- 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
Dutch has three universal quantifiers that can be used as modifiers: ieder/elk'every' and alle'all'. These quantifiers are all universal in the sense that examples such as (90) express that the set denoted by student is a subset of the set denoted by the VP een studentenkaart krijgen'to receive a student ticket'. In terms of Figure 1, this means that A - (A ∩ B) = ∅.
a. | Iedere/elke student | krijgt | een studentenkaart. | |
every student | receives | a student ticket |
b. | Alle studenten | krijgen | een studentenkaart. | |
all students | receive | a student ticket |
The quantifiers ieder and elk in (90a) are more or less free alternants, although Haeseryn et al. (1997: 350) note that some speakers have a weak tendency to use ieder for +human nouns and elk for -human nouns. These two quantifiers differ from the quantifier alle in (90b) in several respects, which we will discuss in the following subsections.
The most conspicuous difference between the two types of modifiers in (90) is that noun phrases containing ieder/elk trigger singular agreement on the verb, whereas noun phrases containing alle trigger plural agreement. This is illustrated again in (91). These examples demonstrate the difference in grammatical number in yet another way: noun phrases modified by ieder/elk can only act as the antecedent of a singular pronoun like zijn'his', whereas noun phrases modified by alle can only be the antecedent of a plural pronoun like hun'their'.
a. | Iedere/elke student | moetsg | zijn/*hun opdracht | op tijd | inleveren. | |
every student | must | his/their assignment | on time | hand.in | ||
'Every/Each student must hand in his assignment on time.' |
b. | Alle studenten | moetenpl | hun/*zijn opdracht | op tijd | inleveren. | |
all students | must | their/his assignment | on time | hand.in | ||
'All students must hand in their assignment on time.' |
This difference in number is not a purely grammatical matter, but is also reflected in the semantics. For example, verbs like zich verzamelen'to gather' or omsingelen'to surround' require their subject to be plural or at least to refer to a group of entities: such verbs may take a noun phrase modified by alle as their subject, but not a noun phrase modified by elk/ieder.
a. | Alle studenten | moeten | zich | in de hal | verzamelen. | |
all students | must | refl | in the hall | gather | ||
'All students must gather in the hall.' |
a'. | * | Elke/Iedere student | moet | zich | in de hal | verzamelen. |
every student | must | refl | in the hall | gather |
b. | Alle soldaten | omsingelden | het gebouw. | |
all soldiers | surrounded | the building |
b'. | * | Elke/Iedere soldaat | omsingelde het gebouw. |
every soldier | surrounded the building |
The reason for this contrast in acceptability is that the noun phrases modified by alle may refer to the set of entities denoted by the head noun as a whole, that is, they allow a collective reading. Noun phrases modified by elk/ieder, on the other hand, do not allow this reading, but, instead, have a distributive reading: a noun phrase like iedere/elke student expresses that the property denoted by the VP holds individually for each entity in the set denoted by the head noun student or soldaat.
The examples in (92) in the previous subsection have shown that noun phrases modified by elk/ieder have a distributive reading, whereas noun phrases modified by alle can have a collective reading. It must be pointed out, however, that alle is also compatible with a distributive reading: this is the preferred reading of example (93a), the meaning of which is more or less equivalent to that of example (93b).
a. | Alle boeken | kosten | € 25. | |
all books | cost | € 25 |
b. | Elk/Ieder boek | kost | €25. | |
every book | costs | €25 |
In other cases, noun phrases with alle are ambiguous between a collective and a distributive reading. This ambiguity can be readily illustrated by means of (94a). Under its distributive reading, this example is semantically equivalent to (94b); both sentences express then that the property of singing a song holds for each student individually, that is, the meaning of these sentences can be satisfactorily represented by means of a universal operator: ∀x (x:student) (x has sung a song). Under the collective reading of (94a), on the other hand, it is expressed that the students sang a certain song as a group, a reading unavailable for (94b). For this reading the semantic representation with a universal operator seems inappropriate: it is therefore important to note that, strictly speaking, it is somewhat misleading to use the term universal quantifier for this collective use of alle.
