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7.2.1.2.2.Post-determiner quantificational heel

quickinfo

With adjectival heel properly set apart from the other occurrences of heel, in what follows we will concentrate on the quantificational readings of post-determiner heel. Post-determiner quantificational heel can be divided into three subtypes, which respectively express totality, degree and polarity.

I. Totality
II. Degree
III. Negative polarity

[+] I. Totality

By far the most common quantificational contribution made by post-determiner inflectible heel is that of “totality”. An example such as de stad differs semantically from de hele stad'the whole city' in the same way that their English translations “the city” and “the whole/entire city” differ: de hele stad denotes the totality of the town, the town in its entirety. That heel in its totality sense is quantificational is evident from the fact that it does not combine with helemaal, as seen in (184).

184

a.		De	hele zon	is	van gas.
		the	whole sun	is	of gas

b.		De zon	is helemaal	van gas.
		the sun	is entirely	of gas

c.	*	De hele zon	is helemaal	van gas.
		the whole sun	is entirely	of gas

The totality sense of inflectible heel comes close to that of pre-determiner bare heel discussed in Section 7.2.1.1, which is clear from the fact that it is impossible to combine the two varieties of heel within a single noun phrase.

185

a.		heel	mijn	bezit
		all	my	estate

b.		mijn	hele	bezit
		my	whole	estate

c.	*	heel	mijn	hele	bezit
		all	my	whole	estate

But despite the close semantic relationship between pre-determiner bare heel and post-determiner heel, there is an important difference between the two. Whereas pre-determiner bare heel forces an exhaustive partitioning of the whole into all of its relevant subparts, no such partitioning is necessarily implied by post-determiner heel (though a partitioning reading seems compatible with post-determiner heel in many cases). As a consequence, some of the semantic anomalies that we found with bare heel dissolve if pre-determiner bare heel is replaced by post-determiner inflectible heel. We illustrate this in the examples below, referring the reader back to the more detailed discussion in Section 7.2.1.
Consider the examples in (186). What (186a) means is that the entire house has been cleaned from top to bottom, not necessarily that all the individual rooms of the house have been cleaned. As a reflex of this, the cleaning in (186a) need not be directed towards the interior of the house but can also involve the exterior of the house, which would be distinctly odd in the case of Heel het huis is schoongemaakt'All the house has been cleaned' in (168). Similarly, the noun phrases in (186b&c) simply refer to the entire motorboat/house, and, as a result, these examples are perfectly acceptable in contrast to those in (169), where reference is made to all the relevant subparts of the motorboat/house.

186

a.		Het hele huis	is schoongemaakt.
		the whole house	is clean.made

b.		De hele motorboot	gaat	heen en weer.
		the whole motorboat	goes	to and fro (≈ is rocking)

c.		Het hele huis	is bedolven	onder de modder.
		the whole house	is buried	under the mud

The examples in (166) in Section 7.2.1 have shown that pre-determiner heel, as a consequence of the unit feature of its semantics, bars the noun phrases which it quantifies from occurring in distributive contexts. Post-determiner heel does not turn out to be sensitive to this distributivity effect: the examples in (187) are perfectly acceptable due to the fact that heel simply expresses that the predicate affects the referent of the noun phrase in its entirety.

187

a.	Ik	heb	de hele film	mijn volle aandacht	gegeven.
	I	have	the whole movie	my full attention	given
	'I gave the entire movie my full attention.'

b.	Ik	heb	aandachtig	naar de hele film	zitten	kijken.
	I	have	attentively	to the whole movie	sit	look
	'I watched the entire movie attentively.'

The examples in (170) have shown that modifiers expressing an exception give rise to a marked result in noun phrases featuring pre-determiner bare heel. Again, we find that post-determiner heel behaves differently: the sentences in (188a&b) are perfectly acceptable with the “except”-clause present. This will be clear from the fact that a Google search (July 2008 ) on the strings [ heel de serie behalve] and [ de hele serie behalve] resulted in, respectively, 1 and 18 hits.

188

a.		Het hele kantoorgebouw	(behalve de begane grond)	is verhuurd.
		the whole office block	except the ground floor	is rented.out

b.		De hele Veiligheidsraad	(behalve China)	stemde	voor de resolutie.
		the whole Security Council	except China	voted	for the resolution

c.		Ik	heb	de hele serie	(behalve deel 28).
		I	have	the whole series	except volume 28

Since post-determiner heel and half do not force a partitioning of the object denoted by the noun they combine with, the friction between “totally affecting” predicates and the pre-determiner half in (172) is lacking in the case of post-determiner half in (189). The examples in (189) simply assert that the predicate expressed by the verb phrase holds for, respectively, a hundred or fifty per cent of the island/village.

