If I had to pick a single grammar topic to focus on for the rest of my life, I would likely choose determiners. I did not learn the term determiner until my junior year as an undergraduate when I took the linguistics class that inspired my subsequent study of all things linguistic. I have often […] More
As I have written repeatedly, the line between grammatical forms is blurry at best, especially among lexical categories like noun, verb, and adjective. Grammatical form and grammatical function distinguish one word class from other. The lines between functional categories are typically much clearer than the lines between lexical categories. As closed classes that do not […] More
The other day I read a tweet that made some claims about adverbs: “The -s in “unawares,” as in “they were caught unawares,” is completely distinct from the pluralizing -s. It’s an adverb suffix, and it’s also in “always” and “nowadays,” and in “nights,” “weekends,” etc., as in “they work nights/weekends.” #FunWithMorphology” The -s in […] More
Are the words yesterday, today, and tomorrow adverbs or nouns? Oxford Living Dictionaries identifies all three words as an adverb first and a noun second. Etymonline lists yesterday as a noun and adverb but today and tomorrow as only adverbs. Wiktionary defines today and tomorrow as adverbs first and nouns second but yesterday as a […] More
Notional grammars define adjectives as “words that describe nouns.” Big, cute, green, small, and wonky are prototypical adjectives. In big bully, The baby is cute, and I painted the wall green, each adjective describes a noun. Big describes the noun bully, cute describes the noun baby, and green describes the noun wall. However, stating that […] More
Traditional grammars categorize determiners with either adjectives or pronouns. But determiners are not adjectives. Repeat after me: Determiners are not adjectives. Notional grammars define adjectives as “words that modify nouns.” Adjectives describe attributes of nouns, pronouns, and noun phrases, functioning as noun phrase modifiers, subject complements, and object complements. Determiners provide non-attributive information such as […] More
Determiners are a closed class of words that provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number about a noun phrase or verb phrase in the form of a present participle. Determiners differ in form and function from adjectives, which describe attributes of nouns, pronouns, and noun phrases. Grammatical Forms Grammatical Forms of English Determiners […] More
Determiners are a closed class of words that provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number about a noun or noun phrase. Determiners differ in form and function from adjectives, which describe attributes of nouns and noun phrases. Determiners perform the grammatical function of determinative. In the English language, determiners are classified into seven […] More
Determiner phrase heads are words that function as the heads of determiner phrases. A determiner phrase consist of two or more determiners plus any p-words and functions as a determinative. Only one grammatical form can perform the function of determiner phrase head in the English language. The one grammatical form that can function as the […] More
Belonging to a closed class of words, determiners provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number about a noun or noun phrase. Determiners differ in form and function from adjectives, which describe attributes of nouns and noun phrases. Similar to quantifiers, numerals are counting numbers such as one, two, three, and four that provide […] More
Determiners are a closed class of words that provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number about a noun or noun phrase. Determiners differ in form and function from adjectives, which describe attributes of nouns and noun phrases. Quantifiers provide information about quantity of another word or phrase. Some of the most common English […] More
Determiners are a closed class of words that provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number about a noun or noun phrase. Determiners differ in form and function from adjectives, which describe attributes of nouns and noun phrases. Possessive interrogative determiners both (1) express possession of or some other relationship to another word or […] More