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Referentiality of the content noun in the prepositional numeral partitive construction
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The prepositional partitive construction requires the content noun to be referential.

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The preposition must be present if the content noun is referential, in the sense of being able to refer on its own, as is the case when it is definite:

1
Drie van die jongmans
three PTCL.PTV the young.men
Three of the young men

Leaving out the preposition is ungrammatical:

2
*Drie die jongmans
three the young.men
Three of the young men

The preposition must be absent if the content noun is non-referential, as is the case when it is realised as a bare plural:

3
a. Drie jongmans
three young.men
Three young men
b. *Drie van jongmans
three PTCL.PTV young.men
Three young men
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