189

a.		Het hele/halve eiland	lag bezaaid	met bloemen.
		the whole/half island	lay be-seeded	with flowers

b.		Het hele/halve dorp	werd	leeggeroofd.
		the whole/half village	was	robbed.empty

[+] II. Degree

The quantificational interpretations in which heel means “total” and half means “fifty per cent of” compete with an alternative reading of these sentences in which heel and half express degree. This reading is discussed in this subsection.

[+] A. Metaphor (high/moderate degree)

The modifiers heel and half in the examples of the type in (190) typically contribute the semantics of “(moderately) high degree”; the examples receive an interpretation according to which the verbal proposition is predicated to a substantial degree of the noun phrase containing heel/half. Metaphorical examples of the type in (190) are particularly common in the context of (more or less fixed expressions of) exaggeration. Although the degree modifiers heel and half are equally possible in (190), the two differ in that the degree to which the verbal proposition holds is understood to be stronger when heel is used than when half is used. This difference is not very robust, though.

190

a.	Komt	er	ineens	een hele/halve volksverhuizing	op me	af!
	comes	there	suddenly	a whole/half mass migration	at me	prt.
	'All of a sudden a load of people comes running towards me!'

b.	Hij	kreeg	een hele/halve zondvloed	op zʼn dak.
	he	got	a whole/half deluge	on his roof
	'He got drenched.'

The degree reading is also obtainable in the examples in (189), repeated here as (191). In these examples, however, this is easiest with the modifier halve, which on its degree reading expresses that there were quite a large number of flowers spread out across the island, and that quite a few objects in the village were stolen in the robbery. Degree readings of this type with heel are only readily available in metaphorical cases like the ones in (190); in examples such as (191) they seem harder to get.

191

a.		Het hele/halve eiland	lag bezaaid	met bloemen.
		the whole/half island	lay be-seeded	with flowers

b.		Het hele/halve dorp	werd	leeggeroofd.
		the whole/half village	was	robbed.empty

Noun phrases containing the degree modifiers heel/half require that main accent be on the noun: een hele/halve volksverhuizing in (190a) and het halve dorp in (191b). Noun phrases containing the quantifiers heel/half meaning “100/50%”, on the other hand, require that main accent be placed on the quantifier: (189b) will be realized as het halve dorp.

[+] B. The “quite” degree reading

In sentences of the type in (192), the semantics of inflectible heel is also one of degree modification, which is best rendered by means of English quite. In contrast to the metaphorical high degree cases in (190), inflectible heel in (192) does not alternate with half, but with adjectival intensifiers like behoorlijk, flink'quite', generally with little or no difference in meaning.

192

a.	Dat	is	een	heel/behoorlijk	gedoe.
	that	is	a	whole/quite	hassle
	'That is quite a hassle.'

b.	Dat	is	een	hele/behoorlijke	toer/toestand.
	that	is	a	whole/quite	tour de force/situation
	'That is quite a tour de force.'

c.	Ze	maakten	een	hele/flinke	scène.
	they	made	a	whole/quite	scene
	'They made quite a scene.'

d.	Dat was een hele/flinke	opluchting.
	that was a whole/quite	relief
	'That was quite a relief.'

The “quite” degree reading is impossible to obtain in definite noun phrases; examples such as (193a) are only acceptable on the totality interpretation of heel. But indefinite noun phrases with determiners other than the article een do not allow the “quite” degree reading either, as shown by the unacceptability of (193b&c). We therefore conclude that the “quite” degree reading of inflectible heel is contingent on the presence of the indefinite article een.

193

a.	#	Ik	ben	het/dat/dit	(hele)	gedoe	moe.
		I	am	the/that/this	whole	hassle	weary
		'Iʼm weary of the/that/this whole hassle.'

b.		Dat is	zoʼn	(*heel)	gedoe.
		that is	so a	whole	hassle

c.		Dat is	van dat	(*hele)	gedoe.
		that is	such	whole	hassle

Finally, note that inflectible heel may also modify the pronoun wat in (194a). Example (194b) shows that in this case heel also alternates with adjectival intensifiers like behoorlijk and flink'quite'. However, as is indicated by the English translations, one of the possible interpretations of heel wat is lacking in the constructions with adjectival intensifiers.

194

a.	Dat is	heel	wat.
	that is	quite	what
	'That is quite something/a lot.'

b.	Dat	is behoorlijk/flink	wat.
	that	is quite	what
	'That is quite a lot.'

