Quantifiers and their ways of use
Bishkek Humanities University
Faculty of European Civilization
English Language Department
Theme: Quantifiers and their ways of use
Quantifiers and their ways of use
Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Chapter 1. General information about Noun and Quantifiers 5
2.1. Noun: Countable and uncountable Nouns 8
2.2. Quantifiers used with Countable Nouns 10
2.3. Quantifiers used with Uncountable Nouns 11
2.4. Quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns 12
3. Chapter 2. Examples with Quantifiers taken from the works of 13
American and English writers
3.1. Quantifiers in dialogues 15
3.2. Quantifiers in real life (expressions / phrases) 17
3.3. Comparative Analyses of rendering quantifiers into Russian 20
and English languages
4. Conclusion 25
5. Bibliography
1. Introduction
English is an international language and now it is the most widely used language in the world. It is spoken as a first , second and official language by a majority of the inhabitants of nations, including United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and many other countries. And English is also popular in our country. A majority of people try to learn and try to speak in English. Some people learn through conversations and some people prefer to learn through grammar. Of course, learning any foreign language is interesting and fun but it takes a long time and patient. We should consider all their grammatical and speech rules. And my Course Paper deals with one aspect of English Grammar.
The theme of the Course Paper is “Quantifiers and their ways of use”.
The goal of the Course Paper is to explore Quantifiers, their functions and the ways of their rendering into Russian and English languages.
The objectives of the Course Paper are the following:
- to investigate the ways of using quantifiers and analyze their types;
- to find out examples with quantifiers from the works of American and English writers;
- to analyze the ways of rendering quantifiers into Russian and English languages;
The Theoretical Value of my Course Paper is that it can be used as an additional source for lessons of Grammar.
The Practical Value of the Course Paper is the examples taken from different sources which can be used as an additional source for tests on Grammar and for lessons on Grammar.
The Actuality of the Course Paper is that English Grammar always seems to be difficult for beginners and this Course Paper has informative examples with rendering into English language and analyses.
The novelty of the Course Paper is that it contains examples taken from different life situations and can be helpful for the students to learn English through Grammar.
The Course Paper consists of Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter2, Conclusion and Bibliography and contains 28 pages.
Chapter 1 deals with theoretical information on English Noun and Quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns.
Chapter2 contains research on Quantifiers taken from the works of English and American writers, research on Quantifiers which used in the phrases in real life and Comparative analysis on the ways of rendering sentences with quantifiers into Russian and English languages.
I hope that this work will be helpful not only for the students of our Department but also for other students who learn English through Grammar.
2. Chapter 1. General information of a Noun and Quantifiers.
Morphological characteristics of a Noun.
Its characteristic features are the following: the meaning of noun is thingness. Thus, nouns include not only a chair and an iron, but also beauty, peace, journey and everything else presented as a thing or object.
The form of a Noun. Nouns have the category of number (singular or a plural), though some individual nouns may lack either a singular or a plural form. They also, in the accepted view, have the category of case (common and genitive).
The function of noun is combining with words to form phrases. A noun combines with a preceding adjective (large room), or occasionally with following adjective (times immemorial), with a preceding noun in either the common case (iron bar) or the genitive case (father’s room), with a verb following it (children play) or preceding it (play games). Occasionally a noun may combine with a following or preceding adverb (the man there; the then president). It also combines with prepositions (in a house; house of rest). It is typical of a noun to be preceded by the definite or indefinite article (the room, a room).The function of noun in the sentence is a noun may be the subject or the predicative of a sentence, or an object, an attribute, and an adverbial modifier. It can also make part of each of these when preceded by a preposition.
The Modern English noun certainly has not got the category of grammatical gender, which is to be found, for example, in Russian, French, German and Latin. Not a single noun in Modern English shows any peculiarities in its morphology due to its denoting a male or female being. Thus, the words husband and wife do not show any difference in their forms due to the peculiarities of their lexical meanings
(B.Ilyish, Leningrad, 1971, p.28, 36)
General characteristics of Quantifiers.
At first let’s consider quantification. Quantification has several distinct senses. In mathematics and empirical science, it is the act of counting and measuring that maps human sense observations and experiences into members of some set of numbers. Quantification in this sense is fundamental to the scientific method.
