Taalportaal - the digital language portal

Dutch
Frisian
Saterfrisian
Afrikaans

Show all

6.1.1.3.Noun phrases containing a cardinal numeral

quickinfo

This section discusses noun phrases containing a cardinal numeral. Subsection I starts with a discussion of the properties of the head noun. This is followed in Subsection II by a brief discussion of determiners in noun phrases containing a cardinal numeral. Subsection III concludes with a discussion of the position of the cardinal numerals within the noun phrase.

I. The head noun
II. The determiner
III. The position of the cardinal numeral within the noun phrase

[+] I. The head noun

The examples in (19) show that the cardinal numerals, with the exception of één'one', are normally followed by a plural count noun.

a.		één	boek/*boeken
		one	book/books

c.		honderd	boeken/*boek
		a.hundred	books/book

b.		twee	boeken/*boek
		two	books/book

d.		honderd en één	boeken/*boek
		hundred and one	books/book

The generalization that cardinal numerals are normally followed by a plural noun also holds for the numeral nul'zero'; cf. Haeseryn (1997:432). The examples in (20) show that, in this respect, it differs from the negative article geen'no', which can be followed either by a plural or a singular noun.

a.		nul/geen	boeken
		zero/no	books

b.		geen/*nul	boek
		no/zero	book

Section 5.1.5.1, sub IA, argues that the fact that geen'no' can be followed by a plural or a singular noun is related to the fact that the negation expressed by geen takes sentential scope: the primed examples in (21) can be seen as the denial of the propositions expressed by the primeless examples. Observe that if there is no presupposition concerning the actual cardinality of the set of children, the (a)-example will be used.

a.	Er	loopt	een kind	op straat.
	there	walks	a child	in the street
	'There is a child walking in the street.'

a'.		Er	loopt	geen kind	op straat.
		there	walks	no child	in the.street

b.	Er	lopen	kinderen	op straat.
	there	walk	children	in the street
	'There are children walking in the street.'

b'.		Er	lopen	geen kinderen	op straat.
		there	walk	no children	in the.street

The fact that the cardinal nul'zero' is never followed by a singular noun can perhaps be accounted for if we assume that it differs from geen'no' in that it expresses constituent (and not sentential) negation. In that case, we may assign nul kinderen the meaning not (one or more children) and thus expect it to impose the same selection restriction as the complex numeral één of meer, which cannot be followed by a singular noun either. We leave it to future research to investigate whether this line of reasoning is feasible.

		één of meer	boeken/*boek
		one or more	books/book
		'one or more books.'

Although it is generally descriptively correct, there are also a number of exceptions to the general rule that cardinal numerals are followed by a plural noun. We will discuss these in the remainder of this subsection.

[+] A. Substance nouns

The primeless cases in (23) show that substance nouns may follow a numeral if they refer to conventional units of the substance denoted by the noun. One might wish to explore the possibility that these noun phrases are actually binominal constructions involving an empty noun corresponding to the container noun in the primed examples; cf. the discussion of example (60) in Section 1.2.2.1, sub III.

a.	drie	koffie
	three	coffee
	'three, e.g., cups of coffee.'

a'.	drie	koppen	koffie
	three	cups [of]	coffee
	'three cups of coffee'

b.	twee	suiker
	two	sugar
	'two, e.g., packs/lumps of sugar'

b'.	twee	klontjes/pakken	suiker
	two	lumps/packs [of]	sugar
	'two packs/lumps of sugar'

There is, however, a conspicuous difference between the primeless and primed examples, which suggests that a binominal analysis of the primeless examples in (23) is not feasible; the examples in (24) show that the two nominal constructions differ in number, the noun phrase drie koffie triggers singular agreement on the finite verb in (24a), whereas the binominal construction drie koppen koffie triggers plural agreement. Note further that the examples in (24) show that it is the number of the head noun that determines subject-verb agreement, and not the numeral.

a.		Er	staat/*?staan	drie koffie	op de tafel.
		there	stands/stand	three coffee	on the table

b.		Er	staan/*staat	drie koppen koffie	op de tafel.
		there	stand/stands	three cups [of] coffee	on the table

[+] B. Measure nouns

Another exception to the general pattern is that nouns referring to conventional measure units may appear in their singular form. The following three subsections discuss three different subcases.