[+] C. Binominal constructions: alternation between high and “quite” degree

The interpretation of heel in binominal noun phrases of the type in (195) is varied, in a rather subtle way. Three interpretations are available for examples of this type. The high and “quite” degree interpretations of heel arise if the noun verzameling/lading is quantificational, whereas the adjectival meaning “complete” requires that the noun verzameling/lading is referential, that is, assigned its literal meaning “collection/load”; see Section 7.2.1.2.1 for discussion.

195

a.		Ik	heb	een	hele	verzameling	boeken	gekocht.
		I	have	a	whole	collection	books	bought

b.		Ik	heb	een	hele	lading	boeken	gekocht.
		I	have	a	whole	load	books	bought

Example (196) aims at bringing out the prosodic differences between the three interpretations of heel. The representations show that the two types of degree reading with the quantificational construal of verzameling require a single stress peak on the noun verzameling. The high degree reading “a very large amount/number” in (196a) furthermore requires lengthening of the vowel, and the “quite” degree reading “quite a few” in (196b) requires an additional stress peak on the degree modifier heel. On the referential reading of verzameling, which can be easily be distinguished from the other uses by adding, e.g., a possessive pronoun, the adjective heel receives main stress.

196

een hele verza—meling boeken

high degree

een hele verzameling boeken

“quite” degree

een/zijn hele verzameling boeken

purely adjectival: “complete”

Note that the properties of the high degree reading of inflectible heel in (196a) are also salient in metaphorical “high degree” examples like those in (190): Hele genera—ties hebben dit lied meegezongen'Whole generations have sung along with this song'. Note also that the prosodic properties of the constructions in (196b&c) are preserved if we replace heel by, respectively, a degree modifier like behoorlijk or an adjective like volledig'complete', but there is nothing that can replace heel on its high degree reading with preservation of the intonation contour in (196a).
Examples of the type in (195) can be pluralized, but this seems to result in the loss of two of the readings: it is only the high degree interpretation that seems to survive in (197), which is also clear from the fact that the typical intonational pattern for sentences of this type involves main accent on the noun: the stressed vowels of verzamelingen and ladingen receives a prolonged duration. That the adjectival interpretation for hele in (197) is hard to get is also clear from the fact that addition of, e.g., a possessive pronoun to hele verzamelingen is pragmatically odd: #Ik heb mijn hele verzamelingen verkocht'I sold my whole collections'.

197

a.		Ik	heb	hele	verza—melingen	boeken	verkocht.
		I	have	whole	collections [of]	books	sold

b.		Ik	heb	hele	la—dingen	boeken	verkocht.
		I	have	whole	loads [of]	books	sold

The core lexical semantics of heel, viz. totality, may not be entirely absent in these “high degree” examples, as is suggested by the fact that heel can be rendered in English with “whole” or “entire”. For the “quite” degree reading of heel, on the other hand, no translation with English whole or entire is possible in the general case; cf. example (192). This interpretation of heel hence seems far removed from the core quantificational semantics of this element.

[+] D. Adverbial heel and degree readings

As is illustrated in (198), a degree interpretation is also possible in the case of adverbial heel, that is, in cases in which heel modifies an attributive or a predicative adjective; cf. Section A3.1.2. Whether heel receives a high or a “quite” degree reading seems to depend on the nature of the adjective with which it is construed. Note that heel cannot be replaced with half in (198); degree modification of adjectives by half is possible only if half and the adjective form a compound (cf. halfzachte/*halve zachte drop'half-soft licorice') and this is not possible with the adjectives in (198).

198

a.		Dat	is een heel/hele goede prestatie.	high degree
		that	is a very smart accomplishment

b.		Dat	is een heel/hele redelijke prestatie.	“quite” degree
		that	is a quite reasonable accomplishment

We want to stress that the degree readings of heel are not contingent on its construal as an adverb. That heel is not an adverb in the examples discussed up to (197) is evident from the fact illustrated in (199) that it must inflect in accordance with the gender and number features of the head noun, whereas schwa-inflection is always optional with the adverbial phrases in (198).

199

Dat	is een	hele/*heel	prestatie.
that	is a	whole	accomplishment
'That is quite an accomplishment.'

[+] E. Degree modification of predicative noun phrases

At the end of this discussion of the degree readings of heel, we address some additional types of examples classifiable under the “degree” header that involve predicatively used noun phrases. We start with “quite” degree readings in clauses containing al'already' and nog (best)'actually'. Consider the examples in (200), which differ from the examples discussed so far in that the adverb al'already' must be present.

