NMTS-Group5

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Quantifiers (Group 5)

Comments by the NMTS team

• die Exercises Kategorie existiert 2 mal, ausgefüllt ist sie aber nur unter dem Inhaltsverzeichnis Punkt 1.2, nicht unter 2.5
• Link zu Glossary Eintrag Quantifiers, der nicht existiert
• die Bilder aus Exercises fehlen in Our pictures

Overview

Members

• AnKa
• Katharina
• Lara

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': e.g. dancing, the water we spilled on the floor, one big mess

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...

Examples

Quantifier expressions

• some
• both
• all
• everything
• nothing
• at least five
• most
• all but one
• less than half of the
• three books
• more...than
• John and Mary
• only John

Quantifiers that work with count nouns:

many / a few / several / a couple of / none of the trees

Quantifiers that work with non-count nouns:

not much / a little / a bit of / no dancing

Quantifiers that work with both count and non-count nouns:

all of the / some/ most of the / enough / a lot of trees / lots of / plenty of / a lack of trees/dancing

References and links

References

• Kearns, Kate (2000): Semantics. New York: St Martin's Press.
• 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

Our e-learning objects

Our wiki pages

in the Basic Glossary:

• Anaphora
• Paraphrase
• Prototype
• Predicate
• Quantifiers

Our pictures

• 

  AnKa

• 

  Katharina

• 

  Lara

Our exercises

The following excercises provide links to their respective solutions. The answer to the question you just worked on is shown on the very top of the new website that pops up.

Due to long loading times, it might be useful to open the links via right-click, then choose "Open in new tab". In this way you can easily go back to the excercises without loading the group page again. However, at the bottom of each solution, there is a link that leads you back here.

Depending on the size of your PC-screen or the extend you zoomed in or out of your browser, it might happen that you can see more than one answer for the excercise you worked on. In your own interest, please try not to look at or remember those, if that should be the case.

Now, have fun with some excercises on quantifiers!

Exercise 1: Restricted Quantifiers

Find the right formula for the sentence below.

Some students who heard the concert were interviewed by Holmes.

(a) [Some x: STUDENT (x)] HEAR (x, c) & INTERVIEW (h, x)

(b) [Some x: STUDENT (x) & HEAR (x, c)] INTERVIEW (h, x)

(c) Some x: STUDENT (x) & HEAR (x, c) & INTERVIEW (h, x)

(d) [Some x: STUDENT (x) & INTERVIEW (h, x)] HEAR (x,c)

Comment Sailer:
1) I like this type of exercise. In your example you should use the concert instead of both concerts, otherwise one might ask oneself where the semantics of the quantifier both is.
2) instead of saying that the noun phrase must be in the restrictor, you better say that the semantic representation of the NP appears in the restrictor.

Exercise 2: Different types of Quantifiers

1. Which type(s) of Quantifiers has the sentence below?
2. Write down the corresponding logical formula(s).

Ramon signs every sculpture he makes.

(a) existential

(b) universal

(c) restricted

Check your solution for 2.

Comment Sailer: I like this way to give the answers: the user can either click on individual answers or click on the overall answer at the end. Remark: in one answer you put "every" (in double quotes) instead of ''every'' (in two distinct single quotes). Only the latter formatting will turn into every.

Exercise 3: Scopal Ambiguity

1. In which way is the following sentence ambiguous?
2. Write down the two possible logical forms.

Comment Sailer: Use the normal arrow symbols. Here is how you write them in our wiki: http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/arrows.html

Everyone loves someone.

One Reading

Another Reading

Check your solution for 1.

Check your solution for 2.