1. NOUN PHRASE *descriptive grammar

2. ‘BASIC’ NOUN PHRASE - the classes of nouns together with articles or other closed-class determinative elements that can occur before the noun head, including predeterminers like all, central determiners like these, and postdeterminers like last and fewall these last few days

3. NOUN PHRASE subject object complement of clauses and complement of prepositions

4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The girlThe blonde girlThe blonde girl in blue jeansThe blonde girl wearingblue jeansThe blonde girl whoiswearingblue jeansShe ismysister.

5. definite article &noun premodifyingadjective [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] prepositional phrase postmodification nonfinite clause relative clause personalpronoun

6. Personal pronouns can ‘deputize’ for noun phrases and hence cannot normally occur with determiners such as the definite article, premodification, or (normally) postmodofication: *the blonde she ?she in blue jeans

7. NOUN CLASSES Count Nouns Countable Nouns Noncount Nouns Mass Nouns / Uncountable Nouns Proper Nouns

8. Degree of Variation Between the Noun Classes I saw. . . (1) (2) (3) (2+3) Sid *book furniture brick *the Sid the book the furniture the brick *a Sid a book *a furniture a brick *some Sid *some book somefurnituresome brick *Sids books *furnitures bricks

9. Degree of Variation Between the Noun Classes w/out anydeterminer w/ the lightlystresseddeterminers (1) (2) (3) (2+3) Sid *book furniture brick *the Sid the book the furniturethe brick *a Sid a book *afurniturea brick *some Sid *some book somefurnituresome brick *Sids books *furnitures bricks plural

10. Degree of Variation Between the Noun Classes withonly 1 possibility with all possibilities (1) (2) (3) (2+3) Sid *book furniture brick *the Sid the book the furniture the brick *a Sid a book *a furniture a brick *some Sid *some book somefurnituresome brick *Sids books *furnitures bricks Proper Noun Common Nouns

11. Column 2  book COUNT NOUNS individual countable entitiesNOT undiffrentiated mass EXAMPLES: bottle, chair, forest, idea

12. Column 3  furniture NONCOUNT NOUNS undiffrentiated mass or continuum EXAMPLES: bread, grass, warmth, music

13. Column 2+3 - either count nouns or noncount nouns May be classified grammatically in two ways: 1. Lexical class of noun w/c combines the characteristics of count and noncount nouns 2. Two separate items, one count and other noncount - such nouns will said to have ‘dual class membership’

14. The house isbuilt of brick. noncountmaterialHe usedbricks to build the house.countableobject

15. I likemusic. I like Sid. the twonouns look superficiallyalike in terms of article usagemusic – ZERO ARTICLE Sid – NO ARTICLE

16. the label ‘zero ’ isappropriate in the case of commonnounswhich have article contrast (eg: music as opposed to the music) in: I likemusic and dancing.I thinkthe music istooloud in here.

17. CONCRETE and ABSTRACT NOUNS concrete: count bun, pig, toy,… common abstract: difficulty, remark… concrete: noncount butter, gold,… nouns abstract: music, homework,… proper: John, Paris, …

23. NOUNS WITH ‘DUAL CLASS MEMBERSHIP’ “The justification for the count/noncount distinction is based on the grammatical characteristics of the English noun.”

24. RECLASSIFICATION “Nouns may also be shifted from one class to another by means of conversion.”

25. RECLASSIFICATION [1] [1a] [1b] [1c] [1d] Do youwanttea or coffee?Can I have a coffee, please. [‘a cup of coffee’]Twocoffees, please. [twocups of coffee’]This isa nice coffee.I likeBraziliancoffeesbest.

26. RECLASSIFICATION [1] normallynoncount [1a] canbereclassified as a count noun[1b]to mean an ‘appropriate unit of’ [1c] canbereclassified as a count noun[1d]to mean a ‘kind/sort/brand of’

29. QUALITY PARTITION “Quality partition of noncount nouns may thus be expressed either by a partitive construction or by reclassification.” A nice kind of coffee – a nice coffee English types of cheese – English cheeses

30. QUALITY PARTITION Whether we are dealing with count or noncount nouns, we can express the quality partition in the form: a + adjective + noun We are importing a new Italian shirt.