200

a.	Jij	bent	??(al)	een	hele	vent/heer/bink!
	you	are	already	a	whole	guy/gentleman/tough.guy
	'Youʼre quite a guy/gentleman/tough guy already!'

b.	Jij	bent	??(al)	een	hele	meid/dame!
	you	are	already	a	whole	girl/lady
	'Youʼre quite a girl/lady already!'

c.	Jij	bent	??(al)	een	hele	computerexpert!
	you	are	already	a	whole	computer.expert
	'Youʼre quite a computer expert already!'

Examples like (200a&b) are typically addressed to little boys or girls who are assumed to take pride in looking older and wiser; the “quite” degree resides in the extent to which adulthood has already been “reached” or mimicked by the child in question. Especially in mildly ironic contexts, this type can also be used with nouns other than the ones illustrated in (200a&b), as shown by a sentence like (200c).
Since sentences of the type in (200) are typically used as statements directed towards an addressee (little children in particular), they usually have second person pronouns as their subjects. They are most common as exclamations (as will be clear from the punctuation used), but constructions of a similar type are also found in (tagged) rhetorical questions. An example is given in (201); notice that in this context the adverb al, which is required in (200), is typically absent.

201

Jij	vindt	jezelf	zeker	(#al)	een hele vent,	hè?
you	find	yourself	sure	already	a whole guy	right
'You think youʼre quite a guy, donʼt you?'

In (202) we find a dependency between heel qua degree item and the adverbial nog'still/yet' similar to the kind found in (200) between the heel degree phrases and the adverb al'already'. Nog is often preceded or followed by the form best, which is difficult to render in English; the closest English paraphrase is probably something like “actually”. The two word orders seem semantically equivalent.

202

a.	Dat	is <best>	nog <best>	een heel karwei.
	that	is best	still	a whole job
	'Thatʼs (actually) quite a job.'

b.	Dat	was <best>	nog <best>	een hele wandeling.
	that	was best	still	a whole walk
	'That was (actually) quite a walk.'

c.	Dat	was <best>	nog <best>	een heel gedoe.
	that	was best	still	a whole hassle
	'That was (actually) quite a hassle.'

One may wonder what the structural position is of the adverbial elements found in (200) and (202). To investigate this question, we will consider the topicalization constructions in (203). It should be noted, however, that judgments for these examples are difficult and will probably vary among speakers. As the primeless examples in (203) show, it seems difficult to leave the adverbs al and nog best/best nog behind under topicalization of the heel phrases, which may indicate that they are subparts of the heel noun phrases.

203

a.	??	Een hele vent	ben	jij	al!
		a whole guy	are	you	already

b.	*	Een heel karwei	is dat	nog best!
		a whole job	is that	still best

c.	??	Een heel karwei	is dat	bestnog!
		a whole job	is that	best still

The observed degradation induced by stranding of these adverbs might be taken to shed light on the dependency relation observed between heel and these adverbs in the examples under discussion. However, it should be pointed out that topicalization of the heel phrases together with the adverbs al and (part of) nog best/best nog does not yield a very felicitous result either.

204

Al een hele vent ben jij!

Best een heel karwei is dat nog!

Nog best een heel karwei is dat!

Nog een heel karwei is dat best!

c'.

Best nog een heel karwei is dat!

An alternative approach would be to assume that al and nog best/best nog are independent constituents, which would account for the degraded status of the pied-piping cases in (204), and to say that the dependency of heel on the adverbs al and nog best/best nog is similar to that between negative polarity items and their licensers; the deviance of stranding al and nog best/best nog in (203) might then follow from the fact that the topicalized heel phrase is outside the licensing domain of the adverb. We leave it to future research to decide whether this suggestion holds water.
The set of examples in (205) are syntactically similar to those in (200), and partially overlaps in the lexical nouns heading the heel phrases ( vent, heer, dame), but they differ in that in (205) no adverb like al is found. Furthermore, the degree reading introduced by heel is that of high degree, which is directed towards the implicit qualities of the head noun; een hele vent/kerel predicates a high degree of excellence of the subject. Note that, although vent and kerel often carry negative evaluative connotations, in the context in (205a) they are used to give expression to a highly positive quality.

205

a.	Hij	is een hele vent/kerel/heer.
	he	is a whole guy/fellow/gentleman
	'Heʼs an excellent man/a man of status, social significance.'

b.	Zij	is een hele dame.
	she	is a whole lady
	'She is a real lady.'

Finally note that the connotation of excellence, implicit in the nouns used in the examples in (205), is apparently lacking in others: examples such as ??Hij is een hele jongen/man/vrouw'a whole boy/man/woman' do not yield the qualitative high degree interpretation of the examples in (205).

