Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

7.1.2.1.Pre-determiner bare al'all'

quickinfo

This section presents a survey of the distribution of pre-determiner bare al inside the noun phrase. Subsection I will first discuss the noun phrase types that may contain this pre-determiner. This is followed in Subsection II by a discussion of the restrictions al imposes on other elements within the noun phrase.

I. Bare al and noun phrase types
II. Restrictions on accompanying determiners and quantificational elements

[+] I. Bare al and noun phrase types

Pre-determiner bare al cannot occur in singular count noun phrases, regardless of the grammatical gender of the noun, but does readily occur in plural noun phrases headed by definite determiners like the plural article de'the', the plural demonstratives die/deze'these/those' and the definite possessive pronouns; see Subsection II for a discussion of bare plurals.

Table 1: Pre-determiner bare al in noun phrases headed by a count noun

	singular [±neuter]	plural [±neuter]
definite articles	*al de stad/het huis all the town/the house	al de steden/huizen all the towns/houses
demonstrative pronouns	*al die stad/dat huis all that town/that house	al die steden/huizen all those towns/houses
	*al deze stad/dit huis all this town/this house	al deze steden/huizen all these towns/houses
possessive pronouns	*al mijn stad /huis all my town/house	al mijn steden/huizen all my towns/houses

In passing note that in older stages of the language, pre-determiner al could modify singular nouns; cf. Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, lemma al. Some relics can still be found in Van Daleʼs dictionary of Dutch: al de stad'the whole city', al de vloot'the whole fleet' and al de wereld'the whole world', but in present-day Dutch heel'all/whole' is normally used in this context; cf. Section 7.2.2.1, sub I.
Although pre-determiner bare al normally precedes plural noun phrases, it cannot be combined with pluralia tantum like (16a), or with formal plurals like (16b-d) that denote a conventionally fixed unit. Note that (16d) can be used when the individual islands of the Antillean archipelago are quantified by al, not on the intended reading in which the Antilles is seen as a unit. Section 7.2.2.1, sub I, will show that in this respect al is the exact opposite of the pre-determiner heel.

a.	*	al	de hersenen/tropen
		all	the brains/tropics

b.	*	al	de kerstdagen	(zat	hij	te zeuren)
		all	the Christmas days	sat	he	to nag

c.	*	al	de Verenigde Staten
		all	the United States

d.	#	al	de Antillen
		all	the Antilles
		'all the individual islands of the Antilles'

Pre-determiner bare al also occurs in non-count noun phrases, in a position linearly preceding the definite article, the demonstrative or the possessive pronoun. Substance nouns and mass nouns behave in the same way, as the examples in Table 2 show. Note that the judgments are not affected by the gender of the noun. This is only shown for the substance nouns.

Table 2: Pre-determiner bare al in noun phrases headed by a non-count noun

	substance nouns [±neuter]	mass nouns
definite articles	(?)al de wijn/het water all the wine/the water	(?)al het vee all the cattle
demonstrative pronouns	al die wijn/dat water all that wine/that water	al dat vee all that cattle
	al deze wijn/dit water all this wine/this water	al dit vee all this cattle
possessive pronouns	al mijn wijn/water all my wine/water	al mijn vee all my cattle

The examples in (17) show that pre-determiner bare al can also be used with abstract nouns like ellende'misery/trouble' and verdriet'sorrow'.

a.		al	(?)de/die/deze/zijn	ellende
		all	the/that/this/his	misery

b.		al	(?)het/die/deze/zijn	verdriet
		all	the/that/this/his	sorrow

The examples with the definite articles de/het given above are somewhat marked, but become perfectly acceptable if the noun phrase contains a restrictive modifier: cf. the examples in (18). A similar modifier effect does not show up in the other examples in Table 2, or, for that matter, in the examples to follow.

a.		al	de	rode	wijn
		all	the	red	wine

b.		al	het vee	in de stal
		'all the cattle in the stable'

c.	al	de ellende	die	ik	heb	meegemaakt
	all	the misery	that	I	have	prt.-made
	'all the misery that Iʼve been through'

Pre-determiner bare al can also precede projections of deverbal nouns of the type in Table 3. These bare stem, infinitival and ge-nominalizations are systematically +neuter.

