Functions
Subject, predicate, head, modifier, complements
Categories
- Major categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
- Minor categories: determiners, prepositions, conjunctions
- Pheasant; NP, VP
Count vs. mass nouns
Count nouns:
1. Indefinite article: a friend
2. Sg/plural: friends
3. Combines with numerals: two ships
4. Combines with many, not much many ships
Mass nouns:
1. Doesn’t occur with indefinite article
2. Doesn’t take sg/plural sands
3. Doesn’t combine with numerals two sands
4. Combines with much, not many much sand
Common vs. Proper noun
Common: the book, the sugar
Proper: John, London, Hamlet
NP
- The + N forms a NP
- N is the head
- N is a lexical category
- NP is a phrasal category
- Noun is often combined with a determiner
Determiners
They belong to a closed class of grammatical words.
- Articles: a/an, the
- Empty determiners: ø
- Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
- Some wh-words: which, whose, what
- Some quantifiers: some, any, no, each, every
- Possessives: my, your, its, her, his, our, their, John’s
The empty determiner
Mass nouns and plural count nouns do not have an overt indefinite determiner. This determiner codes an indefinite or generic interpretation.
- They burned books yesterday (which is indefinite, compare with “they burned a book yesterday”).
Soup cures all problems (generic).
I want to leave today.
Don’t confuse quantifiers with…
- Pre-determiners (all, half, both)
- Adjectives (many, one, few, three)
What’s in a NP?
- Head noun
- Determiner
- Premodifier
- Post modifier
- Complement
When is a determiner obligatory?
A determiner is only obligatory with singular count nouns.
The photographs and the film footage are the only proof. We can strip the NP down to just the noun and still have a correct sentence: Photographs and footage are the only proof.
This cannot happen with: All the findings in a book. This cannot become: All the findings in book.
Plural count nouns like photographs and non-count nouns like footage do not need determiners.
Characteristics of determiners
- A determiner is only obligatory with a singular count noun (book).
- There can only appear one determiner.
- Determiners don’t like to be modified: very the, so a.
These can be used as tests to determine whether a word is a determiner or not.
Articles (def/indef.)
- There are two articles.
- Articles express (in)definiteness.
- Definite article ‘the’: expresses that the NP is familiar to the speaker and hearer.
- Indefinite article ‘a(n)’: expresses that the NP is unfamiliar to the speaker and hearer.
Wh-determiners: interrogative version of an article
Which film did you watch? What bus should I take?
Wh-determiners: interrogative version of a possessive pronoun
Whose car will you drive today?
