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7.2.2.2.2.Quantificational heel

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

I. Quantificational inflectible heel and noun phrase types
II. Restrictions on accompanying determiners and quantificational elements

[+] I. Quantificational inflectible heel and noun phrase types

Table 14 shows that quantificational heel can be placed to the right of a determiner in neuter and non-neuter singular count noun phrases. It is difficult, however, to add quantificational heel to the right of a determiner in plural noun phrases.

Table 14: Post-determiner +Q heel in noun phrases headed by definite count nouns

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

The grammaticality judgments on the plural noun phrases seem determined by the semantics of heel. Section 7.2.1.2.2 has shown that post-determiner heel has a variety of quantificational interpretations; totality, degree and negative polarity are the three main instantiations. The core quantificational semantics of totality is the most salient component of the interpretation of singular examples. In the plural examples, on the other hand, the totality reading is unavailable, or at least very hard to get, which accounts for the unacceptability of most of these cases. The plural examples involving the distal demonstrative die (and perhaps to a lesser degree also those with the proximate demonstrative deze) are reasonably felicitous due to the fact that they allow a negative polarity reading. Degree interpretations are typically reserved for determiner-less plurals like (250).

250

		∅ Hele steden/huizen	werden	verwoest.
		∅ entire towns	were	destroyed

Since pluralia tantum and group-denoting plurals preceded by the definite article refer to a unit, they are eligible for a totality interpretation of hele, in contrast to the regular plurals in Table 14.

251

a.		de	hele	hersenen
		the	whole	brains

c.		de	hele	Verenigde Staten
		the	whole	United States

b.		de	hele	tropen
		the	whole	tropics

d.		de	hele	Antillen
		the	whole	Antilles

Quantificational hele can also be construed with abstract non-count nouns, although adding hele to a substance noun is difficult if at all possible: in Table 15, we only show this for -neuter nouns. Adding post-determiner heel to noun phrases headed by mass nouns gives rise to a degraded result. Post-determiner heel matches pre-determiner bare heel perfectly in this regard. Note that the examples with the distal demonstratives die/dat are perfectly acceptable on a negative polarity reading.

Table 15: Post-determiner +Q heel in noun phrases headed by a non-count noun

	substance nouns	abstract nouns	mass nouns
definite articles	*de hele wijn the whole wine	de hele ellende the whole misery	??het hele vee the whole cattle
demonstrative pronouns	*die hele wijn that whole wine	die hele ellende that whole misery	??dat hele vee that whole cattle
	*deze hele wijn this whole wine	deze hele ellende this whole misery	??dit hele vee this whole cattle
possessive pronouns	*mijn hele wijn my whole wine	zijn hele ellende his whole misery	??mijn hele vee my whole cattle

The parallel between hele and heel extends further. The examples in (252) show that, as in the case of bare pre-determiner heel in (229), contexts in which wijn and water are conceived of units/bodies of liquid are at least marginally possible; example (252b) is again taken from the internet. Furthermore, as in the case of pre-determiner heel in (230), examples such as (253c) are well-formed. The totality semantics of post-determiner heel is responsible for this contrast; the discussion in Section 7.2.2.1, sub I, therefore largely carries over to the present examples.

252

a.	?	De hele rode wijn	is op.
		the whole red wine	is up
		'The red wine is completely finished.'

b.	Verspreid	het voer	zoveel mogelijk	over het hele water.
	scatter	the feed	as.much.as possible	over the whole water
	'Scatter the feed as much as possible across the water.'

253

a.	??	Het hele vee van boer Harms	leed	aan BSE.
		the whole cattle of farmer Harms	suffered	from BSE

b.	??	Het hele fruit in de krat	was beschimmeld.
		the whole fruit in the crate	was moldy

c.		Het hele verkeer	stond	vast.
		the whole traffic	stood	fast [≈ was jammed]

Post-determiner heel is also possible with deverbal bare stem nouns, just like pre-determiner heel in Table 12. The examples involving nominal infinitives and ge-nominalizations are perhaps somewhat better than in the case of pre-determiner heel, but still distinctly odd.

