Floating around in the Dutch nominal domain

Abstract

In this article I investigate the internal syntax of Dutch nominal expressions like twee slangen van elk twee meter (two snakes of each two meter). The preposition van separates the quantifier elk from the expression twee slangen to which it is connected interpretatively. From a purely observational view, the quantifier could be said to be floating in the nominal domain. In this article I argue that this floating elk is an instance of so-called ‘binominal each’. So far, discussions of the binominal-each-phenomenon have concentrated on dependencies involving material in the clausal domain. In this article I show that dependencies involving binominal elk are also attested DP-internally. Syntactic issues that will be discussed in the context of the DP-internal binominal-each-phenomenon include: Constituency of the nominal expression, the nature of the DP-internal anaphoric dependency, the various manifestations of the binominal pattern, and word order rearrangements by DP-internal displacement