[+] 1. Measure nouns in binominal construction.

A first group of measure nouns are those that may appear in a binominal construction. Example (25) shows that these nouns often have the option of appearing either in the singular or in the plural form; cf. Section 4.1.1 for additional discussion. The difference between the primeless and primed examples is that in the former, the speaker is referring to a total amount of three meters/liters/kilos of the substance denoted by the second noun, whereas in the latter case the speaker is referring to three units of the substance denoted by the second noun of one meter/liter/kilo each.

a.		drie	meter	draad
		three	meter [of]	thread

a'.		drie	meters	draad
		three	meters [of]	thread

b.		drie	liter	wijn
		three	liter [of]	wine

b'.		drie	liters	wijn
		three	liters [of]	wine

c.		drie	kilo	suiker
		three	kilo [of]	sugar

c'.		drie	kiloʼs	suiker
		three	kilos [of]	sugar

If the noun following the numeral refers to a certain quantity itself, it is preferably singular. Examples involve nouns like dozijn'dozen', gros'gross', miljoen'million', miljard'billion', etc.; see Section 6.1.1.1 for the nominal status of the latter two forms.

a.		twee	dozijn/*?dozijnen	knikkers
		two	dozen/dozens [of]	marbles

b.		twee	gros/*grossen	knikkers
		two	gross/grosses	marbles

c.		twee	miljoen/*miljoenen	knikkers
		two	million/millions	marbles

The examples in (27) show that in these cases also it is the number of the noun, and not the cardinal numeral, that triggers subject-verb agreement, which is of course related to the earlier observation that the speaker is referring to a total amount of three meters of thread in (27a), but to three threads of one meter each in (27b); cf. the discussion of (25).

a.		Er	ligt/*liggen	nog	drie meter draad	op de plank.
		there	lies/lie	still	three meter [of] thread	on the shelf

b.		Er	liggen/*ligt	nog	drie meters draad	op de plank.
		there	lie/lies	still	three meters [of] thread	on the shelf

[+] 2. Measure nouns denoting time units

The situation is somewhat more complex if the measure noun denotes a certain time interval. It seems a totally idiosyncratic matter whether a numeral can or cannot be followed by a singular noun: the nouns seconde'second', kwartier'quarter of an hour', uur'hour' and jaar'year' in (28) seems to prefer the singular form (which of course cannot be heard in the case of seconde(n)'second(s)', where the plural -n is mute in spoken language). The plural forms are marginally acceptable if the temporal noun phrases refer to discrete entities, that is, discrete time units; cf. the discussion of (31) below.

a.	Je	moet	de staaf	vier seconde/?seconden	in de vloeistof	houden.
	you	must	the bar	four second/seconds	in the liquid	keep
	'You must keep the bar in the liquid for four seconds.'

b.	Ik	zit	al	drie kwartier/??kwartieren	op je	te wachten.
	I	sit	already	three quarter/quarters	for you	to wait
	'Iʼve already been waiting for you for three quarters of an hour.'

c.	Ik	zit	al	drie uur/?uren	op je	te wachten.
	I	sit	already	three hour/hours	for you	to wait
	'Iʼve already been waiting for you for three hours.'

d.		Ik	ben	drie jaar/??jaren	weg	geweest.
		I	am	three year/years	away	been

The nouns minuut'minute', dag'day', week'week' in (29), on the other hand, clearly prefer the plural form, the singular forms yielding questionable results at best. For many speakers the same thing holds for the noun maand'month', although there are varieties of Dutch that also accept the singular form.

a.	Ik	heb	het ei	vier minuten/*minuut	gekookt.
	I	have	the egg	four minutes/minute	boiled
	'Iʼve boiled the egg for four minutes.'

b.	Ik	ben	drie dagen/*dag	weg	geweest.
	I	am	three days/day	away	been
	'Iʼve been away for three days.'

