Pullum_geoffrey_k_a_student_s_introduction

§ 1 Introductory survey

83

(c) Dependents. There are various kinds of dependent that occur exclusively or almost exclusively with nouns as head. Examples of such items are underlined in [3].

[3]	CERTAIN DETERMINATIVES	the door; {! year; every book, which paper
ii	PRE-HEAD ADJECTIVES	young children, a f2ig dog, recent events
iii	RELATIVE CLAUSES	theguy who fainted, the book I'm reading

Nouns and concrete objects

The noun category includes words denoting all kinds of physical objects (people, animals, places, things) and substances: apple, dog,fire, London, sister, water, etc. We can't use this as the criterion for identifying English nouns, though, because there are also large numbers of nouns denoting abstract entities: absence, debt,fear, love, silence, work, etc. But we can use it as the basis for a general definition apply­ ing across languages:

[4]NOUN: a grammatically distinct category of words which includes those denoting all kinds of physical objects, such as persons, animals and inanimate objects.

Types of dependent

Dependents in the structure of the NP are of three main types. We introduce them briefly here, and then deal with them in more detail in §§3-6.

[5]	DETERMINERS	the news, {! pear; some cheese, two newfilms, no reason
ii	COMPLEMENTS	the loss ofblood, a ban on smoking, thefact that she's alive
iii	MODIFIERS	a young woman, afriend from Boston, people who complained

The determiner is a kind of dependent found only in NP structure. It is normally an obligatory element in NPs with certain types of singular noun as head. Compare The door is open and *Door is open, or compare 1 bought {! book and *1 bought book.

Complements have to be licensed by the head noun - as complements in clause structure have to be licensed by the head verb. Compare his loss ofblood with He was losing blood. Note that nouns like fact, knowledge, or suggestion can be accompanied by such subordinate clauses as that she's alive, but nouns like boy, madness, or inquiry cannot.

Modifiers are the default type of dependent, lacking the above special features; there is no limit to the number of modifiers that can occur in an NP. Those in [iii], for example, can combine in a single NP: a young woman from Boston who complained.

Nominals

In clause structure we have recognised a unit intermediate between the clause and the verb, namely the verb phrase. In the same way we recognise a unit intermediate between the noun phrase and the noun, which we call a nominal. In the guy who

84 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

fainted or a young woman, for example, the first division is between the determiner and the rest, with guy who fainted and young woman each forming a nominal. Simplified structures are as shown in [6] :

[6]

a.

NP

b.

NP

AA

Determiner:	Head:	Determiner:	Head:
Detenninative	Nominal	Detenninative	Nominal

	Head:	Modifier:		Modifier:	Head:
	Noun	Relative clause		Adjective	Noun
the	guyI		a	I	I
		whofainted		young	woman

Here the noun is head of the nominal, and not directly of the NP, but we will often simplify by talking of NPs with various kinds of noun as head.

Internal and external dependents

Dependents in the structure of the NP may be distinguished as internal or external, according as they fall inside or outside the head nominal. Complements (with the exception of the type discussed in §9. 1 ) are always internal, and determiners are always external. All the modifiers illustrated so far are internal, but there are also external modifiers. Compare the following examples, where underlining marks the dependent and brackets surround the head nominal:

[7]	COMPLEMENT	internal	a [knowledge ofLatin], the [idea that he liked it]
II	DETERMINER	external	these [oldpapers], some [people / met]
III	MODIFIER	internal	a [Qigdog], the [book I'm reading]
		external	almost the [only survivor], even a [young woman]

Subclasses of noun

The three major subclasses of noun are pronouns, proper nouns, and common nouns:

[8]	PRONOUNS	/, me, my, mine, myself, you, he, she, it, who, what, . . .
ii	PROPER NOUNS	Kim, lones, Beethoven, Boston, Canada, Nile, Easter, . . .
iii	COMMON NOUNS	cat, day,furniture, window,fact, truth, perseverance, . . .

Pronouns constitute a fairly small class of words distinguished from other nouns most clearly by their inability to combine with determiners (cf. *the me, *a myself, etc.). The most central ones differ inflectionally from other nouns - e.g. in having a contrast between nominative and accusative forms (l vs me, he vs him, etc.).

§2.2 Count and non-count nouns

85

Proper nouns characteristically function as the head of NPs serving as proper names, names individually assigned to particular people, places, festivals, etc. They also occur, derivatively, in other kinds of NP (cf. Let's listen to [some Beethoven]).

Common nouns represent the default subclass, lacking the special properties of pronouns and proper nouns.

2Number and countability

Number is the name of the system contrasting singular and plural. In the first instance, it applies to noun inflection: nouns typically have contrasting singular and plural forms. Thus cat and cats are the singular and plural forms of the noun cat, and so on.