Table 3: Pre-determiner bare al in noun phrases headed by a deverbal noun

	bare stem	inf-nominalization	ge-nominalization
definite articles	al het werk all the work	al het werken all the working	al het gewerk all the working
demonstrative pronouns	al dat werk all that work	al dat werken all that working	al dat gewerk all that working
	al dit werk all this work	al dit werken all this working	al dit gewerk all this working
possessive pronouns	al mijn werk all my work	(?)al mijn werken all my working	al mijn gewerk all my working

It is impossible, however, for al to be construed with result nominalizations instantiated by non-neuter nouns like aankomst'arrival' or aanvang'beginning', or neuter nouns like begin'beginning' or vertrek'departure'.

a.	*	al de aanvang/aankomst
		all the beginning/arrival

a'.	*	al het begin/vertrek
		all the beginning/departure

b.	*	al die aanvang/aankomst
		all that beginning/arrival

b'.	*	al dat begin/vertrek
		all that beginning/departure

c.	*	al deze aanvang/aankomst
		all this beginning/arrival

c'.	*	al dit begin/vertrek
		all this beginning/departure

It is difficult to sharply distinguish the set of deverbal nouns that do not allow pre-determiner bare al from those that do. The unacceptability of the examples in (19) might be related to the fact that they all involve result nominals that denote a punctual event, that is, an event without a temporal extension. This tallies with the fact that pre-determiner bare al cannot be used with punctual non-deverbal nouns like einde'end' in (20) either.

	*	al	het/dat/dit	einde
		all	the/that/this	end

We add, however, that the context may force an eventive interpretation upon nouns of the type in (19) and (20), but the examples in (21) show that it is nonetheless impossible to use the pre-determiner al in such cases; Section 7.2.2.1, sub I, will show that in contexts like these, the pre-determiner heel'all/whole' is used.

a.		(*Al) het begin van de film	was erg saai.
		all the beginning of the movie	was very boring

b.		(*Al) het einde van de film	was erg saai.
		all the end of the movie	was very boring

[+] II. Restrictions on accompanying determiners and quantificational elements

This subsection investigates the restrictions that the pre-determiner al poses on the presence of determiners and quantificational elements. As an initial observation, note that the syntax of the constituents following al largely mirrors that of the same constituents lacking al: (22), for instance, shows that adjectival modification of the noun is not affected by the presence of al. The examples in (23) show that al does not affect the behavior of attributive modifiers with regard to inflection either.

a.		(al)	de/deze/die	eenzame	mensen
		all	the/these/those	lonely	people

b.		(al)	het/dit/dat	heerlijke	water
		all	the/this/that	delicious	water

a.		(al)	dat/dit soort	groot/*grote	verdriet
		all	that/this sort	big	sadness

b.		(al)	dat grote/*groot	verdriet
		all	that big	sadness

[+] A. Determiners

Table 2 in Subsection I has shown that pre-determiner bare al can precede all definite determiners with equal ease. We illustrate this again in (24).

a.		al	de	mannen	article
		all	the	men

b.		al	die/deze	mannen	demonstrative pronoun
		all	those/these	men

c.		al	mijn	boeken	possessive pronoun
		all	my	books

The (a)-examples in (25) and (26) show that the demonstrative and possessive pronouns can be assigned contrastive accent, and the (b)-examples that the acceptability of examples of this type is preserved under backward conjunction reduction. NP-ellipsis in the second conjunct, as in the (c)-examples, is at least degraded in comparison with the cases involving backward conjunction reduction. In this regard, pre-determiner bare al differs markedly from other quantificational pre-determiner elements like alle + Num, allebei and heel; see Section 7.1.2.2, sub IB, and Section 7.2.2.1, sub II, for illustration.

ken

wel

al deze mannen,

maar

niet

al die mannen.

ken

wel

al deze ∅,

maar

niet

al die mannen.

BCR

c.	?	Ik	ken	wel	al deze mannen,	maar	niet	al die ∅.	NP-ellipsis
		I	know	aff	all these men	but	not	all those [men]

ken

wel

al zijn vrienden,

maar

niet

al haar vrienden.

ken

wel

al zijn ∅,

maar

niet

al haar vrienden.

