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6.1.1.4.Modification

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This section shows that it is possible to modify the cardinal numerals, and discusses some of the means that can be used.

I. Adverbial approximative modifiers
II. Approximative constructions introduced by the spurious article een
III. Approximative constructions introduced by a spurious preposition
IV. Modifiers indicating an upper or lower bound
V. Some problematic cases

[+] I. Adverbial approximative modifiers

Cardinal numerals can be readily modified by two types of adverbial phrases: those of the first type are approximative modifiers, which indicate that the cardinality expressed by the numeral is approximately correct, and those of the second type indicate that the cardinality is precise. Examples of the former are bijna'nearly', circa'about', ongeveer'approximately', ruim'over', and zowat'about'; examples of the latter are precies'exactly' and exact'exactly'.

a.	Jan heeft	bijna/ongeveer/ruim	duizend	boeken.
	Jan has	nearly/about/over	thousand	books
	'Jan has nearly/about/over a thousand books.'

b.	Jan heeft	precies/exact	duizend	boeken.
	Jan has	exactly/exactly	thousand	books
	'Jan has exactly a thousand books.'

Normally, approximate modifiers are only used with fairly round figures. Without further context, it would sound weird to say something like (47a), since using the numeral negenhonderd en zevenennegentig (997) suggests that the speaker is able to give the precise number of books involved so that the modifier is superfluous; examples such as (47a) are only felicitous if it is known from the context that, for some reason, Jan aims at collecting precisely 997 books. This restriction does not hold, however, in cases such as (47b), where the noun can also be preceded by fractions. So bijna negenhonderd en zevenennegentig euro'nearly nine hundred and ninety seven euro' could refer to, e.g., an amount of €996.89.

a.	$	Jan heeft	bijna/ongeveer/ruim	negenhonderd en zevenennegentig	boeken.
		Jan has	nearly/about/over	nine hundred and ninety seven	books

b.		Jan heeft	bijna/ongeveer/ruim	negenhonderd en zevenennegentig	euro.
		Jan has	nearly/about/over	nine hundred and ninety seven	euro

[+] II. Approximative constructions introduced by the spurious article een

The use of approximative adverbial phrases is not the only way of expressing the notion of approximation. Dutch has available an ample variety of means to express this notion. The examples in (48), for example, show that there is a small set of adjectives that can have this function; like the approximative adverbs, they precede the numeral they modify.

a.	een	kleine	honderd	boeken
	a	small	hundred	books
	'slightly less than a hundred books'

b.	een	dikke/goede	honderd	boeken
	a	fat/good	hundred	books
	'somewhat more than a hundred books'

The examples in (48) seem related to (49a) where no adjective is used and a “spurious” indefinite article expresses the meaning “approximately” all by itself; the adjectives in (48) can probably be seen as modifiers that make the approximative reading in (49a) more specific. Although some examples can be found on the internet, it seems to us that the adjectives in (48) cannot readily be added to example (49b), in which the indefinite article is replaced by the spurious non-D-linked demonstrative zoʼn: %zoʼn kleine/dikke honderd boeken. Note further that the approximative reading of een and zoʼn can be enhanced by using a juxtaposition of two numerals, as in the primed examples.

a.	een	honderd	boeken
	a	hundred	books
	'about a hundred books'

a'.	een	zes,	zeven euro
	a	six	seven euro
	'about six or seven euro'

b.	zoʼn	honderd	boeken
	such.a	hundred	books
	'about a hundred books'

b'.	zoʼn	zes,	zeven euro
	such.a	six	seven euro
	'about six or seven euro'

The suggestion that the adjectives in (48) modify the meaning expressed by the spurious indefinite article receives more support from the fact, shown in (50), that the indefinite article cannot be replaced by a definite one, which suggest that the adjectives do not express an approximative meaning all by themselves.