c.		Ik	ben	drie weken/*week	weg	geweest.
		I	am	three weeks/week	away	been

d.		Ik	ben	drie maanden/%maand	weg	geweest.
		I	am	three months/month	away	been

A remarkable property of the temporal noun phrases in (28) and (29) is that they always trigger singular agreement on the verb if they are used as a subject of a copular construction (which suggests that we are dealing with second-order predication). So, both (30a) with the singular noun kwartier'quarter' and (30b) with the plural noun weken'weeks' trigger singular agreement on the verb zijn'to be'. This remarkable fact can possibly be accounted for by appealing to the fact that the noun phrases refer to a singular time interval.

a.		Drie kwartier	is/*zijn	wel	erg lang	voor een lezing.
		three quarter	is/are	prt.	very long	for a talk

b.		Drie weken	is/*zijn	wel	erg lang	voor een vakantie.
		three weeks	is/are	prt.	very long	for a holiday

Note that the nouns in (28) can also appear in their plural form if the noun is modified by means of an attributive adjective. In these cases the noun phrases no longer refer to a continuous time interval; as with the nouns in the primed examples in (25), the temporal noun phrases seem to refer to discrete entities, that is, discrete time units. This also accounts for the fact that these noun phrases trigger plural agreement on the finite verb, as is shown in (31c).

a.		de	drie	beslissende	seconden/*seconde
		the	three	decisive	seconds/second

b.		de	drie	langste	uren/*uur	van mijn leven
		the	three	longest	hours/hour	of my life

c.		de	drie	gelukkigste	jaren/*jaar	van mijn leven	zijn/*is	voorbij
		the	three	happiest	years/year	of my life	are/is	past

Example (32a) shows that a numeral can also be followed by the singular noun uur in noun phrases that refer to certain times of the day. A similar function is performed by proper nouns referring to certain months in noun phrases that specify certain days of the year; note that (32b) alternates with the construction in (32b') which involves an ordinal numeral.

a.		zes	uur
		six	oʼclock

b.		elf	september	1973
		eleven	September	1973

b'.		de	elfde	september	van het jaar 1973
		the	eleventh	September	of the year 1973

[+] 3. Measure nouns denoting monetary units

If the noun refers to a certain monetary unit, like the dollar or the euro, the noun is normally singular. The same thing holds for the noun cent, which refers to the smaller unit in which prices are expressed; cf. dit boek kost vierentwintig euro en veertig cent'This book costs twenty four euros and forty cents'. Examples are given in (33).

a.		Dit boek	kost	twintig	euro/*euroʼs.
		this book	costs	twenty	euro/euros

b.		Deze pen	kost	vijftig	cent/*centen.
		this pen	costs	fifty	cent/cents

Nouns referring to certain coins or bank notes, on the other hand, are normally in the plural. Examples of these nouns are given in (34). Note that knaak in (34b) refers to coin that was in use when the guilder was still the monetary unit in the Netherlands; it seems that there are still no well-established names for the coins that are currently in use, apart, of course, from euro and cent.

a.		Dit boek	kost	twee tientjes/*tientje.
		this book	costs	two tenners/tenner

b.		Deze pen	kost	twee knaken/??knaak.
		this pen	costs	two quarters/quarter

The fact that the noun in (34a) is obligatorily plural is probably related to the fact that we are dealing with a noun derived from a numeral by means of a diminutive suffix, given that the examples in (35) show that the diminutive counterparts of the nouns in (33) also require the plural ending. Still, this cannot be the whole story given that the noun knaak in (34b) is not a diminutive form.

a.		Dit boek	kost	twintig	eurootjes/*eurootje.
		this book	costs	twenty	euros/euro

b.		Deze pen	kost	vijftig	centjes/*centje.
		this pen	costs	fifty	cents/cent

The plural forms of euro and cent can also be used provided that they refer to the actual coins. So whereas the noun phrase twintig euro in (36a) refers to a collection of banknotes and/or coins that make up a total amount of twenty euros, the noun phrase twintig euroʼs in (36b) refers to a set of one euro coins with the cardinality 20. The primed examples show that, again in these cases, it is the number on the noun, and not the cardinal numeral, that determines subject-verb agreement. This is illustrated in the primed examples.