a. | Alle studenten | hebben | een lied | gezongen. | |
all students | have | a song | sung |
b. | Elke/iedere student | heeft | een lied | gezongen. | |
every student | has | a song | sung |
The collective reading of alle studenten can be forced by adding a modifier of the type met elkaar'together' or samen'together', as in (95a). That these modifiers force a collective reading is clear from the fact illustrated in (95b) that they are not compatible with the distributive quantifiers ieder and elk.
a. | Alle studenten | hebben | met elkaar/samen | een lied | gezongen. | |
all students | have | with each/together | a song | sung | ||
'All students sang a song together.' |
b. | * | Elke/iedere student | heeft | met elkaar/samen | een lied | gezongen. |
every student | has | with each/together | a song | sung |
The fact that noun phrases with alle are ambiguous between a collective and a distributive reading, whereas noun phrases with elk/ieder only have a distributive reading, probably also accounts for the fact that only the former can be used as predicative noun phrases. In (96a), the predicative noun phrase refers to a group of students that consist of the four girls mentioned in the subject of the clause. In (96b), on the other hand, the predicative noun phrase does not refer to a group, and hence it cannot be predicated of the subject of the clause.
a. | Die vier meisjes | zijn | alle studenten die ik heb. | |
those four girls | are | all students that I have |
b. | * | Die vier meisjes | zijn | iedere/elke student die ik heb. |
those four girls | are | every/each student that I have |
Another difference between the two types of universal quantifiers comes to the fore in noun phrases containing an ordinal numeral. An example such as (97a) is fully acceptable, and expresses that the 100th, 200th, etc. visitor will receive a present. Example (97b), on the other hand, gives rise to a virtually uninterpretable result.
a. | Iedere/elke honderdste bezoeker | krijgt | een cadeautje. | |
every/each hundredth visitor | receives | a present |
b. | *? | Alle honderdste bezoekers | krijgen | een cadeautje. |
all hundredth visitors | receive | a present |
If the noun phrase contains a cardinal numeral, the use of the quantifiers ieder and elk gives rise to a somewhat marked result: example (98a) divides the set of visitors into groups of ten persons each. Example (98b) is fully acceptable in a context where the cardinality of the set of visitors is 10; the quantifier alle then emphasizes that the property denoted by the VP een cadeautjekrijgen'to get a present' applies to all entities in this set. Generally it is assumed that the quantifier and the numeral constitute a phrase, which functions as a complex pre-determiner. The use of this pre-determiner alle + numeral is discussed more extensively in Section 7.1.2.2.
a. | ? | Iedere/elke tien bezoekers | krijgen | een cadeautje. |
every ten visitors | receive | a present |
b. | Alle | tien | (de) | bezoekers | krijgen | een cadeautje. | |
all | ten | the | visitors | get | a present |
The universal quantifiers elke/iedere and alle are not only used to quantify over a set of entities that are part of domain D, but they can also be used in generic statements, expressing a general rule which is assumed to be true in the speakerʼs conception of reality. As discussed in Section 5.1.1.5, we should distinguish the three types of generic statements in (99). Here, we will only discuss the first two types.
a. | De zebra | is gestreept. | |
the zebra | is striped |
b. | Een zebra | is gestreept. | |
a zebra | is striped |
c. | Zebraʼs | zijn gestreept. | |
zebras | are striped |
If a generic statement contains a definite noun phrase, the generic statement generally applies to (entities that belong to) a certain species. Example (100a) refers to a certain species of birds, and it is claimed that this species is extinct. In this case, the definite article cannot be replaced by the universal quantifiers alle and elke/iedere.
a. | De Dodo | is uitgestorven. | |
the Dodo | is extinct |
b. | # | Alle Dodoʼs | zijn | uitgestorven. |
all Dodos | are | extinct |
c. | * | Elke/Iedere dodo | is uitgestorven. |
every dodo | is extinct |
Note, however, that the universal quantifier alle would be acceptable in a situation in which the noun denotes a species that can be divided into several subspecies: in such a case, alle would quantify over all subspecies. The quantifiers elk/ieder would still yield an unacceptable result in such a case. The examples in (101) aim at illustrating this.