a.	*	de	kleine	honderd	boeken
		the	small	hundred	books

b.	*	de	dikke/goede	honderd	boeken
		the	fat/good	hundred	books

However, Haeseryn et al. (1997) note that the adjectives dik and goed in (48b) are also used without the article een in spoken language. Although examples such as (51a) sound marked to us, especially with goed, they can readily be found on the internet. We therefore conclude that, at least for speakers who accept and produce these examples, these adjectives do express an approximative meaning all by themselves. This does not hold for klein, however; (51b) is certainly not acceptable.

dik/goed honderd boeken

klein honderd boeken

The constructions in (49) seem to alternate with the constructions in (52), where the numeral is expressed in a postnominal of-phrase. It is not clear to what word class of belongs; normally, of is used as a conjunction or as an interrogative complementizer, but neither of these functions seems appropriate for characterizing it in these examples. Note further that it is not possible in constructions like these to add an approximative modifier, but the approximative reading can be enhanced by using numerals in juxtaposition.

a.	een	boek	of honderd
	a	book	of hundred
	'about a hundred books'

a'.	een	euro of	zes,	zeven
	an	euro of	six	seven
	'about six or seven euros'

b.	zoʼn	boek	of honderd
	such.a	book	of hundred
	'about a hundred books'

b'.	zoʼn	euro of	zes,	zeven
	such.a	euro of	six	seven
	'about six or seven euros'

Example (53a) is yet another way of expressing the same meaning. The noun phrase een stuk of honderd in this construction seems to have more or less the same structure as the phrase in (52a) and functions as a complex numeral modifying the noun boeken. According to our own intuition, zoʼn is impossible in this construction, although examples such as (53b) can be found on the internet (although een stuk of occurs about 700 times as often as zoʼn stuk of); we therefore marked it with “%”.

a.	[[een stuk	of	honderd]	boeken]
	a piece	of	hundred	books
	'about a hundred books'

b.	%	zoʼn stuk	of	honderd boeken
		such.a piece	of	hundred books
		'about a hundred books'

Despite the fact that the examples in (52a) and (53a) express more or less the same meaning, they exhibit rather different syntactic behavior. The first difference involves subject-verb agreement. Since the noun preceding the numeral in (52) is singular, it need not surprise us that this noun phrase triggers singular agreement on the verb in (54a), although plural agreement seems possible for some speakers. Example (54b), on the other hand, shows that this is different with the noun phrase in (53a); the finite verb does not agree with the singular noun stuk, but with the plural noun boeken, a phenomenon that is common in several types of binominal constructions; cf. Section 4.1.1.

a.		Er	staat/%staan	een boek	of	honderd	in de kast.
		there	stands/stand	a book	of	hundred	in the bookcase

b.		Er	staan/*?staat	een stuk	of	honderd	boeken	in de kast.
		there	stand/stands	a piece	of	hundred	books	in the bookcase

The second difference concerns modification of the noun. The examples in (55) show that the noun boek can be modified if it is part of the structure in (53a), but not if it is part of the structure in (52a).

a.		een	(*interessant)	boek	of	honderd
		an	interesting	book	of	hundred

b.		een stuk	of	honderd	interessante boeken
		a piece	of	hundred	interesting books

The third difference is illustrated in (56) and concerns the fact that the numeral can be replaced by the modifier wat'some' in (53a), whereas this is impossible in (52a).

a.	*	een	boek	of wat
		a	book	of some

b.	een stuk	of wat	boeken
	a piece	of some	books
	'some books'

[+] III. Approximative constructions introduced by a spurious preposition

A totally different way of expressing an approximative meaning is by using a PP headed by, e.g., the prepositions rond, tegen or over (other prepositions are also possible; cf. Section 5.1.4.3, sub II), which must be followed by the definite article de. Both the preposition and the definite article are spurious given that the PP behaves like an indefinite noun phrase, which is clear from the fact, illustrated in (57), that the “PP” may function as a subject (it triggers agreement on the finite verb) in an expletive construction.

a.	Er	staat	rond	de duizend euro	op mijn spaarrekening.
	there	stands	around	the thousand euro	on my savings account
	'There is about a thousand euro on my savings account.'

b.	Er	zitten/*zit	tegen	de duizend leerlingen	op deze school.
	there	sit/sits	against	the thousand pupils	at this school
	'There are nearly one thousand students at this school.'

