Nouns,

Pronouns,
and the
Basic CHAPTER 3
Noun
Phrase
1. Concept of the basic noun phrase
2. Noun classes
3. Determiners
4. Closed-system premodifiers
5. Reference and the articles
6. Number, gender, case
7. Pronouns
 1. CONCEPT OF THE BASIC NOUN
PHRASE

Basic NP: Consisting of

pronouns and numerals, of
Functions of noun phrase (NP) nouns with articles or other
closed-system items occurring
before the head noun (such as
predeterminers)
• - Subject
• - Object
• - Complement
• - Adverbial
 2. NOUN CLASSES
• Proper nouns and common nouns
• Count nouns and non-count nouns
• Singular nouns and plural nouns
• Abstract nouns and concrete nouns
 3. DETERMINERS
• “A determiner is a word used before a noun to select which
instance of the N you are talking about or to identify it”
• 6 classes of determiners with respect to their co-
occurrence with the NP:
1) Co-occurring with 3 classes (singular, plural, non-count)
‘the’, ‘possessive: my, our…’, ‘whose’, ‘which’, ‘what’,
‘some’, ‘any’ (stressed when used with singular), ‘no’
2) with plural and non-coun N:
zero article, ‘some’, ‘any’ (unstressed), enough
3) with singular and non-count N:
‘this’, ‘that’ (demonstrative)
4) with plural N: ‘these’, ‘those’
5) with singular N:
‘a(n)’, ‘every’, ‘each’, ‘either’, ‘neither’
6) with non-count N: ‘much’
 4. CLOSED-SYSTEM PREMODIFIERS

Predeterminers Postdeterminers Quantifiers

• a. all, both, half • - Numerals (ordinal
• - singular: all, and cardinal)
half
• - plural: all, both,
half
• - non-count: all,
half
• b. double, twice,
three/four…times
• c. one-third, two-
fifths, etc
 QUANTIFIERS

• With plural count Ns: ‘many’, ‘(a) few’, ‘several’

• With non-count Ns: ‘much’, ‘(a) little’
• Phrasal quantifiers
- ‘plenty of’, ‘a lot of’, ‘lots of’ + plural and
non-count Ns
- ‘a great deal/good deal of’, ‘a large/small
quantity/amount of’ + non-count Ns
- a great/large/good number of + plural Ns
- Phrasal quantifiers providing a means of
imposing countability on non-count Ns:
+ General partitives
+ Typical partitives
+ Measures
 5. REFERENCE AND THE ARTICLES
• Reference specific
generic
• Article definite
indefinite
• Systems of article usage: two difference systems of
article use depending on the type of reference (see
4.17)
→ with definite specific reference, the definite article is
used for all noun classes.
→ with indefinite specific reference, singular count
nouns take the indefinite article a(n), while non-count
and plural count nouns take zero article or unstressed
some (any in non-assertive contexts)
 GENERIC REFERENCE
- Nationality words and adjectives as head:
2 kinds of adjectives acting as noun phrase head
with generic reference:
a. plural personal
b. singular non-personal abstract
(See 4.18)
- Non-count and plural count nouns:
→ Used with zero article when having generic
reference
→ Postmodification by an ‘of’ phrase requires the
definite article with head noun, which thus has
limited generic (partitive) reference.
→ where the reference of head noun is restricted
by premodification, zero article is used.
 SPECIFIC REFERENCE
- Definite and indefinite
- Common nouns with zero article
+ Seasons
+ Institutions (often with at, in, to…)
+ Means of transport (with by)
+ Times of the day and night (with at, by, after, before)
+ Meals
+ Illnesses
+ Parallel structures
- Article usage with common Ns in intensive relation
 ARTICLE USAGE WITH COMMON NS IN
INTENSIVE RELATION
• With indefinite reference, the indefinite article is used
- intensive complementation
- complex transitive complementation
(active V)
- complex transitive complementation (passive
V)
• Complement of turn and go has zero article
• The definite reference requires the definite article
• The zero article may be used with N complement after
Vs like appoint, declare, elect…
 UNIQUE REFERENCE
- Proper Ns: names of specific people, places, countries,
months, days, holidays, magazines, …
- Main classes of proper Ns:
• Personal names
• Calendar items (festivals, months and days of the week)
• Geographical names (continents, countries, counties,
states, cities, towns, lakes, mountains …)
• Name + common Ns
 6. NUMBER, GENDER, CASE

1. Number (see figure 4:1)

2. Gender (see figure 4:2)
3. Case
- Common/genitive case
-The forms of the genitive inflection
- Genitive meanings (see 4.70)
- The choice of genitives
- The group genitive
- The genitive with ellipsis
- Double genitive
 7. PRONOUNS
+ features
• They do not admit determiners
• They often have an objective case
• They often have person distinction
• They often have overt gender contrast
• Singular and plural forms are often not
morphologically related
+ Case
- common case subjective
objective
- genitive case
+ Person
- Personal, possessive, and reflexive
pronouns have distinction of person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
person (see table 4:1)

+ Gender
- Personal, possessive, and pronouns have
distinction of gender in 3rd person singular
between masculine, feminine, and non-personal
- Relative and interrogative pronouns and
determiners distinguish between personal and
non-personal gender
+ NUMBER (SINGULAR, PLURAL)
- The 2rd person uses a common form for singular and
plural in the personal and possessive series but has a
separate plural in the reflexive (yourself, yourselves)
- “we” inclusive (2nd + 1st)/(2nd + 3rd + 1st)
exclusive (3rd + 1st)
+ Personal pronouns
+ Reflexive pronouns
+ Reciprocal pronouns
+ Possessive pronouns
+ Relative pronouns
+ Interrogative pronouns
+ Demonstrative pronouns
+ Universal pronouns and determiners
+ Partitive pronouns
 + NON-ASSERTIVE USAGE

- Contexts requiring the “any” series or “non-

assertive” forms involve:
a) The negatives not, never, no, neither, nor;
b) The “incomplete negatives” hardly, little, few, least,
seldom, etc;
c) The “implied negatives” before; fail, prevent,
reluctant, hard, difficult, etc; and comparison with
too;
d) Questions and conditions
- Either, neither, and the negatives
+ Quantifiers