Minimaliseerders en negatief gebonden of-constructies

Welschen (1999) discusses a typically Dutch complex sentence construction: its clauses are connected by the conjunction of (‘or’) and the first clause contains a negation or restriction. This construction, traditionally known as a ‘balansconstructie’ (‘balance construction’, in contrast with coordinative and subordinative constructions) is labelled ‘negatively bound of-construction’ (NoC) in this book. It is to be distinguished from other types of asymmetric of-construction, like the ultimative one (which is also known in other languages: ‘Stop or I shoot’). The four-category typology proposed by Welschen, contains a sequential type, being closely related to the ultimative construction. An analysis of the behaviour of minimalizing expressions (the Dutch equivalents of ‘not a SHRED, not an INCH’ and the like) reveals that the boundaries between the ultimative construction and the sequential NoC need to be re-drawn

Ultimatieve en negatief gebonden of-constructies

Dutch has two compound-complex sentence constructions with of, which is not the usual homonymous disjunctive connective meaning ‘or’. These constructions are characterized by irreversibility, and a specific pragmatic meaning. One of these is a negatively bound construction, characterized by negation or restriction in the first part. The other one is bound by deontic modality in the first part, and is ultimative in meaning. When the latter also contains a negation, it may be hard to keep both constructions apart. This paper deals with the distinctive characteristics of both constructions, the negatively bound and the ultimative one