Table 16: Post-determiner +Q heel in noun phrases headed by a deverbal noun

	bare stem	nominal infinitive	ge-nominalization
definite articles	het hele werk the whole work	*?het hele werken the whole working	*?het hele gewerk the whole working
demonstrative pronouns	dat hele werk that whole work	??dat hele werken that whole working	??dat hele gewerk that whole working
	dit hele werk this whole work	??dit hele werken this whole working	??dit hele gewerk this whole working
possessive pronouns	mijn hele werk this whole work	??mijn hele werken this whole working	??mijn hele gewerk this whole working

It should be noted, however, that hele felicitously combines with a nominal infinitive in the idiom in (254a). That we are dealing with a nominal infinitive here is evident from the fact that eten takes an NP-complement to its left; see Section 2.2.3.2 for the structure of such nominal infinitives. As is shown in (254b), the ge-nominalization gedoe'fuss' can also be preceded by hele.

254

a.	Dat	is	het hele eieren	eten.
	that	is	the whole eggs	eat
	'That is all there is to it.'

b.	Ik	ben	het/dat	hele gedoe	zat.
	I	am	the/that	whole fuss	fed.up
	'Iʼm fed up with the/that whole fuss.'

The extent to which deverbal nouns like -neuter aankomst'arrival' and aanvang'beginning' or +neuter begin'beginning' and vertrek'departure' are compatible with post-determiner heel depends on the interpretation of the nominalization; the examples in (255) have more or less the same status as examples with pre-determiner bare heel in (232), and the discussion of the latter examples in Section 7.2.2.1, sub I, carries over seamlessly to the present examples with post-determiner heel.

255

a.	#	de	hele	aankomst/aanvang
		the	whole	arrival/beginning

a'.		de	hele	aankomst	van Sinterklaas
		the	whole	arrival	of Santa Claus

b.	#	het hele	begin/vertrek
		the whole	beginning/departure

b'.		het	hele begin	van de film
		the	whole beginning	of the movie

The primeless examples in (255) are marked with a number sign because, although they are unacceptable on the intended quantificational reading of totality, they are possible with a negative polarity interpretation. This reading is brought to the fore by the context given in (256).

256

Toen	ging	ineens	de hele aankomst/het hele vertrek	niet	door.
then	went	suddenly	the whole arrival/the whole departure	not	through
'Then all of a sudden the whole arrival/departure was cancelled.'

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

This subsection investigates the restrictions that heel poses on the presence of determiners and quantificational elements. The internal syntax of noun phrases is not affected by the presence of post-determiner inflectible heel: whereas Section 7.2.2.1, sub II, found that the extent to which noun phrases are fit to be quantified by pre-determiner bare heel is in part determined by the presence or absence of attributive modifiers of the head noun, there are no such interrelations between inflectible heel and attributive adjectives. Post-determiner heel readily combines with noun phrases containing attributively used adjectives.

257

a.		die	<hele>	boze/prachtige <*hele>	wereld
		that	whole	angry/beautiful	world

b.		de	<hele>	lekkere <hele>	taart
		the	whole	nice	cake

Example (257a) illustrates that heel surfaces to the left of the attributive adjective on its quantificational interpretations (totality, degree or negative polarity). On its purely adjectival reading in (257b), on the other hand, heel can be placed on either side of attributive adjectives, the choice depending on contextualization; see Section A5.5, sub III for the relative ordering of stacked adjectives. Note in passing that in (257b) hele can also be interpreted as an intensifier of the adjective lekkere if it precedes it.

[+] A. Determiners

Table 14 has shown that the distribution of post-determiner quantificational heel is tightly connected to the nature of the definite determiner that heads the noun phrase in which heel occurs. Here, we repeat the main findings. First, the determiners of the singular noun phrases in Table 14 deliver a totality reading of heel. Second, the determiners of the plural noun phrases obstruct a totality reading of heel, and, as a result, plural examples such as de hele steden are not well-formed. Finally, the distal demonstrative die'that/those' can give rise to a negative polarity interpretation of post-determiner heel, which accounts for the fact that the plural noun phrase die hele steden is more or less well-formed.
The distal and proximate demonstratives can receive contrastive accent in the presence of post-determiner heel, as illustrated by (258). backward conjunction reduction and NP-ellipsis are possible in these examples, but only if hele is stripped along with the rest of the noun phrase; leaving hele behind in these examples is very marginal in the conjunction-reduction cases and quite impossible in the NP-ellipsis ones. In this regard, post-determiner hele behaves like beide, as discussed in Section 7.1.2.2, sub IB.

258

ken

wel

deze hele stad,

maar

niet

die hele stad.

a'.

ken

wel

deze (??hele) ∅,

maar

niet

die hele stad.

BCR

a''.		Ik	ken	wel	deze hele stad,	maar	niet	die (*hele) ∅.	NP-ellipsis
		I	know	aff	this whole town	but	not	that whole town

ken

wel

dit hele huis,

maar

niet

dat hele huis.

b'.

ken

wel

dit (??hele) ∅,

maar

niet

dat hele huis.