2. 1	Nouns with fixed number

Although most nouns have variable number, there are nevertheless many that do not - nouns which are invariably singular or invariably plural.

(a) Singular-only nouns

Examples of nouns which have a singular form but no plural are given in [9] :

[9]i crockery, dross,footwear, harm, indebtedness, nonsense, perseverance

iiitalics, linguistics, mumps, news, phonetics, physics

Those in [ii] look like plurals, but the final s is not in fact a plural marker, like that in cats. This is evident from the fact that we say The news is good (not are), and so on.

(b) Plural-only nouns

Nouns with a plural form but no singular are illustrated in [ 1 0] :

[10]	i	alms, auspices, belongings, clothes, genitals, scissors, spoils, trousers
	ii	cattle, police, vermin

Those in [i] contain the plural suffix ·s, but it cannot be dropped to form a singular. In most cases there is some fairly transparent connection to plurality in the ordinary sense of "more than one": belongings denotes things that belong to someone, clothes is a cover term for articles of clothing, while scissors and trousers denote objects with two main parts. The nouns in [ii] have no inflectional marking of plu­ rality, but behave syntactically as plurals. Note, for example, that we say these cattle, not *this cattle; Thepolice have arrived, not *Thepolice has arrived.

2.2Count and non-count nouns

Closely related to the distinction between nouns of variable and invari­ able number is that between count nouns and non-count nouns. As the names

86 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

imply, count nouns can take cardinal numerals (one, two, three, etc.) as dependent, while non-count nouns cannot.

Non-count nouns that are invariably singular

Non-count nouns are usually invariably singular. The possibilities forfurniture, for example, are shown in [ 1 1 ], where it is contrasted with the count noun chair:

[ 1 1 ]	SINGULAR WITH	SINGULAR WITH	PLURAL WITH
	DETERMINER THE	NUMERAL ONE	NUMERALS
COUNT NOUN	the chair	one chair	two chairs
NON-COUNT NOUN	thefurniture	*onefurniture	*twofurnitures

Furniture cannot combine with any numeral, not even one, which goes with singu­ lar forms. The same restrictions apply to such nouns as clothing, equipment, footwear or the abstract nouns eagerness, perseverance, wetness.

Non-count nouns that are invariably plural

There are a fairly small number of non-count nouns that are invariably plural. Com­ pare the possibilities for count corpse and non-count remains shown in [ 1 2] :

[ 12]	PLURAL WITH	SINGULAR WITH	PLURAL WITH
	DETERMINER THE	NUMERAL ONE	NUMERALS
COUNT NOUN	the corpses	one corpse	two corpses
NON-COUNT NOUN	the remains	*one remain	*two remains

Remains is invariably plural, but even so, it cannot combine with numerals like two or three, etc. Other nouns of this kind include credentials, genitals, proceeds, etc.

Nouns with count and non-count uses

Nouns that have only a count interpretation or only a non-count interpretation are in a minority. Most nouns can be used with either kind of interpretation. The [a] and [b] pairs in [ 1 3] are fairly typical.

[ 13]		COUNT INTERPRETATION		NON-COUNT INTERPRETATION
11	a.	Wouldyou like a cake?	b.	Wouldyou like some more cake?
	a.	I'll have to borrow yourfootball.	b.	I'm going toplay football.
III	a.	The cover of this book is torn.	b.	The awning provides some cover.
IV	a.	I suggested afew improvements.	b.	There's been little improvement.

When we speak of count and non-count nouns, therefore, we are referring to nouns as used with a count and non-count interpretation. Thus cake is a count noun in [ia] but a non-count noun in [ib] , and so on.

§2.2 Count and non-count nouns

87

The meaning distinction between count and non-count

A count noun generally denotes a class of individual entities of the same kind. The count noun table, for example, denotes the whole class of tables (one table provides a way of referring to a single member of the class, two tables talks about two mem­ bers, and so on). An individual member of this class cannot be divided into smaller entities of the same kind as itself. That is, a table can be chopped up into smaller parts, but those parts are not themselves tables. Likewise, if you cut a loaf in half, what you have is not two loaves, but two halves of a loaf.

Non-count nouns typically have the opposite property. A good number of them denote physical substances that can be divided into smaller amounts of the same kind. If you cut up some bread, the pieces can still be described by the non-count noun bread. If you take some wood and cut it into shorter lengths, these can still be referred to by means of the non-count noun wood - the same noun is applicable to the same stuff in smaller quantities.

Marking of the count vs non-count distinction

In many but by no means all cases, grammatical features of the NP force or strongly favour either a count or a non-count interpretation.