In logic, quantification is the binding of a variable ranging over a domain of discourse. The variable thereby becomes bound by an operator called a quantifier. Academic discussion of quantification refers more often to this meaning of the term than the preceding one.
And the last one, in grammar, a quantifier is a type of determiner that indicates quantity. These items have been argued to correspond to logical quantifiers at the semantic level.
We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of something: how much or how many. Grammatically, these quantifiers are determiners: they modify a noun phrase. (Other determiners in English include the, my and those.)
To form a sentence using a quantifier, one generally needs to add two things: a (possibly modified) noun (obtaining five young men) and a verb phrase (obtaining Five young men sang in harmony).In this respect, our natural-language quantifiers are different from the familiar quantifiers of first-order logic, which just require you to add one thing (an open formula) to get a sentence. We can better capture the grammatical form of English sentences using binary quantifiers: quantifiers that take two open sentences and form a sentence: The noun can sometimes be omitted, when it is clear from context, for example, “Most went,” “Few went,” “Many went,” “Two went,” “Some went,” and “All went”. Note, however, that “No went” and “A went” always seem bad.
Quantifiers are a type of determiner, which denote imprecise quantity. They differ from numbers or numerals which indicate precise quantity.
There are three types of quantifier;
1. Neutral quantifiers (some, few)
2. Quantifiers of large quantity (too many, a great deal of, a lot of, huge)
3. Quantifiers of small quantity (little, a little, few, a few)
1. Neutral quantifiers :
Some and any, several, a number of, enough
Some and any are both quantifiers and articles. In many contexts, some is the plural indefinite article, the plural of "a" or "an"; but more often, some implies a limited quantity, and for this reason has the value of a quantifier. Some is used in affirmative statements; it is replaced with any in negative and interrogative contexts.
Several and a number of imply "more than one, but less than a lot". They are not usually used in negative or interrogative structures, only in affirmative statements.
Enough implies a sufficient quantity; it is used in affirmations, negations and questions.
2. Quantifiers of large quantity:
Much, many, lots of, plenty of, numerous, a large number of, etc.
Much and many: much is used with non count nouns (always in the singular); many is used with count nouns in the plural. Much and many are not often used, in modern spoken English, in affirmative statements; but they are very commonly used in interrogative and negative contexts.
Remember this principle: don't use much or many in affirmative statements.
Lots of, a lot of, plenty of, a large number of, numerous.
These expressions all mean more or less exactly the same. In the list above, they are arranged in order of formality, going from the most informal (lots of) to the most formal (numerous). Informal language is more appropriate in dialogue, formal language in written documents.
3.Quantifiers of small quantity
few, a few, little, a little, not many, not much, a small number of, etc.
These quantifiers are normally only used in affirmative statements, to which they give a negative coloring.
Little, a little, not much are used with non count nouns
(always in the singular)
Few, a few, not many are used with count nouns in the plural.
Quantifiers can be a single word or a phrase and are used with nouns. They can be used with both a countable and an uncountable noun to express amount or quantity.
2.1.Noun: Countable and Uncountable Nouns
Countable nouns
Countable nouns are the names of separate objects, people, ideas etc which can be counted. They have plurals. For example: dog, tree, girl, book, occasion and link
We can use numbers and the article a/an with countable nouns:
a dog
two books
three girls
Uncountable nouns
Uncountable or mass nouns are the names of materials, liquids, abstract qualities, collections and other things which we do not see as separate objects. Most uncountable nouns are singular with no plurals. For example: wheat, sand, weather, water, wool, milk
We cannot use numbers with uncountable nouns. They are also not normally used with the article a/an.
accommodation (countable - a place to live)
advice (a piece of advice)
bread (a piece of bread; a loaf; a roll)
Sometimes it is not easy to see whether a noun is countable or uncountable. For instance, travel is normally uncountable, while journey is countable. It is impossible to give complete details. The following rules, however, should help.
Illnesses
The names of illnesses are usually uncountable in English. For example: chickenpox, measles, cancer, diabetes, flu etc.
If you have had chickenpox, you can’t get it again.
But note that the words for some minor ailments are uncountable. Words such as a cold, a headache
I have a bad headache.
Mixed uses
Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses, sometimes with a difference of meaning.
Words for materials are usually uncountable. But note that the same word is often used as countable noun to refer to something made of the material.
Have you got some typing paper? (Uncountable)
I want a paper. (Countable)
Have you got any coffee?