BCR

c.	*	Ik	ken	wel	al zijn vrienden,	maar	niet	al haar ∅.	NP-ellipsis
		I	know	aff	all his friends,	but	not	all her [friends]

For completeness’ sake, it can be noted that pre-determiner bare al can also be inserted to the left of possessive noun phrases, as in (27), although the semi-genitival construction is perhaps somewhat marked, which may be due to the heaviness of the overall construction. According to Van der Lubbe (1978: 133), pre-determiner bare al sometimes also occurs between the noun phrase and the functional possessive pronoun, as in %vader al zʼn sigaren (lit.: father all his cigars), but he adds immediately that this will probably not be approved by many speakers; we have not been able to find similar examples. The examples in (27b) show that pre-determiner bare al can also precede nominalized possessive pronouns.

a.		al	mijn mans/?al mijn man zʼn	boeken
		all	my husbandʼs/all my husband his	books

b.		al	de/het	mijne/jouwe/zijne/hare/onze/hunne
		all	the	mine/yourssg/his/hers/ours/theirs

Pre-determiner bare al cannot be construed with noun phrases like (28a&b) containing the indefinite article een. This is not even possible in the exclamative construction in (28c), where we are dealing with the spurious article een and a plural noun; cf. 5.1.4.2. Pre-determiner bare al cannot combine with bare noun phrases either, which is illustrated in the primed examples for, respectively, bare non-count nouns and bare plurals.

a.		(*al)	een ellende
		all	a misery

a'.		(*al) ∅	ellende/wijn
		all	misery/wine

b.		(*al)	een gedoe
		all	a fuss

b'.		(*al) ∅	verdriet/water
		all	sorrow/water

c.		(*al)	een boeken	dat hij heeft!
		all	a books	that he has

c'.		(*al) ∅	steden/huizen
		all	towns/houses

An example such as één en al ellende'nothing but misery' may look deceptively similar to the non-count singular in (28a), but the complex modifier één en al (lit.: one and all) differs from the pre-determiner al in that the noun is always singular. Eén en al also differs from al in making an entirely different semantic contribution, which is comparable to that of modifiers like volledig'complete(ly)', alleen maar'only' or niets dan'nothing but', not to that of a universal quantifier like al.

[+] B. Indefinite determiner-like elements

The indefinite determiner-like elements dat/dit soort'such' (lit.: that/this kind), which were discussed in Section 4.1.2, are compatible with al to their left. The demonstrative modifiers zulk/dergelijk'such' exhibit essentially the same behavior as dat/dit soort, but because most speakers find constructions of the type ?al zulke/dergelijke boeken'all such books' somewhat archaic, we will not illustrate such examples in the remainder of this subsection.

a.		(al)	dat/dit soort	ellende
		all	that/this sort	misery

a'.		(al)	dat/dit soort	verdriet
		all	that/this sort	sorrow

b.		(al)	dat/dit soort	wijn
		all	that/this sort	wine

b'.		(al)	dat/dit soort	fruit
		all	that/this sort	fruit

c.		(al)	dat/dit soort boeken
		all	that/this sort books

It is likely that in constructions of the type in (29), al is not construed with the larger noun phrase directly, but forms a constituent with dat/dit soort. Pre-determiner bare al phrases generally pattern with strong noun phrases, which was supported in Section 7.1.1, sub IV, by showing that these noun phrases cannot occur as the associate of er'there' in expletive constructions such as (30a). Adding al to dat/dit soort N, which is itself a weak noun phrase, does not result in a strong noun phrase, however, which leads to the conclusion that al is only construed with the smaller definite noun phrase dat/dit soort.

a.	*	Er	komt	daar	(al)	de ellende	voor.
		there	comes	there	all	the misery	prt.

b.	Er	komt	daar	(al)	dat/dit soort ellende	voor.
	there	comes	there	all	that/this sort misery	prt.
	'All such misery is found there.'

The indefinite determiner-like element van die'such' in pseudo-partitive constructions, which was discussed in Section 4.1.1.6, sub I, does not allow bare al to its left, which is not really surprising since these spurious PPs actually act as indefinite noun phrases.

Hij	verkoopt	(*al)	van die lekkere wijn/koekjes.
he	sells	all	such those tasty wine/cookies
'He sells such tasty wine/cookies.'

[+] C. Quantifiers and numerals

Neither weak quantifiers like enig(e)'some' and enkele'some', nor strong quantifiers like sommige'some', elk'each' and ieder'every' can be preceded by pre-determiner bare al.

a.		(*al)	enige	ellende/wijn	-neuter
		all	some	misery/wine

b.		(*al)	enig	verdriet/fruit	+neuter
		all	some	sorrow/fruit

c.		(*al)	enkele/sommige	boeken	plural
		all	some	books

a.		(*al)	elke/iedere	stad	-neuter
		all	each/every	town

b.		(*al)	elk/ieder	huis	+neuter
		all	each/every	house

The quantifiers veel'much/many' and weinig'little/few' need some more discussion. If they are used in their bare form, they cannot be preceded by al, which is not surprising since in this form they have the same function as the quantifiers in (32).