(a)Plurality favours the count interpretation

A plural head noun will generally indicate a count interpretation. In She described the improvements they hadmade, for example, we interpret improvements in a count sense like that of [ 1 3iva] (/ suggestedafew improvements) rather than the non-count sense of [ l 3ivb] (There's been little improvement). That is, it implies a set of sepa­ rable, individual improvements that you could count. As noted above, there are some non-count plural nouns, like remains, but they are restricted to a relatively small number of particular lexemes.

(b) Singular common noun head with no determiner favours the non-count interpretation

In general, common nouns can occur in the singular without a determiner only if they have a non-count interpretation. That's why we get these contrasts:

[14] i a. *She was reading book.

iia. *We made table.

b. She was drinking water. h. We made progress.

Book and table normally have count interpretations, and so the [a] examples are inadmissible, whereas non-count water and progress occur readily without a deter­ miner because they're interpreted in a non-count sense. Count nouns are found without determiners only in a very limited range of special syntactic constructions. Two of them are illustrated in [ 1 5]:

[15]	a .	Who wants to be treasurer?	h. *Who wants to be millionaire?
ii	a.	They were living togetheras	h. *I've met husband, but J don't think
		husband and wife.	I've ever seen him with wife.

88 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

Treasurer in [ia] is what we have called a bare role NP (one without a deter­ miner: see Ch. 4, §4. 1 ). Nouns that do not denote some kind of role or office can­ not occur without a determiner in predicative complement function, as evident from the contrast between treasurer and millionaire in [i]: treasurer is a role in an organisation, but millionaire is just a status that anyone has as soon as their net worth reaches a million dollars, pounds, etc.

In [iia] we have two closely related nouns in a coordination construction, which sometimes allows omission of the determiner. But the same nouns need deter­ miners when they are not in a coordination, as we see from [iib] .

(c) Certain determinatives are generally restricted to one or other interpretation

Determinatives such as the, this, that, what, and no occur with either type of noun, but in singular NPs the determinatives listed in [ 1 6] are generally restricted to one or the other, as illustrated in [ 1 7] :

[16]	COUNT		one, another, each, every, either, neither; also to some extent a
11	NON-COUNT		much, little, a little, enough, sufficient; also to some extent all
[17]	a.	Everytable was inspected.		b. *Every furniture was inspected.
ii	a.	*He didn't read much book.		b. He didn't drink much water.

We have set aside a and all at the end of the lists because with these determinatives there are some exceptions, as in He has a high regardfor them (where regard is non­ count) and He spent all day at the races (where day is count).

2.3Subject-verb agreement

	Number is the major	factor involved in subject-verb agreement.
Compare:
[18]	SINGULAR SUBJECT		PLURAL SUBJECT
a.	Theirdogeats a lot.	b.	Their dogs eat a lot.
ii a.	Theirdog was eating.	b.	Theirdogs were eating.

As we change from a singular subject in [a] to a plural subject in [b] the inflectional form of the verb changes too, and the verb is accordingly said to agree with the sub­ ject. The agreement applies in the present tense with all verbs except the modal aux­ iliaries. In the preterite, only the verb be displays agreement: other preterites such as ate occur in the same form with all kinds of subject.

Subject-verb agreement involves person as well as number, for 1 st person I, although singular, requires eat, not eats. Eats occurs with 3rd person singular sub­ jects and eat with all others: i.e. plurals, 1 st person I, or 2nd person you. But most of the complexities regarding agreement arise with respect to number, and that is why we will now focus on number in more detail. There are four special cases to be noted.

2.3 Subject-verb agreement

89

Measure expressions

Expressions like ten days, twenty dollars,five miles, etc., are plural in form but the quantity or measure they denote can be conceptualised as a single abstract entity, and this singular conceptualisation can override the plural form in determining the form of the verb. So the following examples have plural subjects with a singular agreement form of the verb:

[19]a. Ten days iJ. a long time to be on your own.

b.Twentydollars seemsfar too much topayfor a takeawaypizza. 11 a. That ten days we spent together in Paris was wonderful.

b. Another three eggs iJ. all we need.

Ten days can be seen as a single block of time; twenty dollars is a price; three eggs can be viewed as a single quantity of food. Note that in the [ii] cases the measure expression not only takes a singular verb, it even occurs with a determiner that nor­ mally selects a singular head (cf. that day, another egg).

Quantificational nouns

There are a few nouns expressing quantification which can occur in the singular as head of an NP whose number for agreement purposes is determined by a smaller NP embedded within it:

[20]	SINGULAR	PLURAL
	[A lotof mono] was wasted.	[A lot of things] were wasted.
	[The rest of the meat] is over there.	[The rest of the eggs] are over there.
	(not possible)	[A number of faults] werefound.