Could I have two coffees? (= two cups of coffee)
Many abstract nouns are uncountable when used in a general sense. The same noun can be countable in a particular sense.
She hasn’t got enough experience for the job. (Uncountable)
It was a strange experience. (Countable)
Take your own time. (Uncountable)
Have a good time. (Countable)
Plural uncountable nouns
Some uncountable nouns are plural. They have no singular forms with the same meaning, and cannot be used with numbers. Examples are: trousers, jeans, pajamas, pants, scissors, spectacles, glasses, arms, goods, customs, groceries, clothes and thanks
Have you bought the groceries?
Many thanks for your help.
Other plural uncountable nouns include the expressions the British, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Irish, the Spanish and the Welsh.
Now we know the difference between countable and uncountable nouns, we are going to look at how to describe how much of something there is, or the quantity of something.
Quantifiers must agree with the noun. There are 3 main types of quantifiers. Quantifiers used with countable nouns, quantifiers used with uncountable nouns and quantifiers used with both.
2.2. Quantifiers used with countable nouns
Which quantifiers can we use?
Depending on whether a noun is countable, there are many phrases you can use:
- For Countable Nouns Only How many?
a)"How many newspapers do you read every day?"
b)"How many Euros have you got?"
Quantifiers with countable nouns |
For example |
many a few/few/very few a number (of) several a large number of a great number of a majority of |
Many buttons A few buttons Few buttons Several buttons A great number of buttons A majority of people |
- There aren't many books.
- There are a few newspapers.
- A great number of my buttons are red.
- A majority of people of Kyrgyzstan prefer to learn English.
Quantifiers with singular countable nouns |
Quantifiers with plural countable nouns |
one --> student
each --> culture
every --> country |
two --> students
both --> men
a couple --> schools |
A) Every country in the world has its own culture.
b) One my friend goes abroad.
c) Both men are working in the Parliament.
d) A couple of schools are making reconstruction.
2.3 Quantifiers used with uncountable nouns
- For Uncountable Nouns Only How much?
a)"How much paper is in the printer?"
b)"How much money have you got?
Quantifiers with uncountable nouns |
For example |
much a little/little/very little a bit (of) a great deal of a large amount of a large quantity of |
not much music a little music little music a bit of music a good deal of music a great deal of music |
- I can't work here. There's too much noise.
- I need some paper to write on.
- I have a little work to do.
- I have a large amount of money.
2.4 Quantifiers with both
Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns |
For example |
all enough more/most less/least no/none not any some any a lot of lots of plenty of |
all of the buttons/music some buttons/music most of the buttons/music enough buttons/music
a lot of buttons/music lots of buttons/music plenty of buttons/music a lack of buttons/music |
3. Chapter 2. Examples with Quantifiers taken from the works of American and English writers
Quantifiers are very popular in using in the novels, stories, tests and compositions. It shows that different quantifiers carry different hidden messages under the surface, balancing degree of agreement or commitment. Almost all writers use quantifiers in their works.
For example in Bruno Bettelheim’s work “The art of motion pictures”
we can meet a lot of quantifiers.
1. “Whether we like or not and many may disagree with my thesis because painting, or music, or some other art is more important to them – the art of the moving image is the only art truly of our time whether it is in the form of the film or television”.(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington,1988, p.1)
Here we identify “many” and “some” as quantifiers.
At first, let’s consider “many”-is used in negative and question forms, with plural countable nouns, here “many” refers to people.
2. “Quite a few moving pictures have conveyed such visions”.
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.2)
In this sentence “a few” gives a positive idea, it indicates that something exists, is present.
William F. Buckley, JR. “Up from Misery”
3. “Then in the spring of 1972 his gentle devoted wife had a mastectomy, the prognosis optimistic, but with a shade of uncertainty, so, to beef up his morale, he increased the dosage just a little”.
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.7)
“A little”- the same as “a few” gives a positive idea and indicates that something exists, is present.
4. “His banked up grief for his wife raged now and every moment, every long afternoon and evening without her, and without alcohol, were endless bouts with the haunting question: what is the point in living at all?”
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.8)
In these sentences we meet quantifier with singular expressions of quantity: every, it is used when the speaker means “all”
Andrew Carnegie, “How I served my apprenticeship”.
5. “The first serious lesson of my life came to me one day when he had taken in the last of his work to the merchant, and returned to our little home greatly distressed because there was no more work for him to do”.
