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TOPIC 13. THE EXPRESSION OF QUANTITY is an amount that one can measure or…
TOPIC 13. THE EXPRESSION OF QUANTITY is an amount that one can measure or count. In linguistic terms, quantity is a notion which refers to answering questions such as "How Much/Many?". For this purpose, the main formal language devices are quantifiers, partitive constructions, comparative constructions, and word classes.
2.1. PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTION: prepositional phrases to describe quantity. They denote part of a whole, are formed by a count noun + of-phrase (a bit of), and are usually used with cardinals.
- They may be expressions of precise measure (2 kilos of oranges). Units of measurement can be divided into weight, area, length and capacity; and they are used with ordinal numerals (one-third of my free time, "The fourth kilometer of the marathon was the most challenging")
REFERENCES
- Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (1988). Vocabulary and language teaching.
- Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1990). "A Student's Grammar of the English Language"
2.3. QUANTIFIERS AND NUMERALS,
According to Carter and McCarthy, are noun-modifying words that refer to quantity. They tell us how many/much.
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Quantifiers can be divided into partitives/multipliers/dual quantifiers depending on the type of quantity they refer to. In grammar, quantifiers are determiners that express a relative quantity in a noun phrase. They appear in front of nouns and function as pronouns (all have returned). A complex qualifier is a phrase (a lot of) that functions as a quantifier, adding extra info about a noun. They can be articles, adjectives, numerals and demonstratives.
- Numerals, in turn, are divided into 2 semantic classes: ordinals and cardinals.
A) QUIRK'S CLASSIFICATION : 3 classes of determiners (which come before a noun to specify its quantity or identify it. They are crucial for understanding the meaning of a noun phrase): "All the three beautiful cats are sleeping."
predeterminers also include quantifiers and fractions such as what, all/both, half
post-determiners come after the main determiner but before nouns in a noun phrase:
- Cardinal Numbers: "The three cats"
- Ordinal Numbers: "The first person"
- Quantifiers: "The many challenges"
- Adjectives: "The few remaining tickets
central determiners include articles or other words substituting and behaving similar to them (the for this/no, a for every/either/neither,zero for some/any/enough)
C) NUMERALS are used in expressions referring to quantity, including time, dates, fractions, age, percentages.
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2.2. COMPARATIVE CONSTRUCTION to show quantity are: comparing quantity using adjectives (they're more/as numerous than/as); showing big/small differences adding much/even/far/slightly with comparative adjectives (much more beautiful); showing there's no difference by means of exactly the same as, as just as
3. PLURAL NUMBER: grammatical distinction which contrasts singular/plural in (pro)nouns/determiners/verbs. It's reflected in sentences through subject/verb concord and pronominal deixis (use of pronouns to refer to entities, using language to point things in space/time).
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C) NUMBER IN PRONOUNS are pro-forms associated with noun phrases. Their referential meaning is established by grammar rules and the situational context where they occur:
- central pronouns can be personal (I), reflexive (myself) and possessives (my)
- relative and interrogative pronouns don't have number distinction (who) :red_cross:
- demonstrative pronouns indicate a deictic contrast in ⌛time or space perception as well as number diferentiation (this/these/those)
- indefinite pronouns are followed by a singular verb :silhouette:(somebody/everyone loves me)
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