[+] III. Negative polarity

The negative polarity reading of inflectible heel is comparable to that of English at all, with the added semantic aspect of condescension; cf. Section 7.2.1.1, sub II. This function of heel is fairly widespread, and some illustrations of it are given in (206). The head noun of the construction can be either a common noun or a proper noun, as in, respectively, (206a-c) and (206d).

206

a.	Ik	had	het hele mens	niet	gezien.
	I	had	the whole person	not	seen
	'I didnʼt even see the person/woman at all.'

b.	Ik	zou	die hele jongen	nog niet eens	een hand	willen	geven.
	I	would	that whole boy	yet not even	a hand	want	give
	'I wouldnʼt even want to shake hands with that boy.'

c.	Ik	had	in geen jaren	meer	over dat hele idee	nagedacht.
	I	had	in no years	anymore	about that whole idea	thought
	'I hadnʼt thought about that idea in years.'

d.	Ik	was	die hele Bert Mulder	allang	weer	vergeten.
	I	was	that whole Bert Mulder	already.long	again	forgotten
	'Iʼd long forgotten about this Bert Mulder.'

[+] A. D-linking

Negative polar heel phrases in (206) are typically D-linked, that is, they cannot be uttered out of the blue, but must refer to some active discourse topic. Example (206a), for instance, would be typically used in a context like (207).

207

Mijn buurvrouw

was erg beledigd

omdat

haar

niet

gegroet

had,

maar

had

het hele mens

niet

gezien.

my neighbor

was very offended

because

her

not

greeted

had

but

had

the whole person

not

seen

'My neighbor was very offended because I didnʼt greet her, but I hadnʼt seen the woman at all.'

That D-linking is required is also suggested by the fact illustrated by (215) that, unlike definite noun phrases, negative polar heel phrases obligatorily scramble across adverbial phrases like nog nooit; see Section 8.1.3 for a discussion of the restrictions on scrambling.

208

a.	Ik heb <mijn buurvrouw>	nog nooit <mijn buurvrouw>	gezien.
	I have my neighbor	yet never	seen
	'Iʼve never seen my neighbor so far.'

b.	Ik	had	<het hele mens>	nog nooit <*het hele mens>	gezien.
	I	had	the whole person	yet not	seen
	'I didnʼt ever see the person/woman at all so far.'

[+] B. The licensing of negative polar heel

The fact that (206d) is grammatical raises a question concerning the licensing of negative polar heel. When we restrict ourselves to negative contexts, run-of-the-mill negative polarity items like ook maar iemand'anyone' are normally licensed by means of a syntactically expressed negation: this negation can be expressed on some other c-commanding argument in the sentence, as illustrated in (209a&a'), or by the negative adverb niet provided that it is part of some higher clause, as is illustrated by the contrast between (209b) and (209b').

209

a.	Niemand	heeft	ook maar iemand	gezien.
	nobody	is	ook maar someone	seen
	'Nobody has seen anybody.'

a'.	Niemand	denkt	dat	Peter	ook maar iemand	gezien	heeft.
	nobody	thinks	that	Peter	ook maar someone	seen	has
	'Nobody thinks that Peter has seen anybody.'

b.	*	Peter heeft	<niet>	ook maar iemand <niet>	gezien.
		Peter has	not	ook maar someone	seen

b'.	Ik	denk	niet	dat	Peter ook maar iemand	gezien	heeft.
	I	think	not	that	Peter ook maar someone	seen	has
	'I donʼt think that Peter has seen anybody.'

When we compare the primeless examples of (209) to those in (210), we see that the pattern with negative polar heel is in fact the reverse: polar heel can be licensed by the negative adverb niet, but not by a c-commanding argument. Negative polar heel also behaves differently when it comes to licensing by negation in some higher clause: the counterparts of the primed examples in (209) with negative polar heel are unacceptable.

210

a.	*?	Niemand	heeft	het hele mens	gezien.
		nobody	has	the whole person	seen

a'.	*	Niemand	denkt	dat	Peter	het hele mens	gezien	heeft.
		nobody	thinks	that	Peter	the whole person	seen	has

b.		Peter heeft	het hele mens	niet	gezien.
		Peter has	the whole person	not	seen

b'.	*	Ik	denk	niet	dat	Peter het hele mens	gezien	heeft.
		I	think	not	that	Peter the whole person	seen	has

In the primed examples in (209) and (210) the polarity items function as objects, but we find the same contrast if the polarity items function as a subject. This is shown in (211) by means of examples in which negation is expressed by the negative adverb niet, but similar judgments are obtained if we use examples with the negative phrase niemand'nobody' as the subject of the matrix clause.