BCR

b''.		Ik	ken	wel	dit hele huis,	maar	niet	dat (*hele) ∅.	NP-ellipsis
		I	know	aff	this whole house	but	not	that whole house

In singular noun phrases, post-determiner inflectible heel readily follows possessives of all kinds, pronominal, genitive and semi-genitival possessives alike. In all examples in (259), heel has the quantificational semantics of totality; no degree or negative polarity readings are available for heel embedded in possessed noun phrases.

259

a.		mijn	hele	vermogen/bezit
		my	whole	fortune/estate

b.		mijn vaders	hele	vermogen/bezit
		my fatherʼs	whole	fortune/estate

c.		mijn vader	zʼn	hele	vermogen/bezit
		my father	his	whole	fortune/estate

Table 17 shows that post-determiner heel may also occur in indefinite singular noun phrases, provided that a determiner is present: the ungrammaticality of the determiner-less examples indicates that, unlike quantifiers like elk'every' or ieder'each' (cf. Section 6.2), heel cannot perform the role of a determiner or determiner-substitute of singular noun phrases. Table 17 also shows that heel inflects with schwa depending on the gender of the head noun, just like attributive adjectives in noun phrases with the singular, indefinite article een (cf. Section 3.2, sub I); neuter head nouns feature heel, non-neuter ones hele.

Table 17: Post-determiner +Q heel in noun phrases headed by indefinite count nouns

	count nouns		non-count nouns
	[-neuter]	[+neuter]	[-neuter]	[+neuter]
indefinite article een	een hele stad a whole town	een heel huis a whole house	een hele ellende a whole misery	een heel verdriet a whole sorrow
indefinite article ∅	*∅ hele stad ∅ whole town	*∅ heel huis ∅ whole house	*∅ hele ellende ∅ whole misery	*∅ heel verdriet ∅ whole sorrow

Although the non-count and count nouns examples are syntactically similar, they are semantically distinct. With the count nouns, post-determiner heel contributes a totality interpretation whereas with the non-count nouns heel receives a degree reading; an example such as een hele ellende is best rendered as quite a misery. Finally, note that post-determiner heel is excluded in plural noun phrases containing exclamatives of the type een (*hele) boeken dat hij heeft!

[+] B. Indefinite determiner-like elements

The examples in (260a&b) show that post-determiner heel can follow not only the indefinite article een but also indefinite determiners like zoʼn'such a' in (260), where heel receives a totality interpretation. Note that (260c) is ungrammatical; hele apparently cannot express a “quite” degree if it is preceded by zoʼn.

260

a.		zoʼn	hele	stad
		such a	whole	town

b.		zoʼn	heel	dorp
		such a	whole	village

c.	*	zoʼn	hele	ellende
		such a	whole	misery

It is impossible for post-determiner heel to combine with een dergelijk(e)'such a' with heel standing to the left of dergelijk(e). With heel to the right of dergelijk(e) the result is grammatical, but only on the adjectival reading “whole, intact”. Since this reading is not compatible with the nouns stad and ellende, the examples in (261c&d) are degraded under all readings.

261

a.		een	<*hele>	dergelijke <#hele>	taart
		a	whole	such	cake

b.		een	<*hele>	dergelijke <#hele>	appel
		a	whole	such	apple

c.	*	een	<hele>	dergelijke <hele>	stad
		a	whole	such	town

d.	*	een	<hele>	dergelijke <hele>	ellende
		a	whole	such	misery

The examples in (262) also show that inflectible heel cannot precede the indefinite determiner-like elements dat/dit/zulk soort and zulke/dergelijke/van die'such' either. The unacceptability of the examples in (262a&b) on the intended reading is, of course, not surprising given that quantificational heel normally cannot be used in plural noun phrases; these examples allow only adjectival heel. The unacceptability of (262c&d) with heel shows, however, that the indefinite determiner-like elements under discussion are not compatible with quantificational heel; the adjectival interpretation of post-determiner is also excluded due to the previously mentioned incompatibility of the meaning of adjectival heel and the noun ellende.

