Bare predicate nominals in Dutch

Abstract

Bare predicate nominals (BPNs) have interesting syntactic and semantic properties that set them aside from full nominals in predicative constructions. In Dutch the differences between BPNs and other nominals are especially visible in the syntax-semantics interface. This paper analyzes Dutch BPNs by making a syntactic distinction between NPs and NumPs/DPs, and a correlating semantic distinction between two ways of relating kinds to individuals realizing them. Whereas the general Carlsonian realization operator relates a kind to all the individuals realizing it, we propose an alternative, more restricted, capacity operator, which only maps a kind to the individuals that realize it in a particular ‘capacity’ (profession, nationality, religion etc.) of the individual. We study the implications of these two modes of realization in conjunction with the different syntactic layers within the DP.