[+] IV. Modifiers indicating an upper or lower bound

So far, most of the modification constructions express an approximative meaning. There are, however, other modifiers which convey that the cardinality expressed by the numeral is an upper or a lower bound. Modifiers that indicate that the cardinality expressed by the numeral is an upper bound are given in (58a), and modifiers that indicate a lower bound in (58b).

a.	hoogstens/ten hoogste/hooguit/maximaal	veertig boeken
	at.most	forty books
	'at most forty books'

b.	minstens/tenminste/minimaal/zeker	veertig boeken
	at.least	forty books
	'at least forty books'

Similar meanings can be expressed by means of the comparative phrases meer/minder dan + NP'more/less than + NP' in (59a). This example raises the question as to whether the quantifier meer modifies the numeral or whether it is the numeral that modifies meer. The latter analysis can be supported by claiming that a comparative is normally modified by means of a dan-phrase. However, this particular use of the dan-phrase, shown in (59a), would be special in that it must precede the modified noun, and cannot follow it. As illustrated in (59b), dan-phrases used as modifiers of comparatives do not normally precede the modified noun. This fact may be given in support of the former analysis, according to which it is the comparative that modifies the numeral; see (182) in Section 6.2.5 for similar constructions with degree quantifiers.

a.		Zij	heeft	meer/minder	<dan veertig>	boeken <*dan veertig>.
		she	has	more/less	than forty	books

b.		Zijn	heeft	meer/minder	<*dan Jan>	boeken <dan Jan>.
		she	has	more/less	than Jan	books

[+] V. Some problematic cases

Some disputable cases of modification of the numeral are given in (60). One possibility is to assume that the postnominal phrase is a modifier of the prenominal numeral.

a.		Jan kreeg	drie	boeken	meer/minder	dan Peter.
		Jan received	three	books	more/less	than Peter

b.		Jan kreeg	drie boeken	te veel/weinig.
		Jan received	three books	too many/few

c.		Jan kreeg	drie	boeken	extra.
		Jan received	three	books	extra

Alternatively, one might argue that the noun phrase consisting of the numeral and the noun acts as a modifier of the postnominal phrase, that is, by assuming that the function of the noun phrase drie boeken is similar to that of the measure phrase drie centimeter in examples such as het zwembad is drie centimeter te lang'the swimming pool is three centimeters too long', where the noun phrase clearly modifies the AP (cf. Section A3.1.4, sub II). A characteristic of these nominal measure phrases is that they can be separated from the phrase they modify by means of wh-movement: Hoeveel centimeteri is het zwembad [AP ti te lang]?'How many centimeters is the swimming pool too long?' Since the noun phrases in (60) exhibit the same property, it seems plausible that they, too, act as modifiers.

a.		Hoeveel boekeni	kreeg	Jan [APti	meer/minder	dan Peter].
		how.many books	received	Jan	more/less	than Peter

b.		Hoeveel boekeni	kreeg	Jan [APti	te veel/weinig].
		how.many books	received	Jan	too many/few

c.		Hoeveel boekeni	kreeg	Jan [APti	extra].
		how.many books	received	Jan	extra

Note that the noun phrase drie boeken can be omitted in the examples in (60a&b), which seems to support the analysis suggested in (61). The fact that this is not readily possible in example (60c), however, constitutes a potential problem for the suggested analysis.

References:

Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: AgreementApproximative ModifierArticleCardinal NumeralComparativeDefinite ArticleDemonstrative PronounIndefinite ArticleMeasure PhraseModificationModifierNon-D-linked Demonstrative PronounNumeralPrepositionPronounSpurious Definite ArticleSpurious Indefinite ArticleSpurious PrepositionSubject-verb Agreement

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