PowerPoint Presentation Determiners Lecture 5 Grammatical Determiners ‘Grammatical determiners’ is a concept related to function It is used to make reference to various linguistic units They all[.]
Determiners Lecture Grammatical Determiners ‘Grammatical determiners’ is a concept related to function It is used to make reference to various linguistic units They all play a part in building up the grammatical status of the noun The articles are central among these units They have no function independent of the noun These linguistic units constitute a closed system In addition to articles, this system includes the pronouns: possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, negative, distributive, quantitative, etc Personal Pronouns We call pronouns a subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence: Noun Pronoun John got a new job ~He got a new job Children should watch less television ~They should watch less television There are three personal pronouns, and each has a singular and a plural form: Person 1st 2nd 3rd Singular I you he/she/it Plural we you they Person 1st 2nd 3rd Singular me you him/her/it Plural us you them The first set of forms (I, you, he ) exemplifies the SUBJECTIVE CASE the second set (me, you, him ) exemplifies the OBJECTIVE CASE The Other Types of Pronoun Pronoun Type Members of the Subclass Example Possessive mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs The white car is mine Reflexive myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves He injured himself playing football Reciprocal each other, one another They really hate each other Relative that, which, who, whose, whom, where, The book that you gave me when was really boring Demonstrative this, that, these, those This is a new car Interrogative who, what, why, where, when, whatever What did he say to you? Indefinite anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none, no one There's something in my shoe Many of the pronouns belong to another word class - the class of determiners They are pronouns when they occur independently, without a noun following them, as in This is a new car But when a noun follows them they are determiners This car is new The class of nouns as a whole is an open class, the subclass of pronouns is closed A major difference between pronouns and nouns generally is that pronouns not take the or a/an before them Further, pronouns not take adjectives before them, except in very restricted constructions involving some indefinite pronouns (a little something, a certain someone) Possessive pronouns Possessive pronouns are marked for person, number and gender Possessive pronouns vs possessive adjectives one set is used when the head in the NP is expressed (This is my car), the other set is used when the NP has undergone ellipsis (the head is omitted: Your car is bigger than mine ) Possessive pronouns Singular Plural Subject case First person Second person Third person m Object case Subject case Object case my your mine yours our your ours yours their theirs his f her n its hers A Plural geographical names Countries and regions: the Netherlands, the United States, the Midlands Mountain ranges, groups of islands: the Rockies, the Himalayas, the Pyrenees, the Andes; the Hebrides, the Scillies, the Canaries (or the Scilly Isles, the Canary Islands) B Singular geographical names Seas: the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Pacific Rivers: the Thames, the Avon, the Danube, the Euphrates, the Nile, the Potomac Canals: the Suez Canal, the Erie Canal Certain countries: the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union C Various social institutions Cultural institutions (theatres, museums, libraries, galleries, cinemas): the Globe, the Victoria and Albert, the Bodleian, the Palladium Restaurants, clubs, hotels: the Ritz, the Sheraton D Newspapers: The Times, The Independent, The Observer, The New Haven Advocate (but zero article in names of magazines and journals: Punch, Time, Life, Language) E Ships: the Victory, the Titanic F Organizations: the United Nations, the European Union The definite article is also used with nominalized adjectives, including certain nationality adjectives Such constructions always have generic reference: the poor, the rich, the blind, the English, the Irish Note the difference between the English (generic) and the Englishmen (specific) The with longer noun groups We not normally use the with U nouns because they refer to sth in a general way However, the is required if the U noun is followed by a qualifier which relates it to a particular person, thing Example: / am interested in the education of young children The indefinite article It is used to talk about things or people in an indefinite way A or an are put in front of the sg form of a C noun Example: An old lady was calling to him The indefinite article it derives historically from the unstressed form of 'one', there are still many contexts in which this numerical function is uppermost So 'one‘ could be seen as a slightly emphatic equivalent of 'a' Example: a mile or two /one or two miles/ The indefinite article when we are mentioning s.o or sth for the first time it’s the 'unmarked' article in the sense that it is used where the conditions for the use of 'the' not obtain Unlike the definite article the indefinite article does not signal co-reference with a preceding indefinite noun phrase The indefinite article with noun phrases which not refer, but ascribe a property to the referent of the subject noun phrase or pronoun: Ian is a Scot Peter is an engineer She is a first-year student He is a bachelor If, on the other hand, the NP refers to a unique holder of an office/position, the definite article (or the zero article) is used: Peter is (the) chairman of the Board After the preposition as, however, the zero article is used: Speaking as chairman, I cannot accept this proposal The indefinite article Although we not normally use determiners with uncountable nouns, we can use a or an with an uncountable noun when it is modified or qualified Example: She had an eagerness for life The indefinite article when using one individual person or thing to make a general statement about all people or things of this type Example: A computer can only what you program it to This is not the usual way of referring to groups Normally, we would use the plural form of a noun without a determiner The zero article in NPs with sg C nouns and with specific reference if the information is contextually given rather than textually given This is the case with certain kinship terms (Mother, Father, Uncle, Granny) and with a few occupational terms (Cook, Nurse) Note the difference b/n Mother helped them (the speaker's mother) and The mother helped them (a mother previously mentioned in the text) The same use of the zero article is found with town, as in Lulu's back in town In the following cases English uses zero article corresponding to definite forms of nouns in Bulgarian abstract uncountables with generic reference: Life is a struggle; Late 19th century art became increasingly decadent; activities associated with institutions: go to church/school; go to/be in hospital/prison (AmE the hospital) (but the definite article is used with reference to the buildings: They went to the church but the door was locked so they couldn't get in); meals (Dinner is ready); certain time expressions: Spring seemed a long way away; Easter is early next year; at down, after dark, before morning came Means of transport and communication Example: travel by car,communicate by telephone Illnesses The zero article is normally used for illnesses Example: appendicitis, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia But the is often used, in a more traditional style of speech, for some well-known infection diseases Example: (the) flu, (the) measles, (the) mumps