a.		Jan heeft	nog	twintig euro	in zijn portemonnee.
		Jan has	still	twenty euro	in his wallet

a'.		Er	ligt/*liggen	twintig euro	op tafel.
		there	lies/lie	twenty euro	on the.table

b.		Jan heeft	nog	twintig euroʼs	in zijn portemonnee.
		Jan has	still	twenty euros	in his wallet

b'.		Er	liggen/*ligt	twintig euroʼs	op tafel.
		there	lie/lies	twenty euros	on the.table

[+] C. Other cases

In addition to the cases discussed above there are some more isolated cases in which the noun following the cardinal numeral is singular. Some examples are given in (37). Observe that (37b) shows that in this case the number on the noun also determines subject-verb agreement.

a.	Ik	heb	dat boek	drie keer/?keren	gelezen.
	I	have	that book	three time/times	read
	'Iʼve read that book three times.'

b.	Vier man	is genoeg	om	die tafel	op	te tillen.
	four man	is enough	in.order.to	that table	prt.	to lift
	'Four persons suffice to lift that table.'

It seems that sequences consisting of a numeral and a singular noun are normally not preceded by a determiner, unless the noun phrase is modified and/or strongly D-linked. Note that these cases differ from the ones in (37) in that they trigger plural agreement on the finite verb if the noun phrase functions as subject, as in the (b)-examples.

a.	Pff,	die drie keer	dat	hij	drugs gebruikt	heeft.
	well,	that three time	that	he	drugs used	has
	'Phff, those three times that he has used drugs.'

a'.	De drie keer	dat	ik	daar	geweest	ben,	was	het	erg stil.
	the three time	that	I	there	been	am,	was	it	very quiet
	'It was very quiet the three times that I have been there.'

b.	Die vier man	daar	zijn	genoeg	om	die tafel	op	te tillen.
	those four man	over there	are	enough	in.order.to	that table	prt.	to lift
	'Those four persons suffice to lift that table.'

b'.	De vier man,	die	de tafel	op getild	hadden,	kregen een biertje.
	the four man,	who	the table	prt.-lifted	had,	received a beer
	'The four men, who had lifted the table, were given a beer.'

[+] II. The determiner

There do not seem to be many special restrictions on the determiner preceding the cardinal numeral. As is shown in (39a-c), definite articles, demonstratives and possessive pronouns all give rise to an equally acceptable result. If the noun phrase is indefinite, as in (39d), we might postulate the empty indefinite article ∅, just as in the case of other plural indefinite noun phrases.

a.		de	vier	boeken	over taalkunde
		the	four	books	about linguistics

b.		die	vier boeken	over taalkunde
		those	four books	about linguistics

c.		mijn	vier boeken	over taalkunde
		my	four books	about linguistics

d.		∅ vier boeken	over taalkunde
		∅ four books	about linguistics

The indefinite article een'a' cannot be combined with a numeral, which is of course related to the fact that noun phrases containing this article are inherently singular: adding the numeral één'one' is therefore redundant, and adding some other numeral leads to a contradiction. In Subsection III, we will see that the complex demonstrative zoʼn'such a', which is the result of contraction of zo and een, cannot be followed by a numeral either.

	*	een	één/vier boek	over taalkunde
		a	one/four book	about linguistics

Example (41a) shows that the cardinal numeral één'one' is special in that it can never be preceded by the definite article de/het, or a demonstrative or possessive pronoun. It is, however, generally assumed that the numeral één may appear after a demonstrative pronoun if it is inflected; example (41b), taken from Haeseryn et al. (1997), clearly seems to demonstrate this. It should be noted, however, that inflected ene also appears in other environments with a more deictic meaning, in which case it is in opposition to andere'other'. The examples in (41c) illustrate this. It might therefore be premature to decide on the basis of meaning alone that ene is a cardinal numeral in (41b). Before we can do that, we should first make a comparison of the two uses of ene in (41b) and (41c). We will leave this for future research.

a.	*	het/dat/mijn	één boek
		the/that/my	one book

b.	Zelfs	dat	ene	boek	vond	hij	al	te veel.
	even	that	one	book	considered	he	already	too much
	'He already considered that one book too much.'

c.	Het/dat/mijn	ene	boek	vond	hij	erg goed,	het/dat/mijn andere	niet.
	the/that/my	one	book	considered	he	very good	the/that/my other	not
	'Of the/those/my (two) books he considered one very good, but the other not.'

