Download Determiners and Qualifiers

Lecture 7
English 3318: Studies in English Grammar
Structure-class Words
Determiners, Qualifiers
Dr. Svetlana Nuernberg
Objectives
●
●
●
●
Determiners
Qualifiers
Relatives
Interrogatives
Determiners
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It is a structure word that
–
–
●
precedes and modifies a noun (the prototypical members articles a/an and the)
can substitute for a/an or the
They differ from adjectives is several important ways:
–
–
–
–
don't occur with any of the adjective-forming derivational
suffixes, like -able and -ly
don't have comparative or superlative forms: tall-tallertalest, *this-thiser-thisest
do not fit in both slots of the adjective test frame sentence:
The____man seems very____.
always precede any adjective or noun modifiers of noun, as
does the in “the expensive car stereo”
Main Groups of Determiners
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Articles
–
●
Demonstratives
–
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some, any, no, every, other, another, many, more,
most, enough, few, less, much, either, neither, several,
all, both, each
Cardinal Numbers
–
●
my, our, your, his, her, its, their
Indefinites
–
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this, these, that, those
Possessives
–
●
a/an, the
one, two, three, four, ......
Ordinal Numbers
–
first, second, third, ..... last
Articles
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The – is called a definite article and a/an the
indefinite
–
–
the contrast between is related to knowledge about the
noun that speaker/writer shares with the hearer/reader
when the is used - it is known specifically what is
being talked about – could be replaced with this/that
●
●
–
when a/an is used – such knowledge is not assumed –
could be replaced with some/any
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●
–
Please wash the car. Please wash this car
Did you see the dog? Did you see that dog?
Please wash a car. Please wash any car
Did you see a dog? Did you see some dog?
without determiners, cars and dogs refer to any or all
cars and dogs, but no specific ones
Count/Noncount Nouns & Determiners
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Noncount nouns
–
–
–
can occur with the definite article – the
can occur without any article
cannot occur with the indefinite article a/an
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●
●
Singular, proper count nouns
–
usually occur without a determiner
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●
The sand got in my shoe. Sand got in my shoe.
*A sand got in my shoe.
Peter went to Seattle. - *The Peter went to the Seattle.
Single common count noun
–
cannot stand alone, it must be preceded by an article or
another determiner
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A train passes this way regularly. vs *Trains pass this way
regularly.
Many and Few vs Much and Little
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The indefinites many and few occur with count
nouns
–
–
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The indefinites much and little occur with
noncount nouns
–
–
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The children gathered many stones
Few trains pass this way anymore
These solar panels generate much electricity
Little milk was left in the carton
Usually only one determiner proceeds a noun
–
some appear in combination with others
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●
half the Belgian chocolate
all those dirty windows
the first two successful tries
both my English classes
Determiners as Pronouns
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Demonstratives, indefinites, and cardinal numbers
can function either as determiners modifying
nouns or as nominal substitutes for nouns
(pronouns)
–
–
–
–
●
Have you seen these new shoe styles?
Have you seen these?
This house will be yours someday.
This will be yours some day.
Possessives can also serve either as determiners or
pronouns (some have two forms)
–
–
–
Is that her convertible? Is that Kate's convertible?
(determiners)
Is that hers? (pronoun) Is that Kate's (noun)
Possessives
First Person
singular
plural
Second Person
singular
plural
Third Person
singular
masculine
feminine
neutral
Determiner Function
Nominal Function
my
our
mine
ours
your
your
yours
yours
his
her
its
his
hers
its
Diagrams and Trees
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Sentence diagrams and phrase structure trees help
to clarify visually the relationship between
determiners and the nouns they modify
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In Reed-Kellogg Diagram
modifies appear on lines slanted away from the headword
they modify
● headwords are placed on horizontal lines
__car__
___cars______
____cars__________
a
all
the
the
last
two
●
Phrase structure trees or phrase markers – visually
represent the way words are grouped into phrases to
create sentences
Phrase Structure Trees
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Phrase structure rules (PS rules) say that the item
on the left-hand side of the equals sign consists of
the items on the right, and the rules give the order
in which items occur
–
A noun and its determiner is considered a noun phrase
(NP) NP = (Determiner) + Noun
NP
NP
Determiner
Noun
a
car
●
Determiner
all
the
Noun
cars
the lack of parentheses around noun means that noun or a
noun substitute must be present in order for the structure to
be qualified as a noun phrase
Qualifiers
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Many words can act as qualifiers or intensifiers
–
can be used with positive form of most adjectives (good, soft)
and with adverbs of manner (rapidly)
●
–
can be used with the comparative degree of adjectives (better,
nicer) and with comparative adverbs (sooner, nearer, farther)
●
–
right now, wide awake, just so, just about there, almost there
used in the colloquial expressions
●
–
still, some, no, even, much
have a limited distribution
●
–
very, really, fairly, quite, pretty, mighty, rather, awfully, too
right nice, damn sure, darn right, real pretty
Some of the adverbs of manner, the -ly adverbs, are
themselves used as qualifiers with certain adjectives
●
dangerously close, particularly harmful, absolutely true, politically
expedient, technically possible, especially difficult
Summary
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In their relationship to the form-classes, qualifiers
are different from the determiners and auxiliaries
in that they are optional
–
–
adjectives and adverbs they modify can appear without
them
nouns and verbs face different situation
●
●
●
many nouns cannot appear without a determiner
two of the verb forms – the -en and -ing forms – require
auxiliaries to function as the main verb
Like other structure word qualifiers signal the
form classes
–
they provide a useful test to differentiate adjectives and
adverbs from other parts of speech