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.13)
“Little”(without a) gives negative idea, it indicates that something is largely absent.
Let’s consider the same sentence with “little”
6. “I have little money”.
It means that I don’t have enough money to buy something.
Arthur Conan Doyle, “The lost world. The stories about Sherlock Holmes”
7. “It was the wet season, Mr. Malone and I couldn’t stay there longer. I explored some low parts of this cliff, but I couldn’t find any way up”.
8. “To Sherlock Holmes she was always the woman. He never told about her in any other words. Sherlock Holmes didn’t feel any love for Irene Adler”.
(“The lost world. The stories about Sherlock Holmes “Arthur Conan Doyle, Moscow, 2002)
Any-we use with negative and question sentence. In all sentences it means there is no, for example, way up, words or love.
3.1. Quantifiers in dialogues
We use quantifiers not only in literature but also in our every day conversations, dialogues.
9.
A: I’ve got too much homework to do.
B: You’ve got a plenty of hours tomorrow when you could finish it.
A: There isn’t enough time to get ready.
B: There’s lots of time – we don’t need to be there until nine!
A: I never have anything to say
B: Don’t be silly. You’ve got couple you could talk about.
A: I’ve got no friends.
B: Come on, you’ve got loads of friends.
A: I haven’t got anything to wear
B: But you’ve got some really nice clothes
A: I haven’t got much money.
B: You only need enough money for taxi.
A: There’ll be too many people.
B: Oh, but only a few people are coming
In this dialogue there are some quantifiers such as too many, too much, some etc. Let’s consider all of them.
too much and too many are Quantifiers of large quantity, too much we use with uncountable nouns and too many we use with countable nouns;
plenty of and loads of mean enough and more. It is used before singular uncountable and plural nouns;
enough is placed before the noun, to indicate the quantity required or necessary;
lots of is used mainly with singular uncountable and plural nouns;
a few in this dialogue “gives a positive idea, it indicates that something exists, is present;
10.
Do you have any coffee?
No, I don't, but I've got some tea. Do you want some?
Yes, please.
Do you want a cookie too?
Sure, I love cookies.
I'm really hungry. Let's eat.
OK. I've got some chicken in the refrigerator, do you want some?
Yes, that sounds great.
I've also got some tacos in the cupboard, and there's an apple pie as well.
Do you have any juice?
Sure, it's over there. Help yourself.
11.
It's Mum's birthday next week. Let's get her a present.
OK. How about some perfume?
Well, she doesn't have any. She doesn't use it.
So how about some clothes or a watch?
That's a good idea, but I don't know her size.
Let's just buy a gift voucher. Then she can choose her own present.
Great idea!
From these dialogues let’s take some and any.
Some and any are used with countable and uncountable nouns, to describe an indefinite or incomplete quantity;
Some means a little, a few or a small number or amount and is used in positive statements;
Any means one, some or all and is used in questions and with not in negative statements;
3.2. Quantifiers in real life (expressions / phrases)
An expression of quantity e.g. one, several, many, much may precede a noun. As we know some expressions of quantity are used only with countable nouns, some only with uncountable nouns, and some with either countable or uncountable nouns.
Expressions of quantity
12. I ate one apple.
13. I go for a walk with my friends every day.
Here we use expressions of quantity “one” and “every” with countable nouns such as an apple and day
14. Yesterday I bought a great deal of sugar.
15. How much money have you got?
In these sentences we use expressions of quantity “great deal of”, “much” with uncountable nouns such as sugar and money
16. There is no apple on the table.
17. I don’t like any rice.
not any/no we use with both countable and uncountable nouns. In the 16th sentence expression of quantity “no” with countable noun an apple and in the 17th sentence expression of quantity “any” with uncountable noun rice
The same with another expression of quantity plenty of, we use it with both nouns
18. There are plenty of houses near the station .
19. They bought plenty of oil for traveling around the Issykkul.
We usually use expression of quantity most with of, but let’s consider the following sentence:
20. Most books are interesting.
In this sentence we are not referring to specific books, e.g. those books, your books or the books written by Mark Twain that’s why we can’t add here of to an expression quantity most if the noun it modifies is specific and it is preceded by this, that, these, those, my, John’s, their (any possessive) or the we can use of with “most”, for example:
21. Most of those books are mine.
22. Most of my books are in English.
23. Most of the books are on that table are mine.
Expressions of quantity followed by of + a specific noun
All/most/some/any + of+ specific plural countable or uncountable nouns
24. All of that furniture is uncomfortable. (uncountable)
25. Some of those chairs are comfortable. (countable)
Many,(a) few, several, both, two, one +of +specific plural countable nouns
26. Many of those people are my friends. (countable)
Much,(a)little+ of + specific uncountable nouns
27. Much of that money is mine
(uncountable)
Subject - Verb agreement in using of expressions of quantity
The verb is determined by the noun (or pronoun that follows of in most expressions of quantity, for example:
Some of +singular noun + singular verb
Some of + plural noun+ plural verb
28. Some of the book is good. (singular)
29. A lot of my friends are good. (plural)
But there is one exception:
One of, each of, and every one of + plural noun + singular verb
30. One of, each of, every one of my friends is here
Phrases with quantifiers
There are a lot of phrases with quantifiers, we use them every day
For example, the quantifier half is commonly used by people:
31. We spent half our time visiting museums.
32. Half the tour was about history.
The same with not a, for example
33. Not a sheet of paper is left.
34. Not a one/ a bit/ a piece is left.
There are some widely used quantity phrases:
35. Any child needs love.
36. Every child needs love.
37. Each child / Each of the children needs love.
38. One child / One of my children needs help.
39. More than one of the kids needs help.
40. None / None of my children need help.
41. Neither child / Neither of my children wants help.
42. Much of the class wants help.
3.3. Comparative Analyses of rendering quantifiers into
Russian and English languages
Each language has its own peculiarities, rules, of course, differences. And in this paragraph I want to make a comparative analysis of using quantifiers in Russian and English languages. As well as in English we use quantifiers in Russian a lot .Quantifiers of Russian language which is considered to be a type of determiner and denote imprecise quantity:
сколько, несколько, много, немного, мало.
All of them in the sentences can act in the meaning of numerals and adverbs; and first four words, acting in the meaning of numerals, change on cases, and the word мало acts in a numeral only when noun comes together with a subject or object.
Let’s consider examples:
43. There are some books on the table.
На полке лежит несколько (много, немного, мало) книг.
44. I bought several books.
Я купил несколько (много, немного, мало) книг.
45. How many books are on the table?
Сколько книг лежит на столе?
46. How many books did they buy for the library?
Сколько книг купили для библиотеки?
In these sentences несколько, много, немного, мало, сколько rule over the word книг
(in genitive case), and make up word combination with this word.
47. He told about a lot of books.
Он говорил о нескольких (многих, немногих) книгах.
48. How many books did he tell about?
О скольких книгах он говорил?
49. He was interested about a few books.
Он интересовался несколькими (многими, немногими) книгами.
50. How many books was he interested about?
Сколькими книгами он интересовался?
In these examples the words несколько, много, немного, сколько are agreed with noun книги, but don’t make up a word combination
In all sentences сколько, несколько, много, немного, мало are gathered with numeral quantifiers by meaning and connecting with noun.
Let’s compare:
51. There are five books on the shelf.
На полке лежит пять книг.
52. I bought five books.
Я купил пять книг.
53. Five books are on the table.
Пять книг лежит на столе.
54. He told about five books .
Он говорил о пяти книгах.
55. He was interested with five books.
Он интересовался пятью книгами.
That’s why quantifiers such as a несколько, много, немного, мало are called Indefinite-Quantitative Numerals.
But these quantifiers are quite different from numerals. The words сколько and несколько have pronominal roots, pronominal meaning (question and indefinite), therefore they are pronouns-numerals.
All listed words can act in the meaning of adverbs. In this case they join to the verbs and are adverbial modifier of measure or degree, for example
56. She has changed a little for this year.
Она несколько (немного, мало) изменилась за этот год.
57. It is as much courageous as resourceful.
Столько же смел, сколько находчив.
58. It is as much courageous as resourceful.
Бедная! Как она мало жила! Как она много любила!
The selection properties of Quantifiers in Russian are very elaborate. The morphosyntax of numerals is probably the most complicated part of Russian grammar .Simplifying slightly, the following types of D-quantifiers can be distinguished based on their selection properties. Agreeing with the noun in case and gender:
e.g. весь- ‘all the’: все (nominative singular noun)
молоко (NOMSGN) ‘all (the) milk’.