211

a.	Ik	denk	niet	dat	ook maar iemand	Peter gezien	heeft.
	I	think	not	that	ook maar someone	Peter seen	has
	'I donʼt think that anybody has seen Peter.'

b.	*	Ik	denk	niet	dat	het hele mens	Peter	gezien	heeft.
		I	think	not	that	the whole person	Peter	seen	has
		'I donʼt think that the person/woman has seen Peter.'

Note, however, that it has been claimed that examples such as (211b) improve if the embedded clause contains another polarity item, as shown in (212); in other words, the negative polar phrase het hele mens is licensed by the negative polarity items ooit'ever' and ook maar iemand'anybody' in, respectively, (212a) and (212b), which are licensed in turn by the negation in the matrix clause. Note that the use of the percentage mark indicates that some speakers do not readily accept examples of this sort (which may simply be due to the complexity of the examples).

212

a.	%	Ik	denk	niet	dat	het hele mens	Peter	ooit	gezien	heeft.
		I	think	not	that	the whole person	Peter	ever	seen	has
		'I donʼt think that the person/woman has ever seen Peter.'

b.	%	Ik	denk	niet	dat	het hele mens	ook maar iemand	gezien	heeft.
		I	think	not	that	the whole person	ook maar someone	seen	has
		'I donʼt think that the person/woman has seen anybody.'

The contrast between example (212b) above and (213a) below shows that the phrase het hele mens must c-command the negative polarity item that licenses it. Example (213b) shows something similar for a negative polar heel phrase functioning as a direct object. In the latter case, this c-command restriction may of course follow from the D-linking requirement, which forces scrambling, but this requirement has nothing to say about the contrast between (212b) and (213a); cf. Section 7.2.1.2.2, sub III. We refer the reader to Den Dikken (2002) and Hoeksema (2007) for a more detailed discussion and alternative approaches to this c-command restriction.

213

a.	*	Ik	denk niet	dat	ook maar iemand	het hele mens	gezien	heeft.
		I	think not	that	ook maar someone	the whole person	seen	has
		'I donʼt think that anybody has seen the person/woman.'

b.		Ik	denk niet	dat	ik	<%het hele mens>	ooit <*het hele mens>	gezien	heb.
		I	think not	that	I	the whole person	ever	seen	has

A final difference between the licensing restrictions on ordinary negative polarity items and negative polar heel is that the latter can be licensed by implicitly negative verbs like vergeten'to forget/to not know anymore', whereas the former cannot (although there are more negative polarity items that resemble heel in this respect; cf. Klooster 1993).

214

a.	*	Ik was	ook maar iemand	vergeten.
		I was	ook maar someone	forgotten

b.	Ik	was	die hele Bert Mulder	allang	weer	vergeten.
	I	was	that whole Bert Mulder	already.long	again	forgotten
	'Iʼd long forgotten about this Bert Mulder.'

Note that the relevance of implicit negation for licensing can also be seen by comparing the examples in (215): while the verb passeren'to pass' plausibly features implicit negation in its lexical semantics (“to not be behind anymore”), this is certainly not the case with the verbs in (215b).

215

a.	Ik	was die hele Bert Mulder	allang	gepasseerd/voorbijgereden.
	I	was that whole Bert Mulder	already.long	passed/driven.past
	'Iʼd long passed this Bert Mulder.'

b.	*	Ik	had die hele Bert Mulder	allang	gezien/ontmoet/begroet.
		I	had that whole Bert Mulder	already.long	seen/met/greeted

Now that we have discussed the differences between run-of-the-mill negative polarity items like ook maar iemand'anybody' and negative polar heel phrases, we can discuss the syntactic functions the latter can perform. In (206a&b), negative polar heel phrases are used, respectively, as a direct and an indirect object, and in (206c) one is used as the complement of a preposition. Under certain conditions, negative polar heel phrases may also occur as a subject. We illustrate this in (216) by means of a proper noun, which cannot be combined with heel on any of its other uses.

216

	(?)	Die hele Bert Mulder	was	door iedereen	allang	weer	vergeten.
		that whole Bert Mulder	was	by everyone	already.long	again	forgotten

Example (216) is the passive counterpart of (206d/209), so we may conclude that a DO-subject behaves more or less on a par with the direct object (the passive construction is perhaps slightly marked, but certainly acceptable). This leads us to expect that the subjects of unaccusative verbs can also appear as a negative polar heel phrase. This expectation is indeed borne out, as is shown in (217) for the unaccusative verb vertrekken'to leave' and the nom-dat verb bekoren'to please'.