[+] III. The position of the cardinal numeral within the noun phrase

As we discussed in the introduction to this chapter, numerals (and quantifiers) can be assumed to be generated in the position NUM in the structure in (42a). This predicts that numerals generally follow the determiners and precede those elements that are part of the NP-domain, that is, the head noun itself and the attributive modifiers, as in (42b). These predictions seem to be borne out; example (42c) shows that the numeral cannot precede the definite article, and example (42d) that it must precede the attributive modifiers of the head noun.

[DP D [NumP NUM [NP ... N ...]]]

b.		de	acht	gele	rozen
		the	eight	yellow	roses

acht de gele rozen

de gele acht rozen

More must be said about the order in (42d), however, since the result is acceptable if the attributive adjective is assigned contrastive accent, as in (43a). This is possible if domain D contains various bouquets, consisting of eight roses each: (43a) can then be used to distinguish the yellow bouquet from the bouquets containing roses of another color. The fact that this order of the numeral and the attributive modifier requires that the roses be part of domain D correctly predicts that this order cannot be found in indefinite noun phrases like (43a'). In (43b&b'), we give some comparable examples taken from the literature: again, the marked order requires the referents of the noun phrase to be part of domain D, so that the indefinite noun phrase in (43b') yields an infelicitous result.

a.		de	gele	acht	rozen
		the	yellow	eight	roses

b.		die	leuke	vier dochters	van hem
		those	nice	four daughters	of his

a'.

∅ gele acht rozen

b'.

∅ leuke vier dochters van hem

The ungrammatical example in (42c) cannot be saved by assigning it a special intonation pattern: cardinal numerals never precede the definite article. The same thing holds for the D-linked demonstrative and possessive pronouns in (44). Note in passing that the primed examples are acceptable if the numeral is preceded by alle'all'; this will be discussed in Section 7.1.2.2.

a.		die	drie	boeken
		those	three	books

b.		zijn	vier	dochters
		his	four	daughters

a'.

drie die boeken

b'.

vier zijn dochters

Haeseryn et al. (1997) have claimed that the non-D-linked demonstrative pronouns zoʼn and zulke behave differently. The primeless examples in (45) show that these demonstratives cannot be followed by a numeral: for (45a), this does not come as a big surprise, of course, since we saw in (40) above that the article een'a', which acts here as part of the complex determiner zoʼn'such a', cannot be combined with a cardinal numeral either; for (45b), on the other hand, no such explanation seems available. The data become even more mysterious when we consider the primed examples, which are certainly better than the primeless ones. Although some speakers of Dutch reject examples such as (45b'), the fact that these examples are considered fully acceptable by at least some speakers pose a problem for the assumption that the non-D-linked demonstratives are situated in the D-position of (42a), and suggest that they are actually lower in the nominal projection than the cardinal numerals.

a.	*	zoʼn	één	boek
		such a	one	book

a'.	Eén zoʼn boek	maakt	alles	goed.
	one such a book	makes	everything	well
	'One book like that makes everything well.'

b.	*	zulke	drie	boeken
		such	three	books

b'.	%	drie zulke boeken	maken	alles	goed
		three such a book	makes	everything	well
		'Three book like that makes everything well.'

References:

Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff

⇑ Back to top

About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis

Category: Dutch Syntax

Publication date: 22 November 2023

Keywords: AgreementAttributiveBinominal constructionDemonstrative PronounDiminutiveMeasure NounNon-D -linked Demonstrative PronounNounPluralizationPossessive PronounPronounSubject-verb AgreementWord orderWord order within noun phrasesene

report errorprintcite

Jump to:

introduction
references
related articles