2017-11-06 Grammar: determiners, generic/particular

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework (optional): handout p. 265-266 exercise 8
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This week: Articles and other Determiners
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Determiners are words that can go at the beginning of a noun phrase.
- articles: a/an, the, - (zero article), (some - maybe an article, maybe a quantifier)
- quantifiers: one, seven, a few, most, a bit, a little, a great deal of, (some), ...
- possessives: my, Greg’s, the students’, [noun phrase]’s
- demonstratives: this, that, these, those
- some interrogatives: which, what, how many, how much, whose
	(“which” and “what” are like demonstratives, “how many” and “how much” are quantifiers, “whose” is a possessive)
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Articles: a/an, the, -
a/an - with singular countable nouns, nonspecific (at least one of the listener or speaker doesn’t know which one you’re talking about)
	a: use before consonant sounds (a book, a table, a university, a one-way street)
	an: use before vowel sounds (an apple, an umbrella, an onion, an hour)
the - with singular or plural, countable or uncountable, specific (both the listener and the speaker know which one(s) you’re talking about)
(zero article) - everywhere else (nonspecific plural or noncount, generic)
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Remember: many nouns have both countable and uncountable meanings
I ate a chicken for lunch yesterday. - I ate one complete chicken.
I ate chicken for lunch yesterday. - I ate some chicken (for example a few pieces on a sandwich).
	- “a chicken” = the entire animal (alive or dead)
	- “- chicken” = the meat (more generally, the material)
I would like coffee. (You want some coffee, probably in a sit-down restaurant.)
I would like a coffee. (You want one cup of coffee, probably to go.)
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Nouns can be generic (about the entire category) or particular (about real members of the category)
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People should ride bicycles more. (“bicycles” is generic - There’s no bicycle or group of bicycles you can point to and say, “Those are the bicycles the sentence is about.”)
There are many bicycles in front of the school. (“bicycles” is particular - There are particular bicycles you could point to and say, “Those are the bicycles the sentence is about.”)
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Unfortunately, any article can sometimes be used generically and sometimes particularly.
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p. 317 exercise 3 - Decide if each sentence is generic or particular
1 P (You can ask “How expensive were they?”)
2 G (You can’t ask “How expensive were they?” or “How many did you eat?”)
3 P
4 G
5 G
6 P
7 G
8 P
9 P
10 G
11 P
12 G
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Homework: exercise 4 - Try to write one generic and one particular statement with each noun.