217

a.	(?)	Gisteren	was	die hele Bert Mulder	nog	niet	eens	vertrokken.
		yesterday	was	that whole Bert Mulder	yet	not	even	left
		'Yesterday, this whole Bert Mulder hadnʼt even left.'

b.	(?)	Dat hele Macbeth	kan	me	echt	niet	bekoren.
		that whole Macbeth	can	me	really	not	please
		'This Macbeth cannot please me.'

However, if we are dealing with an underlying subject, as in (218), the result is clearly ungrammatical (the only exception being cases such as given in (212), in which negative polar heel is licensed by another negative polarity item).

218

	*	Die hele Bert Mulder	was	zijn wachtwoord	vergeten.
		that whole Bert Mulder	was	his password	forgotten

From the assumption that heel is a negative polarity item, the ungrammaticality of (218) follows straightforwardly: negative polarity items never occur as underlying subjects of main clauses. However, the acceptability of (216) and (217) shows again that the licensing conditions on negative polar heel phrases are different from those on negative polarity items like ook maar iemand'anyone'; in main clauses. the latter can never be used as the subject of passive constructions or of unaccusative verbs.

[+] C. The determiner preceding negative polar heel

An important interpretative property of the negative polar heel construction is that of condescension; Bert Mulder, for example, is clearly not held in great esteem by the speaker of (206d). Consistent with this is the fact that these constructions are typically used in combination with the distal demonstratives die/dat, which can themselves be used to express a negative evaluation on the part of the speaker; cf. Section 5.2.3.2, sub IID. More examples are given in (219a). The proximate demonstratives deze/dit, on the other hand, typically give rise to an awkward result in this context, and are altogether ruled out if the head noun is a proper noun, as is shown in (219b). Note, however, that (219c) shows that the negative polar heel construction is possible with the definite article, provided that the head noun is inherently evaluative.

219

a.		Ik	ken	dat	hele	mens/wijf/vrouwtje/meisje/Marietje	niet.
		I	know	that	whole	woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje	not

b.		Ik	ken	dit	hele	?mens/?wijf/??vrouwtje/??meisje/*Marietje	niet.
		I	know	this	whole	woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje	not

c.		Ik	ken	het	hele	mens/wijf/?vrouwtje/??meisje/*Marietje	niet.
		I	know	the	whole	woman/bitch/little.lady/girl/Marietje	not

The examples in (220) show that use of the indefinite article een'a' also leads to ungrammaticality. The unacceptability of these examples need not be related to the presence of negative polar heel, however, given that the direct object has been scrambled to the left of negation and we know independently that scrambling of nonspecific, indefinite noun phrases is impossible, as will also be clear from the fact that the examples in (220) are equally unacceptable without heel; cf. Section 8.1.3.

220

a.	*	Ik	had	een	(heel) mens	niet	gezien.
		I	had	a	whole person	not	seen

b.	*	Ik	ken	een	(hele) vent	niet.
		I	know	a	whole guy	not

To control for the scrambling effect with preservation of the licensing environment for the negative polar heel, the direct object would have to follow niet. However, as is discussed in Section 5.1.5, linear sequences of sentential niet and the indefinite article een are typically avoided, the determiner geen'no' being used instead, as in in (221). These examples, to the extent that they are acceptable in any context at all, certainly lack the specialized semantics of heel that we saw in the examples in (206).

221

a.	*	Ik	had	geen heel mens	gezien.
		I	had	no whole person	seen

b.	*	Ik	ken	geen hele vent.
		I	know	no whole guy

We may conclude from this that negative polar heel cannot be used in indefinite noun phrases headed by the articles een and geen, but it is still not clear whether this is due to a co-occurrence restriction between these determiners and negative polar heel, or to some other reason: we have already seen that the unacceptability of the examples in (220) is probably due to the ban on scrambling of nonspecific, indefinite noun phrases, and the unacceptability of the examples in (221) may be due to the restriction, discussed in Subsection B, that negative polar heel phrases c-command their licenser. That we are dealing with a co-occurrence restriction is, however, suggested by the fact that negative polar heel is also blocked in indefinite phrases with the determiner zoʼn'such a': the examples in (222) show that such phrases may be scrambled, whereas negative polar heel is excluded in both the base and the derived position of such phrases.

222

a.	Ik	had	<zoʼn mens>	nog nooit eerder <zoʼn mens>	gezien.
	I	had	such a person	yet never before	seen
	'Iʼve never seen such a person before.'

a'.