Selecting for the genitive (partitive) case. a. quantifiers used only in
nominative and accusative:сколько ‘how much,’ мало‘little,’ (не)достаточно ‘(in)sufficiently much,’
e.g. сколько(NOM) чаю (PART) ‘how much tea’,
but скольки(DAT) чаю (PART) ‘to how much tea’
Measure phrases and proportional quantifiers which are used in any case (essentially these are nouns syntactically):
Два литра -‘two liters’;
Горсть -‘a handful’,
Половина- ‘half,
Половина (NOM) чаю (PART) ‘half of the tea’,
Половине(DAT) чаю(PART) ‘to half of the tea’.
Partitive case proper, unlike genitive чаю, sounds less natural with proportional quantifiers like половина than with other mass noun quantifiers, yet it is well attested in usage.
Agreeing with the noun in case and gender. Selecting for singular:
Каждый - ‘every,’ один - ‘one,’ тридцать один - ‘thirty one, and all
other numerals ending in odin
одно (NOMSGN)яблоко (NOMSGN) ‘one apple’,
одному(DATSGN) яблоку (DATSGN) ‘to one apple’.
Selecting for plural:
Все - ‘all,’ (не) многие - ‘(not) many,’ e.g.
Все (NOMPL) яблоки(NOMPL) ‘all (the)apples’,
Всем (DATPL) яблокам (DATPL) ‘to all (the) apples’.
Selecting for the genitive plural form quantifiers used only as a subject and direct object: мало - ‘few,’ (не) достаточно - ‘(in) sufficiently many,’
больше всего - ‘the most’ quantifiers used in any case (essentially they behave like nouns)
Сколько is used in cases other than nominative and accusative only when combined with count nouns.
Many pronominal elements in Russian are organized into morphologically regular series, mostly based on interrogatives. These include several series of indefinites but also quantifiers with different semantic contributions for a discussion.
When prepositions combine with quantified NPs with series markers preceding the pronominal stem, the series marker precedes the preposition.
In these examples, series markers are ни for the negative concord series and кое for an indefinite series:
59. Don’t ask about anything!
Ни о чем не спрашивай!
60. I stopped by his place with some business.
Я к нему кое по каким делам заезжал
Negative existential quantification
‘no’ is expressed by a combination of sentential negation не and negative concord items никакой / ни один, consisting of the particle ни-‘nor’ and either the interrogative determiner or the numeral ‘one;’ of these two, only никакой is used with mass nouns.
Value judgment cardinals
Value judgment cardinals come in many syntactic flavors. The two core monomorphemic, ones are много - ‘many, much’ and мало - ‘few, little’ can function as adverbs or like numerals (assigning partitive = 2nd genitive case). Some are adjectives (не ) многочисленный - ‘(non)numerous,’
малочисленный - ‘innumerous’), some are adjectives
morphologically but strictly occupy the leftmost position in their NP, i.e.
pattern with determiners не многие - ‘(not) many’. There are also pronominal series with много and мало as series markers,
много кто - ‘many (people)’
61. We interviewed (very) many / few candidates.’
Мы опросили многих / немногих кандитатов
62. Too many/few candidates participated in the elections.’
Слишком много /мало кандидатов участвовали на выборах
4. Conclusion
In this course paper I investigated Quantifiers and their ways use. I had chosen this theme because I was interested in it and also it is one of the most important part of speech in teaching grammar not only in English but in other languages too. Quantifiers play great role in the person’s speech as it expresses name imprecise quantity of something. During this analysis I’ve found a lot of interesting sides of quantifiers.
Having investigated my Course Paper I made the following conclusions:
- Quantifiers are used with Nouns. And in English language it is very important to know which kind of noun we use with Quantifiers. There are countable and uncountable nouns, also there some Quantifiers which are used only with countable nouns, some Quantifiers which are used only with uncountable nouns and there are some Quantifiers which are used with both of them.
For example:
A great number of my buttons are red.
(Quantifier “a great number” with countable)
I can't work here. There's too much noise.
(Quantifier “too much” with uncountable noun)
There is some milk in the bottle. (uncount. noun)
I bought some books yesterday. (count. noun)
(Quantifier “some” with countable and uncountable noun)
- Quantifiers are used in literature a lot. I found out examples with Quantifiers from the works of American and English writers.