31. GENERAL PARTITIVE NOUNS 1.Noncount nouns a. General Partitive Nouns - the expression of quantity and thus countability (piece, bit, item) b. Typical Partitives - the expression with specific concrete noncount nouns

32. GENERAL PARTITIVE NOUNS SINGULAR PARTITIVES PLURAL PARTITIVES apiece of cake two pieces of cake abit of chalk some bits of chalk an item of news several items of news

33. QUANTITY PARTITION “Quantity of noncount nouns may thus often be expressed either by partitive nouns or by reclassification.” two lumps of sugar = two sugars

34. GENERAL PARTITIVE NOUNS The most widely used partitive expression is a piece of, which can be combined with both concrete and abstract nouns, eg: Concrete: a piece of bacon/chalk/coal/paper Abstract: a piece of advice/information/news/research

35. TYPICAL PARTITIVES - some restricted and descriptive typical partitives: a block of ice/flats <BrE> / seats [in a theathre]/ shares [in a business] a stick of rock [a sweet] <BrE>/candy <AmE>

36. QUANTITY PARTITION 2. Plural nouns Whereas the general partitive a piece of can be used with many of the noncount nouns (a piece of paper/ bacon/ news, etc), it cannot be used with plural count nouns. Other partitives are used with them, eg: apacket <BrE>/ pack <espEmE> of cigarettes abunch of flowers/ keys [In formal style, bunch is also used about people, like ‘group’: a bunch of teenagers.]

37. QUANTITY PARTITION 3. Singular Count Nouns Partition can also be expressed in reference to singular count nouns, eg: a piece of a loaf a page of a book a verse of a poem

38. QUANTITY PARTITION 3. Singular Count Nouns Fractional partition can also be expressed by such general quantitative items as half, all, whole + of + noun: that piece (of meat). I’d like half of all of the whole of

40. MEASURE PARTITIVES can be either singular or plural: a/ one gallon two/ several gallons of water If count, the second noun must be plural: one kilo of apples two kilos of *apple

41. NONCOUNT NOUNS AND THEIR CORRESPONDING EQUIVALENTS There is no necessary connection between classes of nouns and entities to which they refer. In some related languages, the nouns corresponding to information, money, news, and work, for example are count nouns, but in English they are noncount: He didn’t give us much information. She doesn’t like hard work.

42. NONCOUNT NOUNS AND THEIR CORRESPONDING EQUIVALENTS Some noncount nouns with count equivalents are given below: NONCOUNT NOUN COUNT EQUIVALENT This is important information. a piece/bit/word of information Sample of nouns which are noncount in English, but correspond to count nouns in some other languages: anger chess violence

43. DETERMINATIVE The kind of reference a particular noun phrase has depends on its determinative element. - item which determines it

44. DETERMINATIVES This function is typically realized by a set of closed-class items, or DETERMINERS, which occur before the noun acting as head of the noun phrase (or before its premodifiers). a bicylce? [indefinite reference] Have you seen the bicylce? [definite reference]

45. DETERMINATIVES This function is typically realized by a set of closed-class items, or DETERMINERS, which occur before the noun acting as head of the noun phrase (or before its premodifiers).

46. INDEFINITE REFERENCE - is typically indicated by the indefinite article a/an

47. DEFINITE REFERENCE - is typically indicated by the definite article the, but there are also other determiners with a similar function

48. 3 CLASSES OF DETERMINERS PREDETERMINERS (half, all, double) CENTRAL DETERMINERS (the articles the, a/an) POSTDETERMINERS (cardinal and ordinal numbers, many, few)

49. 3 CLASSES OF DETERMINERS We do not find central determiner + determiner (*their all trouble), or postdeterminer+centraldeterminer+predeterminer (*five the all boys), but only the order I+II+III (all their trouble,all the five boys)

50. CENTRAL DETERMINERS Use of articles with count and noncount nouns COUNT NONCOUNT definite the book the furniture SINGULAR indefinite a book furniture definite the books PLURAL indefinite books

51. ARTICLES The forms of the articles depend on the initial sound of the following word. It is unstressed (and normal) use, the definite article is always written the but pronounced / / before consonants and / / before vowels. the boy the understanding

52. ARTICLES The unstressed indefinite article is a before consonants and an before vowels. It is the pronunciation, not the spelling, of the following word that determines their form. a boy a usage an understanding

53. CENTRAL DETERMINERS The use of articles is not the only possibility for ‘determining’ nouns. Instead of a or the, we may use this/that/every/each/no + noun. Like the articles, these words are called central determiners.

56. POSTDETERMINERS CARDINAL NUMBERS (my three children) B. ORDINAL NUMBERS AND general ordinals (the first day, the last month) C. CLOSED-CLASS QUANTIFIERS (few people) D. OPEN-CLASS QUANTIFIERS (a large number of people)

57. THE USE OF ARTICLES WITH COMMON NOUNS SPECIFIC REFERENCE – particular specimens of the class GENERIC REFERENCE – a class without reference to the noun A lionand two tigers are sleeping in the cage. Tigers are dangerous animals.