates with the R-word. Although judgments are somewhat subtle, it seems that (359a) is preferably construed as specific, whereas (359b) instead receives a nonspecific interpretation.
a. | Jan wil | op iets | wachten. | |
Jan wants | for something | wait | ||
'Jan wants to wait for something.' |
b. | Jan wil | ergens | op wachten. | |
Jan wants | somewhere | for wait | ||
'Jan wants to wait for something.' |
With the negative existential pronouns, R-pronominalization seems to be the unmarked option. Realizing the pronoun as the complement of the preposition seems to give rise to a “not a single thing” reading.
a. | Jan wil | op niets | wachten. | |
Jan has | for nothing | wait | ||
'Jan doesnʼt want to wait for anything.' |
b. | Jan wil | nergens | op wachten. | |
Jan wants | nowhere | for wait | ||
'Jan doesnʼt want to wait for anything.' |
With the universal pronoun, R-pronominalization may also be the unmarked option. Realizing the pronoun as the complement of the preposition seems to give rise to an emphatic “each and every thing” reading.
a. | Jan wil | op alles | wachten. | |
Jan wants | for everything | waited | ||
'Jan wants to wait for everything.' |
b. | Jan wil | overal | op | wachten. | |
Jan wants | everywhere | for | wait | ||
'Jan wants to wait for everything.' |
Given that the above observations are rather impressionistic, more research is needed to establish whether the R-forms are indeed unmarked and whether the two forms indeed exhibit systematic meaning differences of the sort suggested here.
Finally, it can be noted that the positive and negative existential pronouns can also be used as the predicate in a copular construction, although they normally require some form of modification. This is illustrated in (362) for the nonspecific use of the pronouns; it is probably not surprising that the negative existential pronouns have a more or less idiomatic interpretation.
a. | Jan is iemand van mijn school. | |
Jan is someone from my school |
a'. | Die gewoonte | is | nog | iets | uit mijn schooltijd. | |
that habit | is | still | something | from my school.days |
b. | Jan is niemand. | |
Jan is no.one | ||
'Jan is a nobody.' |
b'. | Dat probleem | is niets. | |
that problem | is nothing | ||
'That problem is of no importance.' |
The predicatively used, existentially quantified pronouns in the primeless examples of (363) receive a specific interpretation, which is clear from the fact that their negative counterparts in the (b)-examples do not involve the negative existential pronouns, which are preferably construed as nonspecific, but the negative adverb niet.
a. | Hij | is | iemand | [met wie | je | gemakkelijk | kan praten]. | |
he | is | someone | with whom | you | easily | talk can | ||
'Heʼs someone with whom one can talk easily.' |
a'. | Hij | is | niet | iemand | [met wie | je | gemakkelijk | kan praten]. | |
he | is | not | someone | with whom | you | easily | talk can |
b. | Dat is iets | [om | rekening | mee | te houden]. | |
that is something | comp | account | with | to keep | ||
'This is something to take into account.' |
b'. | Dat | is niet | iets | [om | rekening | mee | te houden]. | |
that | is not | something | comp | account | with | to keep |
Quantificational personal pronouns often occur with postmodifiers, which then function to restrict the set denoted by the pronoun. This is illustrated in (364) by means of the +human pronouns. In all these examples, the set of persons is restricted to a subset of it.
a. | Iemand uit de keuken/daar | heeft | een mes | in zijn hand | gestoken. | |
someone from the kitchen/there | has | a knife | into his hand | stuck | ||
'Someone from the kitchen/over there has stuck a knife into his hand.' |
a'. | Iemand | die | niet goed | oplette, | heeft | een mes | in zijn hand | gestoken. | |
someone | who | not well | prt.-attended | has | a knife | into his hand | stuck | ||
'Someone who didnʼt pay attention has stuck a knife into his hand.' |
b. | Iedereen op mijn werk/hier | is ziek. | |
everyone at my work/here | is ill |
b'. | Iedereen | die | goed | oplet, | zal | het examen | zeker | halen. | |
everyone | who | well | prt.-attends | will | the exam | certainly | pass | ||
'Everyone who pays attention in class will certainly pass the exam.' |
Premodification by means of an attributive adjective, on the other hand, seems to be excluded. Note that an example such as (365a) is only an apparent counterexample to this claim: the fact that the form iemand is preceded by an indefinite article indicates that the pronoun is simply used as a noun comparable in meaning to a noun like persoon'person'. Although the result feels somewhat marked, example (365b) shows iets can be used in a similar way with the meaning “thing”; wat is, however, completely unacceptable in such constructions. Note that the constructions in (365) actually require the presence of an attributive modifier: cf. *een iemand and *een iets.
a. | een | keurig/aardig | iemand | |
a | neat/nice | someone | ||
'a neat/nice person' |
b. | een | leuk | ?iets/*wat | |
a | nice | something | ||
'a nice thing' |
Existential pronouns can be modified in two other ways. First, these pronouns can be followed by the element anders'else'. These constructions are discussed more extensively in Section A7.4.
a. | iemand | anders | |
someone | else |
b. | iets/wat | anders | |
something | else |
Second, the existential pronouns iemand and iets can be premodified with zo'such', which results in a “type” reading of the quantifier. The pronoun wat lacks this option, which is clear from the fact that whereas a Google search (12/1/2015) on the string [ook zo iets gelezen] resulted in 31 hits, no relevant results were obtained for the string [ook zo wat gelezen].
a. | Ik | ken | ook | zo iemand. |