NMTS-Group5: Difference between revisions
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Count-nouns are regarded as individual, countable items: | Count-nouns are regarded as individual, countable items: | ||
e.g. tree | e.g. tree | ||
Non-count nouns are not countable, things that we regard as 'undifferentiated mass': | |||
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Quantifiers that work with count nouns: | Quantifiers that work with count nouns: | ||
many | many / a few / several / a couple of / none of the trees | ||
a few | |||
several | |||
a couple of | |||
none of the trees | |||
e.g. dancing, the water we spilled on the floor, one big mess | e.g. dancing, the water we spilled on the floor, one big mess |
Revision as of 08:38, 30 October 2012
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Wikipage of Group 5
Overview
Members
Short description of the topic
Quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns; they indicate quantity.
There are different types of quantifiers which can be divided in quantifiers for count nouns and non-count nouns.
Comment
Count-nouns are regarded as individual, countable items: e.g. tree
Non-count nouns are not countable, things that we regard as 'undifferentiated mass':
Examples
Quantifiers that work with count nouns: many / a few / several / a couple of / none of the trees
e.g. dancing, the water we spilled on the floor, one big mess
The following quantifiers will work with non-count nouns: not much dancing a little dancing little dancing a bit of dancing a good deal of dancing a great deal of dancing no dancing
Nouns that can be either count or non-count nouns:
e.g. paper, stone, and cake
For instance, I can enter a bakery and say 'I want a cake' (an individual bakery product), or, before we enter, I can tell a friend that 'I want cake' and not refer to a specific cake but simply mean that the idea of eating cake appeals to me — any cake or piece of cake with chocolate frosting...
Quantifier expressions:
- all
- some
The following quantifiers will work with both count and non-count nouns: all of the trees/dancing some trees/dancing most of the trees/dancing enough trees/dancing a lot of trees/dancing lots of trees/dancing plenty of trees/dancing a lack of trees/dancing
References and links
References
- Definition of quantifier from the Oxford Online Dictionary
- Definition of quantifier from the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy
- http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/noun_exercise.htm
- http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/determiners/determiners.htm
Links
Our e-learning objects
Our wiki pages
- in the Glossary:
- Glossary:Anaphora: the entry for anaphora
- Glossary:Paraphrase: the entry for paraphrase
- Glossary:Prototype: the entry for prototype