262

a.		<*hele>	dat/dit/zulk soort <#hele>	taarten
		whole	that/this/such sort	cakes

b.		<*hele>	zulke/dergelijke/van die <#hele>	taarten
		whole	such	cakes

c.		<*hele>	dat/dit/zulk soort <*hele>	ellende
		whole	that/this/such sort whole	misery

d.		<*hele>	zulke/dergelijke/van die	<*hele>	ellende
		whole	such	whole	misery

[+] C. Quantifiers and numerals

It seems that post-determiner inflectible heel cannot be combined with other quantifiers on its quantificational reading. It is possible for heel to follow the quantifiers enige and sommige, but then it will be construed as purely adjectival, meaning “whole, intact”. The same thing holds if heel follows the quantifiers veel and weinig.

263

a.		enige/sommige	(#hele)	appels
		some	whole	apples

a'.		veel/weinig	(#hele)	appels
		many/few	whole	apples

b.	*	enige/sommige	(hele)	ellende
		some	whole	misery

b'.		veel/weinig	(*hele)	ellende
		much/little	whole	misery

Of course, three of the four examples in (263) are excluded for independent reasons: the (a)-examples are excluded because quantificational heel normally cannot be used in plural noun phrases, and (263b) is excluded because enige and sommige must be followed by a count noun. This leaves (263b') as evidence for the claim that quantificational heel cannot be combined with other quantifiers. However, this claim is also supported by the fact that the syntactically singular noun phrases in (264) give rise to a degraded result on the intended reading: these examples are only acceptable with a purely adjectival interpretation of heel.

264

a.		elke/iedere	(#hele)	appel
		every	whole	apple

b.		elk/ieder	(#heel)	huis
		every	whole	house

c.		elke/iedere	(#hele)	stad
		every	whole	town

Quantificational post-determiner heel is not compatible with attributively used quantifiers either; example (265a), in which heel occurs to the right of the quantifiers in question, is only acceptable on the adjectival reading of heel; the noun lijden in (265b) does not readily allow the adjectival reading, and its unacceptability therefore shows that a totality reading is unavailable in such cases. The examples in (266) show that a negative polarity reading for heel is also impossible in this context. For completeness’ sake, note that (265b) and (266a) do allow an interpretation in which hele vele is construed as a phrase meaning “very much/many”.

265

a.		die	<*hele>	vele/weinige/twee <hele>	appels
		those	whole	many/few/two	apples

b.	*	het	<hele>	vele/weinige <hele>	lijden	dat zij gedragen heeft
		the	whole	much/little	suffering	that she borne has

266

a.	*	Ik	ken	die	<hele>	vele/weinige/twee <hele>	mensen	niet.
		I	know	those	whole	many/few/two	people	not

b.	*	Ik	ken	die	<hele>	ene <hele>	vent	niet.
		I	know	that	whole	one	guy	not

[+] D. Personal pronouns and proper nouns

Like bare heel, inflectible heel is unable to combine with pronouns, regardless of whether it is placed to their left or their right; Example (267) only illustrates this for the former case. Apparent exceptions are cases such as mijn hele ik'my whole self' where the proper noun ik'I' is used as a common noun.

267

		singular	plural
1st person		*hele ik/me/mij	*hele wij/ons
2nd person	regular	*hele jij/je/jou	*hele jullie
	polite	*hele u
3rd person	masculine	*hele hij/’m/hem	*hele zij/hen/hun
	feminine	*hele zij/’r/haar
	neuter	*hele het/’t

Generally speaking, inflectible heel cannot be combined with proper nouns either. However, if the proper noun is modified, as in (268a'), and can hence be preceded by a determiner, inflectible heel becomes possible. Heel as a negative polarity item contributing condescension on the part of the speaker, as in (268b'), is possible also; in that case the distal demonstrative die is also present.

268

a.	*	hele	Europa
		whole	Europe

a'.		het (hele) Europa	*(van voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog)
		the whole Europe	from before the Second World War

b.	*	hele	Jan
		whole	Jan

b'.		Ik	ken	die hele Jan	niet.
		I	know	that whole Jan	not

Another exception involves proper nouns preceded by a definite determiner. Some examples are given in (269).

269

a.	Ik	ben	de hele Antillen	doorgereisd.
	I	am	the whole Antilles	traveled.through
	'Iʼve traveled through all the Antilles.'

b.	Ze	hebben	de hele Westertoren	gerestaureerd.
	they	have	the complete Westertoren	restored
	'They have restored the complete Westertoren.'

References:

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Marcel den Dikken

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: ConjunctionConjunction ReductionDemonstrative PronounDistal Demonstrative PronounN-EllipsisNegativeNegative PolarityNounNP-EllipsisPossessive PronounPronounProper NounProximate Demonstrative PronounSemi-genitival construction

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