a. | De Dinosaurus | is uitgestorven. | |
the Dinosaur | is extinct |
b. | Alle Dinosaurussen | zijn uitgestorven. | |
all Dinosaurs | are extinct |
c. | * | Elke/Iedere dinosaurus | is uitgestorven. |
every dinosaur | is extinct |
If a generic statement contains an indefinite noun phrase, the generic statement generally applies to a prototypical member of the set denoted by the head noun. Example (102a) claims that the prototypical zebra is striped. In this case, the indefinite article can readily be replaced by the universal quantifier alle: example (102b) simply claims that the property of being striped holds for all zebras. The quantifiers ieder and elk can also be used in this context, but, as Haeseryn et al. (1997: 349) note, in this case the sentence has an emphatic flavor: each and every entity that is a zebra is striped.
a. | Een zebra | is gestreept. | |
a zebra | is striped |
b. | Alle zebraʼs | zijn gestreept. | |
all zebras | are striped |
c. | ? | Iedere/Elke zebra | is gestreept. |
every zebra | is striped |
The grammatical gender feature may also serve to distinguish elk/ieder and alle in that the form of the former depends on the gender of the head noun, whereas the latter is invariant. This distinction is of course related to the fact that the head noun is singular in the former case, whereas it is plural in the latter: gender agreement of a modifier and a singular head noun is very common, whereas the form of the modifier of a plural noun is generally insensitive to the gender of the noun; cf. Section 3.2, sub I.
a. | iedere/elke | man | de man | |
every/each | man |
a'. | ieder/elk | kind | het kind | |
every/each | child |
b. | alle | mannen/kinderen | |
all | men/children |
Observe that the de-nouns mens'person' and persoon'person' are exceptional in not accepting/requiring the inflectional -e ending. This is illustrated in (104).
a. | elk(*e)/ieder(*e) | mens | |
every/each | person |
b. | elk(e)/ieder(e) | persoon | |
every/each | person |
A final difference between iets/elk and alle involves non-count nouns. Since universal quantifiers typically quantify over a set of discrete entities, universal quantifiers are not expected to combine with non-count nouns. As is shown in (105a) for abstract non-count nouns, this expectation is indeed borne out for elke/ieder. The quantifier alle, on the other hand, can combine with such non-count nouns. It seems reasonable to connect this difference to the fact that only alle can give rise to a collective reading: in the case of non-count nouns, this collective reading appears in the guise of a “total quantity” reading.
a. | * | Elke/iedere | ellende | is ongewenst. |
every | misery | is unwanted |
b. | Alle ellende | is voorbij. | |
all misery | is passed | ||
'All misery has passed.' |
Of course, this does not mean that iets/elk can never be combined with a non-count noun, but if it does there will be a semantic clash between the reading of iets/elk and that of the non-count noun, and as a consequence the non-count noun will get reinterpreted as a count noun. The noun phrase containing the substance noun wijn in (106a), for example, normally refers to some contextually determined quantity of wine. In (106b), on the other hand, iets/elk trigger a count noun interpretation on this noun, which now means “type of wine”. The quantifier alle allows both the non-count and the count noun interpretation: in the former case the noun wijn appears in the singular, as in (106c), and in the latter it appears in the plural, as in (106c').
a. | De wijn | wordt | gekeurd. | |
the wine | is | sampled |
b. | Elke/iedere wijn | wordt | gekeurd. | |
every wine | is | sampled |
c. | Alle wijn | wordt | gekeurd. | |
all wine | is | sampled |
c'. | Alle wijnen | worden | gekeurd. | |
all wines | are | sampled |
If a universal quantifier is used as an argument, it will generally be realized as the +human quantified pronoun iedereen'everyone' or the -human quantified pronoun alles'everything' in (107), discussed in Section 5.2.
a. | Iedereen | ging | naar | de vergaderzaal. | |
everyone | went | to | the meeting.hall |
b. | Alles | is uitverkocht. | |
everything | is sold.out |
The quantifier alle(n) in (108) may perform the same role as the quantifiers iedereen/alles in (107): if the context provides sufficient information about the intended referent set, it is possible to use alle(n) as a pronominal quantifier instead of the full quantified noun phrases alle studenten/boeken'all students/books'.