Ik had <zoʼn heel mens> nog nooit <zoʼn heel mens> gezien.

b.	dat ik	<zoʼn vent>	nog nooit eerder <zoʼn hele vent>	ontmoet	heb.
	that I	such a guy	yet never before	met	have
	'that Iʼve never met such a guy before.'

b'.

dat ik <zoʼn hele vent> nog nooit <zoʼn hele vent> ontmoet heb.

The primeless examples in (223), finally. show that combining the negative polarity use of heel with prenominal possessors gives rise to a marked result; grammatical possessive examples can be obtained by placing the possessor in postnominal position, as in the primed examples.

223

a.	??	Ik	had	zijn hele auto	niet	gezien.
		I	had	his whole car	not	seen

a'.		Ik	had	die hele auto van ’m	niet	gezien.
		I	had	that whole car of him	not	seen

b.	??	Ik	ken	zijn hele vader	niet.
		I	know	his whole father	not

b'.		Ik	ken	die hele vader van ’ m	niet.
		I	know	that whole father of him	not

[+] D. Comparing negative polar and quantificational heel

This subsection investigates whether the notion of totality, that is, the core meaning of post-determiner heel, is also relevant for the use of heel as a negative polar element; cf. the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, lemma heel, for an earlier discussion of this possibility. If so, examples of the type in (206) can be taken to express that the speakerʼs unfamiliarity with, indifference towards, or negative judgment about the entity denoted by the heel phrase extends to the entire entity, nothing being exempted. What may plead for such an approach is that negative polar heel cannot be combined with quantificational (pre- or post-determiner) heel. Consider the examples in (224), which are ambiguous between a quantificational and a negative polar interpretation of heel: on the latter reading niet is required, whereas on the former reading it is omissible (structurally speaking).

224

a.		Ik	ken	heel die geschiedenis	niet.
		I	know	all that history	not

b.		Ik	ken	die hele geschiedenis	niet.
		I	know	that whole history	not

When we now turn to the examples in (225) we see that the forms of heel found in (224) cannot be combined with negative polarity item heel into a single noun phrase. For the negative polarity readings of heel in (224) this is of course straightforward, but on a quantificational interpretation of pre-determiner heel in (225a) and one of the two tokens of heel in (225b) it is not immediately obvious why these examples should be ill-formed. However, if we also treat negative polarity heel as a quantificational element, this may provide an explanation for the deviance of (225) given that double quantification is normally excluded.

225

a.	*	Ik	ken	heel die hele geschiedenis	niet.
		I	know	all that whole history	not

b.	*	Ik	ken	die hele hele geschiedenis	niet.
		I	know	that whole whole history	not

There is a reason, however, that the semantics of totality associated with negative polar heel should be attributed to the verb phrase containing the heel phrase, and not to the noun phrase. Heel, though syntactically construed with the noun phrase containing it, seems semantically construed with the verb phrase, and teams up with the negation to express the notion of totality. This is clear from the fact that the function of heel in (226a) is more or less equivalent to that of the adverb helemaal in (226b). In other words, negative polar heel may scope out of its noun phrase in a way similar to the determiner geen; cf. Section 5.1.5.1, sub IA.

226

a.		Ik	ken	die hele vent	niet.
		I	know	that whole guy	not

b.		Ik	ken	die vent	helemaal	niet.
		I	know	that guy	at all	not

The particular form of helemaal used in (226b) is the one that bears no accent. There is an alternative form helemáál, with accent on the second syllable, which means “absolutely” (and alternates with volstrekt, absoluut'absolutely'), and it is interesting to note that it is only this form that can co-occur with negative polar heel; the unstressed form helemaal is incompatible with heel in its intended sense.

227

		Ik	ken	die hele vent	helemáál/*helemaal	niet.
		I	know	that whole guy	absolutely/at all	not

The complementary distribution of negative polar heel and unstressed helemaal confirms their parallel functions, and supports our earlier conclusion that heel found in examples like (226a) and (227) is interpreted as a modifier of the VP in the sense that it has scope over the VP rather than over the noun phrase including it. It is therefore not evident whether the notion of totality is related to negative polar heel itself or is of a more compositional nature.

References:

Dikken, Marcel den2002Direct and parasitic polarity item licensingJournal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics535-66
Hoeksema, Jack2007Parasitic licensing of negative polarity itemsJournal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics10163-182
Klooster, Wim1993Negatieve zinnenGramma/TTT2119-143

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Marcel den Dikken

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: Binominal ConstructionD-linkingDemonstrative PronounDistal Demonstrative PronounNegationPronounScopeScope of negative polarheelScramblingSentential NegationTopicalization

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