The head of the bracketed NP in each case is marked by double underlining. Notice that each head is singular, but the form of the verb depends on the single-underlined NP that is complement to the preposition of The meaning of number is such that the embedded NP must be plural, so the bottom left position in the table can't be filled.

Collective nouns

Nouns such as board, committee,jury, staff, team are collective nouns in that they denote a collection, or set, of individuals. When they occur in the singular as head of the subject NP the verb can, especially in BrE, be either singular or plural, though AmE clearly favours the singular:

[21]		SINGULAR VERB	PLURAL VERB
	a.	The committee has interviewed her.	b. %The committee have interviewed her.
11	a.	The jury is still deliberating.	b. %The jury are still deliberating.
III	a.	Theboardconsists entirely of men.	b. The crew are all overforty.

The choice of a plural verb focuses on the individuals that make up the collection, on the members of the committee or jury or whatever, rather than on the collection as a unit, the official body that the members constitute.

90 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

The examples in [iii] are cases in which variation would be less likely. In [iiia], the property of consisting entirely of men can only apply to the board as a whole; it can't apply to any individual member of the board, so a plural verb is much less likely (though not all BrE speakers would dismiss %The board consist entirely of men as impossible). In [iiib], by contrast, the property of being forty or older can apply only to the individual members of the crew, not the crew as a whole, and the adjunct all reinforces the focus on the individuals; so [iiib] with its plural agreement is much more likely than %The crew is all overforty (though in AmE the latter might nonetheless occur).

Any, no, none, either, neither

We also find alternation between singular and plural verb agreement in examples like [22] :

[22]	a.	[None of the objections] was valid.	b.	[None of the objections] were valid.
ii	a.	[Neither of them] seems valid.	b.	[Neither of them] seem valid.

Subjects with any, no, and none occur freely with either singular or plural agree­ ment. With neither, and even more with either, singular agreement is usual; plural agreement is informal, and condemned by prescriptivists. The difference is that any and no can function as determiner to both singular and plural nouns: both No objec­ tion was valid and No objections were valid are grammatical. Either and neither occur only with singulars: Neither objection was valid is grammatical, but *Neither objections were valid is definitely not.

3Determiners and determinatives

The determiner position in an NP is usually filled by one of two kinds of expression.

•In all the examples so far it has been a determinative, and some of these can be accompanied by their own modifiers, making a determinative phrase, abbrevi­ ated DP.

'", I n addition, the determiner may have the form of a genitive NP.

Examples, with the determiners underlined, are given in [23]:

[23]	DETERMINATIVE	the city	some rotten eggs
	DP	almost all politicians	very few new books
	GENITIVE NP	her income	the senator's young son

In this section we focus on determinatives and DPs. Genitive determiners are dis­ cussed in §9. 1 .

The determiner is generally an obligatory element with count singular common nouns, as discussed in connection with [ 1 4 - 1 6] above. It is, by contrast, incompat­ ible with pronouns: we have l am ready, not *The I am ready, and so on.

92 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

when you hear that nominal you know very little about it. The predicate of the clause then goes on to give a fuller identification of it.

Indefinite article

The indefinite article does not indicate that the description in the head is defining. The description is not presented as unique in the context. Take these examples:

[26]i [£1cabinet minister] hasbeen arrested.

iiI'll give you [Q. key].

.. A cabinet contains a number of ministers, and if I don't know (or am not bother­ ing to say) which one of them got arrested I will use a rather than the. Here, of course, a which question is perfectly appropriate: Which one? would be a natural response to [i] .

Cl The context for [ii] is likely to be one where it is clear which lock you'll be using the key in, but it will be a lock for which there are multiple keys, and if I haven't decided (or don't care) which of them I'll give you, I will again use the indefinite article.

Articles with plural NPs

Article use has been illustrated so far with singular NPs, but of course the also occurs in plurals:

[27]i [The Presidents of France andItaly] will be meeting again tomorrow.

iiWhere didyou put [the keys]?

These are very much like the singulars. Again a which question would be inappro­ priate.

.. In [i] the head uniquely defines a set of two people, so the referent is clearly identifiable.

IIIIn [ii] I'm talking about a bunch of keys, and the context is assumed to make clear which bunch.

Which determiners are definite and indefinite

The words that mark the NP as definite or as indefinite when they serve as deter­ miners are given in [28i] and [28ii] .

[28]	DEFINITE	the; this, that; all, both; relative which, whichever, what,
		whateverl
11	INDEFINITE	a; each, every; some, any; either, neither; no; another; a
		few, a little, several; many, much, more, most,few,fewer,
		little, less; enough, sufficient; interrogative which,
		whichever, what, whatever; one, two, three,four,five, . . .

I Relative which, whichever, etc., occur in relative clauses: see Ch. 1 1 , §§2,4.