William F. Buckley, JR. “Up from Misery”
“Then in the spring of 1972 his gentle devoted wife had a mastectomy, the prognosis optimistic, but with a shade of uncertainty, so, to beef up his morale, he increased the dosage just a little”.
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.7)
Arthur Conan Doyle, “The lost world. The stories about Sherlock Holmes”
“To Sherlock Holmes she was always the woman. He never told about her in any other words. Sherlock Holmes didn’t feel any love for Irene Adler”.
(“The lost world. The stories about Sherlock Holmes “Arthur Conan Doyle, Moscow, 2002)
Andrew Carnegie, “How I served my apprenticeship”.
“The first serious lesson of my life came to me one day when he had taken in the last of his work to the merchant, and returned to our little home greatly distressed because there was no more work for him to do”.
(“Mind speaks to Mind”, Dean Curry, Washington, 1988, p.13)
- As I know Russian language as my official one, I decided to make a comparative analysis of Quantifiers with English Language as the language which I’ve been learning for many years.
In English language it is very important to use Quantifiers correctly with countable and uncountable nouns. But in Russian language there is no importance of using Quantifiers with countable or uncountable nouns.
For example:
How much money do you have?
Сколько денег у тебя есть?
Quantifier “How much” we use only with uncountable nouns such as a money, milk, noisy, etc.
In Russian language Quantifier “Сколько” is use with all the types of noun.
But in some cases we don’t translate Quantifiers.
There is some milk in the bottle.
В бутылке есть несколько молока (incorrect)
В бутылке есть молоко.
And in Russian language it is very important to know the cases and
to use correctly with Quantifiers. Because cases are something that is probably the most complicated concept in Russian language to the student that speaks only English. Old English had cases, but in contemporary English language you can notice cases mostly in personal pronouns. The question about category of case in English for nowadays has discussion character. It depends on approach which author uses in this problem; to English language was given different numbers of cases. Understanding of case as combination of preposition with noun in initial form; it is supposed that there are four cases in English language: nominative, genitive (possessive), dative and accusative. But fundamentally, this version of the problem of case was represented in wrong way, so far as case is word form, which has corresponding to case morpheme, as –’s in English. So we can note from typological characteristics of case category of noun that all nouns in English are divided into two classes: words denote unanimated things, which have not the category of case; and words that denote animated things and time, which have two cases- nominative and possessive. If we recognize this point of view, it will correspond to the modern system of case; it means that in fact there is no category of case. In that moment we have new grammatical category called genitive category, which represented by morpheme -’s. But mostly we have more similarities in using Quantifiers in English and in Russian languages.
- The novelty of the Course Paper is that it contains examples taken from different life situations, we use Quantifiers in Dialogues :
It's Mum's birthday next week. Let's get her a present.
OK. How about some perfume?
Well, she doesn't have any. She doesn't use it.
So how about some clothes or a watch?
That's a good idea, but I don't know her
Let's just buy a gift voucher. Then she can choose her own present.
Great idea!
There are a lot of phrases with Quantifiers:
Every child needs love.
More than one of the student passed the exam .
I’m sure that my Course Paper will be helpful for students of our Faculty to understand English Grammar and to speak English fluently and accurately.
5. Bibliography
- Illyish B. “The structure of Modern English”, M.- L. 1965;
2. Kaushanskaya “ English Grammar”;
3. О. Jespersen. “A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles”,
London-Copenhagen, 1965;
4. Rayevska N.M. “Modern English Grammar”, Kiev, 1967;
5. Sweet. H. A “New English Grammar”, Oxford, 1955;
6. Sarah Cunningam, Peter Moor “Cutting Edge” : Work Book;
7. Блох. М. Я. “Теоретическая грамматика английского языка”, М., 1983;
8. В. Н. Жигадло, И. П. Иванова, Л. Л. Иофик. “Современный английский язык”, М., 1956;
9. Иванова, Л. Л. Иофик. “Современный английский язык”, М.— Л., 1956;
10. Смирницкий.И. “Лексикология английского языка”, М., 1956;
11. Ярцева. B. H. “Историческая морфология английского языка”, M.— Л., 1960;
12. Ярцева В. H. “Исторический синтаксис английского языка”, М.— Л., 1961;
13. www. answers.com/topic/agreement –linguistics work;
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