a.		(*al)	veel	ellende	-neuter
		all	much	misery

b.		(*al)	veel	fruit	+neuter
		all	much	fruit

c.		(*al)	veel	boeken	plural
		all	many	books

However, pre-determiner bare al can at least marginally precede the inflected quantifiers vele'much/many' or weinige'little/few', provided at least that the construction without al is acceptable as well; examples such as (35) are substantially better than the examples of quantified phrases with alle, alle + Num, allebei, beide and allemaal that will be discussed in Section 7.1.2.2. Note that the PP-modifier must be present in these examples, regardless of whether al is present or absent.

a.		al	de	?vele/??weinige	mensen	in de zaal
		all	the	many/few	people	in the room

b.		al	het	?vele/??weinige	water in de vijver
		all	the	much/little	water in the pond

Note in passing that the examples in (34) contrast sharply with al te veel N. In this construction al is not a pre-determiner but a modifier of te veel, which is clear from the fact that noun phrases quantified by veel/weinig are indefinites and can accordingly occur in expletive er'there' constructions. Since (36) shows that noun phrases modified by al te veel pattern with noun phrases quantified by te veel in this respect, the assumption that al acts as a modifier of te veel seems reasonable. It is also plausible from a semantic point of view; besides a too-degree interpretation, al te veel can also receive a high degree paraphrase with heel erg veel'very much', where heel erg premodifies veel as well.

Er	is (al)	te veel ellende	op de wereld.
there	is all	too much misery	on the world
'There is too much misery in the world.'

The pre-determiner al can also be used if the noun phrase contains a numeral, although we find a split in the set of determiners: whereas the demonstratives and possessives in (37b-d) can be preceded by al, the definite article de in (37a) cannot.

a.		al	de	(*drie)	boeken
		all	the	three	books

b.		al	deze/die	(drie)	boeken
		all	these/those	three	books

c.		al	mijn	(drie)	boeken
		all	my	three	books

d.		al	mijn vaders/mijn vader zʼn	(drie)	boeken
		all	my fatherʼs/my father his	three	books

We have marked example (37a) as unacceptable with a numeral, despite the fact that Haeseryn et al. (1997) mention al de tien leerlingen'all the ten pupils' as a case on which speakers have varying judgments; we have found that speakers as a rule reject noun phrases of this type, although we should add that we did find a small number of examples on the internet. Note that the intended meaning of example (37a) can be expressed by means of alle drie de boeken'all three the books' (similar alternants exist for (37b&c): alle drie die/mijn boeken); see Section 7.1.2.2, sub I, for discussion and comparison.

[+] D. Personal pronouns and proper nouns

It is impossible for pre-determiner bare al to be construed with pronouns. Since al requires a plural noun phrase (if headed by a count noun), this is illustrated in (38) for the plural pronouns only. These examples are all ungrammatical with al added, regardless of the order of al and the pronoun.

a.	*	al	wij/ons
		all	we/us

b.	*	al	jullie
		all	youpl

c.	*	al	zij/hen/hun
		all	they/them/them

The examples in (39) show that pre-determiner bare al cannot occur with proper nouns either, which may be surprising given that English all or French tout can be used in contexts like (39a). Section 7.2.2.1, sub IID, will show that Dutch uses heel'all/whole' in contexts of this kind.

a.	*	al Europa/Duitsland/Limburg/Amsterdam
		all Europe/Germany/Limburg/Amsterdam

b.	*	al Jan
		all Jan

Perhaps it should be mentioned here that al may also directly precede the pronouns wat and wie in free relatives like in (40), but it is not clear whether we are dealing with pre-determiner bare al here; it may also be the case that al acts as the antecedent of the relative clause. Since we have no conclusive evidence in support one of one of the two analyses, we will leave the decision to future research.

a.		al	wat	ik	hoor
		all	what	I	hear

b.	al	wie	ik	zag,	geen Peter
	all	who	I	saw	no Peter
	'I saw lots of people but not Peter'

References:

Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
Lubbe, H.F.A. van der1978Woordvolgorde in het NederlandsAssenVan Gorcum

⇑ Back to top

About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Marcel den Dikken

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: ConjunctionConjunction ReductionDemonstrative PronounN(P)-EllipsisNounPluralia tantumPossessive PronounPronounProper NounPseudo-Partitive ConstructionSemi-genitival construction

report errorprintcite

Jump to:

introduction
references
related articles