The Partitive Pronoun ER in Two National Varieties of Standard Dutch

Abstract

The Dutch partitive pronoun ER in general occurs in combination with an elliptical noun phrase in object position. According to the Dutch Reference Grammar, partitive ER in general occurs with a quantifier in this case. The Dutch Reference Grammar observes that there is natiolectal variation with respect to the use of partitive ER, focusing on the national varieties of Dutch used in the Netherlands and in Belgium. In this paper, the acceptance of the use or omission of ER in different types of NPs by native speakers of the Netherlandic and the Belgian variety of Dutch is compared. It is shown that differences between the varieties go beyond those described by the Dutch Reference Grammar.