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2.2.5.3.Defining the category

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This section attempts to give a provisional definition of the picture and story nouns, which refers to the nature of the denotation of the noun and the realization of its arguments. If these definitions are near the mark, we should conclude that some nouns that at first sight seem to belong to the class of picture or story nouns actually do not belong to this category.

I. Picture nouns
II. Story nouns
III. A note on conversion

[+] I. Picture nouns

The discussion in the two preceding sections suggested that the category of picture nouns has two defining properties: (i) picture nouns denote a concrete object that is the result of a creative process and that depicts or represents some other object; (ii) both the agent and the theme can be expressed in the form of a van-PP. If this is indeed correct, this means that not all depicting nouns are picture nouns even if they do have both a creator and an object depicted. An example of such a noun is plaatje'picture'. The examples in (499) show that construal of the PP van Rembrandt or the genitive noun phrase Rembrandts as an agent gives rise to a highly questionable result; each can only be interpreted as a possessor or, if the PP van de Westertoren is left out in (499a), as a theme.

499

a.	*?	In het boek stond	een plaatje	(van de WestertorenTheme)	van RembrandtAgent.
		in the book stood	a picture	of the Westertoren	of Rembrandt
		'The book gave a picture (of the Westertoren) by Rembrandt .'

b.	*?	RembrandtsAgent	plaatje	van de WestertorenTheme
		Rembrandtʼs	picture	of the Westertoren

Something similar seems to hold for nouns like poster'poster' or affiche'poster', although the facts are less clear in this case: the examples in (500) show that simultaneously expressing the agent and the theme give rise to a degraded result; if the theme is left out, however, the agent reading of the van-PP/genitive noun phrase is readily available.

500

a.	*?	Er	hing	een poster	van Jane AvrilTheme	(*?van Toulouse-LautrecAgent).
		there	hung	a poster	of Jane Avril	of Toulouse-Lautrec
		'Hanging on the wall was a poster of Jane Avril (by Toulouse-Lautrec).'

a'.		Er	hing	een poster	van Toulouse-LautrecAgent.
		there	hung	a poster	of Toulouse-Lautrec

b.		Toulouse-LautrecsAgent	poster	(??van Jane AvrilTheme)
		Toulouse-Lautrecʼs	poster	of Jane Avril

The examples in (499) and (500) differ markedly from those in (501), in which simultaneously expressing the agent and theme is acceptable. We may therefore conclude from the definition given above that, whereas foto can be considered a picture noun, plaatje and poster resemble relational nouns; see also Section 2.2.2.

501

a.	Aan de muur	hing	een foto	van de WestertorenTheme	van Jacob OlieAgent.
	on the wall	hung	a photo	of the Westertoren	of Jacob Olie
	'On the wall hung a photo of the Westertoren by Jacob Olie.'

b.		Jacob OliesAgent	foto	van de WestertorenTheme	hing	aan de muur.
		Jacob Olieʼs	photo	of the Westertoren	hung	on the wall

[+] II. Story nouns

The discussion in the two preceding sections suggests that the category of story nouns has two defining properties: (i) they denote an object that is the result of a creative process with abstract content; (ii) the agent can be expressed in the form of a van-PP, whereas the theme takes the form of an over-PP. If this is indeed correct, this means that not all nouns denoting created objects with abstract content are story nouns, even if they do have both a creator and a subject matter. This will become clear by comparing the examples in (502). Example (502a) shows that the noun film'movie' exhibits the two defining properties of story nouns: it refers to an object with abstract content, and the agent and theme can be expressed by means of, respectively, a van- and an over-PP. In this respect, the noun film differs sharply from the noun verfilming'film version': example (502b) shows that the theme argument of the latter noun cannot appear in the form of an over-PP, and that the agent argument cannot take the form of a van-PP. In addition, (502b') shows that mention of the agent is not sufficient for felicitous reference: it is rather the theme argument that is obligatory (unless the theme is implied or the construction can be given a generic interpretation). On the basis of the definition given above, the conclusion must therefore be that the noun verfilming is not a story noun but a deverbal state-of-affairs noun; see Section 2.2.3.3 on ing-nominalizations.

502

a.	een film	van Theo van GoghAgent	over de zelfkant van de maatschappijTheme
	a film	of Theo van Gogh	about the fringe of the society
	'a film by Theo van Gogh about the fringe of society'

b.		een verfilming	van/*over de roman Karakter	door/*van Mike van Diem
		a film version	of/about the novel Karakter	by/of Mike van Diem

b'.	*?	een verfilming	door Mike van Diem
		a film version	by/of Mike van Diem

[+] III. A note on conversion

The fact that theme arguments of story nouns are introduced by the preposition over, whereas the theme arguments of picture nouns take the form of a van-PP, can sometimes lead to a reinterpretation of the head noun. Example (503), for example, is not a counterexample to the general rule that the theme of a picture noun is expressed by a van-PP, but forces a story noun reading of the picture noun schilderij'painting'; the noun phrase does not refer to an entity that only depicts a certain theme, but to an entity that, in doing so, tells a story.

503

		Picassoʼs	beroemde	schilderij	over de Spaanse burgeroorlog
		Picassoʼs	famous	painting	about the Spanish Civil War

References:

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Evelien Keizer

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: Story NounPicture NounConversion

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Evelien Keizer	December 2015

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