a. | Alle studenten/Allen | gingen | naar | de vergaderzaal. | |
all students/all | went | to | the meeting.hall |
b. | Alle boeken/Alle | zijn | uitverkocht. | |
all books/all | are | sold.out |
It is also possible to use the modifiers ieder and elk as arguments, although this is considered very formal. The independent use of these quantifiers seems more or less restricted to contexts in which they are modified by means of a postnominal van-PP where the complement of van is a plural pronoun/noun phrase. In examples such as (109), there is a strong tendency to use ieder for +human referents; the tendency to restrict the use of elk to -human entities seems somewhat weaker.
a. | Ieder/?Elk van ons | weet | dat | de voorzitter | geroyeerd | is. | |
each of us | knows | that | the chairman | expelled | is | ||
'Each of us knows that the chairman is expelled.' |
b. | Elk/*?Ieder van die boeken | is een fortuin | waard. | |
each of those books | is a fortune | worth | ||
'Each of those books is worth a fortune.' |
There are, however, some idiomatic examples in which ieder is used independently without a modifier being present as in, e.g., ieder zijn deel'everyone will get his share'. Furthermore, ieder can be used independently without a modifier if it heads an indefinite noun phrase introduced by the article een; this seems impossible with elk (although some incidental cases can be found on the internet).
Een | ieder/*?elk | weet | dat | de voorzitter | geroyeerd | is. | ||
an | each | knows | that | the chairman | expelled | is | ||
'Everyone knows that the chairman is expelled.' |
Floating quantifiers are quantifiers which are associated to noun phrases occurring elsewhere in the sentence, but with which they do not form a syntactic constituent. This use, which is restricted to universal quantifiers, is illustrated in (111). In this case, too, the difference between ieder/elk and allen seems to be that the former have a distributive reading, whereas the latter has a more collective flavor: it is, however, harder to demonstrate the difference here since it is not the case that (111b) can be used to express that the students received one hundred euros as a group.
a. | De studenten | kregen | ieder/elk | honderd euro. | |
the students | got | each | hundred euro | ||
'The students got a hundred euros each.' |
b. | De studenten | kregen | allemaal/?allen | honderd euro. | |
the students | got | all | hundred euro | ||
'All the students got a hundred euros.' |
Our impression might be substantiated by means of the examples in (112). Since the predicate bij elkaar komen requires a plural/collective subject, we may account for the contrast between the two examples by appealing to the fact that the quantifiers ieder and elk force a distributive reading of the subject, whereas alle(maal) allows either a collective or a distributive reading. Recall that the use of allen is somewhat formal: in speech it is generally the form allemaal that is used.
a. | * | De studenten | kwamen | ieder/elk | bij elkaar. |
the students | came | each | together |
b. | De studenten | kwamen | allemaal/?allen | bij elkaar. | |
the students | came | all | together |
The use of floating quantifiers with -human antecedents seems somewhat more restricted than with +human ones. The use of the distributive quantifiers in (113a) seems to give rise to an especially degraded result: although elk is accepted by some speakers, ieder is categorically rejected. In (113b), allemaal is clearly preferred to alle.
a. | De vliegtuigen | worden | %elk/*ieder | gekeurd. | |
the airplanes | are | each | examined |
b. | De vliegtuigen | worden | allemaal/??alle | gekeurd. | |
the airplanes | are | all | examined |
If the antecedent is interrogative, only the floating quantifier allemaal seems possible: elk/ieder and alle(n) all give rise to a degraded result. In (114), we give examples involving a +human antecedent.
a. | *Wie/??welke studenten | kregen | er | elk/ieder | honderd euro? | |
who/which students | got | there | each | hundred euro |
b. | Wie/welke studenten | kregen | er | allemaal/*allen | honderd euro? | |
who/which students | got | there | all | hundred euro |
Here we will not go any deeper into the properties of these floating quantifiers. A more general discussion on floating quantifiers can be found in Section 7.1.4, sub III, which also includes a discussion of floating quantifiers like beide'both' and alletwee'all two'.
- 1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
- 1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff