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An ongoing change in Dutch measure noun constructions : van  aan

An ongoing change in Dutch measure noun constructions : van  aan. Jack Hoeksema University of Groningen. Dutch measure noun constructions N N: kop thee ‘cup of tea ’ N van N: golf van aanslagen ‘wave of attacks ’ N aan N: gebrek aan geld ‘ lack of money’.

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An ongoing change in Dutch measure noun constructions : van  aan

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  1. Anongoingchange in Dutch measurenounconstructions: van  aan Jack Hoeksema University of Groningen Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  2. Dutch measurenounconstructions N N: kop thee ‘cup of tea’ N van N: golf van aanslagen ‘wave of attacks’ N aan N: gebrek aan geld ‘lack of money’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  3. Not to bediscussedhere • definitepartitiveconstructions: N van de N een deel van de mannen ‘a part of the men’ • constructionswithmet: klauwen met geld ‘clawswith money = oodles of money’ • constructionswithvol: een auto vol studenten ‘a car full students = a carload of students’ • compounds: een bananentros ‘a bananabunch = a bunch of bananas’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  4. The corpus • 15000 sentences, from 1550-2010 • Classifiedformeasurenoun, secondarynoun, linking element (aan, van, met, vol) • Majority of data (10.000) from the period 1950-2010 • Examples taken frombooks, newspapers, and the Internet (especiallydbnl.org) Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  5. Measurenounswithaan • Oldestoccurrences (18th, 19th century): Amounts of money: 500 gulden aan boeken ‘500 guilders (worth) of books’ Een kapitaal aan boeken ‘a capital of books’ Een fors bedrag aan boetes ‘a largeamount of fines’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  6. Second environment Negativeamounts(as of 1700) Gebrek aan ‘lack of’ Gemis aan ‘shortage of’ Verlies aan ‘loss of’ Originally: gebrek van ‘lack of’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  7. Gebrek van / gebrek aan Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  8. Toomuch • Overdaad • Overmaat • Overschot • Overvloed After 1900: AP  N conversion • Teveel • Tekort Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  9. Overdaad, overmaat, overschot, overvloed Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  10. Noun types for AAN 1900-2010 Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  11. Makingwaves • Een golf van aanslagen ‘a wave of attacks’ Golf Stortvloed Tsunami Vloed Vloedgolf Zondvloed Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  12. Waves: golf, stortvloed, vloedgolf etc. Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  13. Waslijst ‘laundry list’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  14. Stroom ‘stream’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  15. Scala ‘variety’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  16. No change as yet • Emmer ‘bucket’ een emmer water • Stapel ‘pile’ • Groep ‘group’ • Stel ‘couple’ These are measurenounsthatonlyappear in the N Nconstruction, never in the N van N construction. Aan is thereforereplacing the constructionwithvan, not the otherones Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  17. Other cases without change • Tal van (special case) • Someidioms: tot overmaat van ramp ‘to excess of disaster = makingmattersworse’ Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  18. Status of VAN/AAN • Both prepositions are grammatical markers without inherent content • VAN is used in nominalisations to mark objects, and subjects of intransitives, in measurenounconstructions, to indicatepossession, to mark objects of relationalnouns, and the ‘made of’ relation: een hart van steen ‘a heart of stone’, een vliegtuig van papier ‘a paper plane’, and in a special pseudo-partitiveconstruction • AAN is used to mark indirect objects, in measurenounconstructions, as a marker of atelicity, and in a special pseudopartitiveconstruction Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  19. Pseudo-partitive (Hoeksema 2003) • Ik begrijp er niets van ‘I understandtherenothing of = I don’tunderstanditone bit’ • Daar deugt niets van ‘there is nothing of in order = the wholethingstinks’ • Daar deugt niets aan ‘there is nothing to in order = the wholethingstinks’ Construction is polarity-sensitive, and verbspecific: onlysomegradableverbs (transitiveorintransitive) appear in thisconstruction Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  20. Advantage of AAN • A largeclass of measurenouns is that of SHAPES: • A mountain of debts • A pile of rubbish • A sea of blood • A wave of fear VAN marks the made-ofrelation: Een berg van schedels = a mountain of skulls (a mountain made of skulls) Groningen, Tabudag 2010

  21. Advantage of AAN continued • Een berg van schulden: a mountain of debts • Metaphorical, notliterally a mountain • Important is here the ‘amount’ aspect, notsomuch the shape • AAN, lacking the ‘made-of’ use, univocallymarks the construction as amount • Berg van schedels: literalmountain, orheap • Berg aan schulden: largeamount of debt Groningen, Tabudag 2010

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