Search results for 'tag:Articles tag:Possessives' matching tags 'Articles' and 'Possessives'

Re: articles after "no"

Mister Micawber — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:03:25 GMT

.
There are several determiners with which we do not use an article. These include the demonstratives (this, that), the possessives (my, her, its, etc), some quantifiers (no, every, each, etc) and the cardinal number 'one'.

There is no TV here.
There is not a TV here.
The TV is not here.

The first two are synonymous but do not address the existence of a TV; the third indicates that the TV is elsewhere.
.

Re: Â«...clean grimy hands...Â»

Ant_222 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:52:23 GMT

MissMandy
...a tells the listener that we are being generic. If you wanted him to wash his own weary face, you'd need a possessive determiner (your)

Hmmm. I thought that a + singular countable noun was the same as zero article + plural countable noun.

Why wouldn't the hobbits look around for other(s)' grimy hands and not their ones? In the original sentence, "hands" doesn't have a determiner either... Having re-reading GG's explanation and trying to unite it with yours, I am starting to think that that might be the case...

Anton

Re: Â«...clean grimy hands...Â»

MissMandy — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:30:41 GMT

Haha, you gave me a funny picture in my head. If you told Paul to wash a weary face, he would probably be looking around for someone else's weary face to wash because you can't tell him to wash his own face that way; a tells the listener that we are being generic. If you wanted him to wash his own weary face, you'd need a possessive determiner (your). So, yes, you seem correct.

When thinking about determiners (articles are a category of determiners), you always need to decide if the noun is count or non-count, and if it is count, if it is plural or singular as well as if it is generic of specific. With non-count nouns you need to decide if the noun is specific or generic. Once all of that has been decided, you still have lots of choices.(Go to Wikipedia's "Determiners" page to see the long list.)

If you want, send me an email and I'll send you a PDF graphic that I give to all my grammar students. Determiners are tiny, but powerful and confusing, little words. I'll send the file to anyone who wants it. Just send me your email.

~Miss Mandy

Re: Correct or Not

Eimai_Anglos — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:42:56 GMT

"why was late reply" is not a sentence. It has no meaning. In English a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark (. ; : ? !)

In addition, you seem to have omitted a definite or indefinite article or a possessive pronoun and mixed up the word order.

"Why was his reply late?"

"Why was the reply late?"

Re: modifier, article included

Clive — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:31:01 GMT

Hi,
Please tell me if these sound strange or need more explanation or perhaps are correct as they are.

1. I go to a high school in Tokyo. I went to two different high schools before that. Fine. Wltth the article, you are talking about places. Without it, you are talking more about your level of education.

2. My love is the/his swimming.Sounds odd. Why not just say 'I love his swimming' or 'I love to watch him swim'?
Or perhaps you mean 'I love swimming' or 'I love to swim

Most of times, I hear people say, "I go to school," but can I say "I go to a school"? Again, yes, if you want to think of the school as a building, as a place.
I have seen such structures as "I love to watch his cooking of vegetable soup." Does it sound OK when a gerund has an article or possessive in front of it? It's correct, but it sounds somewhat formal. Less formal and very common is 'I love to watch him cooking vegetable soup'.

Best wishes, Clive

modifier, article included

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:45:56 GMT

Hi,

Please tell me if these sound strange or need more explanation or perhaps are correct as they are.

1. I go to a high school in Tokyo. I went to two different high schools before that.
2. My love is the/his swimming.

Most of times, I hear people say, "I go to school," but can I say "I go to a school"?
I have seen such structures as "I love to watch his cooking of vegetable soup." Does it sound OK when a gerund has an article or possessive in front of it?

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Huevos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:50:05 GMT

Raen
1. As far as I know, all 3 articles are "always" followed by a noun and/or adjective+noun. Why are they labeled as "adjectives" when coming before a noun or adjective+noun? Why not just call them adjectives to begin with? and why can't they stand as their original identity which is "articles".

Here's what Wikipedia says: An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. The three main articles in the English language are the, an and a. It is sometimes wondered which part of speech articles belong to. Despite much speculation, articles are adjectives, as they do describe nouns; Linguists place them in a different category, that of determiners.

Raen
2. "my, your, our, their" are always adjective. A layman would say why not the other possessive pronouns: "her, his, her, its...". What's so special abut the first 4?

Wikipedia says no on this: Depending on the theory the grammar subscribes to, English "possessive adjectives" are determiners or pronouns: possessive determiners,[1] possessive pronouns,[2] dependent genitive pronouns,[3] weak possessive pronouns,[4] and so forth. They are not adjectives, because they can be substituted for and cannot co-occur with another determiner such as an article or a demonstrative.

So the answer to your question: "So would you say this particular grammar point is widely accepted by native-speakers and/or linguistic community?", is no.

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Raen — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:12:17 GMT

Thanks Huevos for you enlightment. But could we, just for the sake of arguement, allow me to examine the merit of this grammar point:

It says: There are 7 words that are "always" adjectives: articles "a", "an" and "the" and possessive pronouns "my", "your", "our" and "their".

1. As far as I know, all 3 articles are "always" followed by a noun and/or adjective+noun. Why are they labeled as "adjectives" when coming before a noun or adjective+noun? Why not just call them adjectives to begin with? and why can't they stand as their original identity which is "articles". An example in the practice that asks us to identify the part of speech for each word:

Q: Both the big girl and a small boy were happy with the results.

A: Both - conjunction, the - adjective, big - adjective, girl - noun, and - conjunction, a - adjective, small - adjective, boy - noun, were - verb, happy - adjective, with - preposition, the - adjective, results - noun.

Both "the" were identified as adjective. Why can't they just be "article"? What is the big idea for them to be labeled as "adjective"?

2. "my, your, our, their" are always adjective. A layman would say why not the other possessive pronouns: "her, his, her, its...". What's so special abut the first 4?

Anyway, I know it's not good to over think. But this is just one of the grammar points I find hard to comprehend. Thanks to everyone for their imput, and thanks for the good-will wish on my test, I sure hope I'll pass.

Regards

Raen

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Huevos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:08:46 GMT

Raen
So would you say this particular grammar point is widely accepted by native-speakers and/or linguistic community?

Whether or not people choose to accept it is irrelevant, it's a fact. Have a look at this:

smooth coat
chihuahua
domesticated
dog
canis
caninae
canidae
carnivora
mammal
chordata
animal

Now when you see a chihuahua ask the owner if it is a "chordata". Most would say no, it's a "chihuahua", but of course it is a "chordata", it's just that someone who doesn't understand the heirarchy or is not familiar with greater terminology wouldn't even know what a chordata was.

Words follow a similar heirarchy with lexical classes within lexical classes, within lexical classes. In the case of your question "adjectives" are a super class that contains, among others, determiners. Then in the determiner class we have, among others, articles, possessive derterminers (possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns), etc. And so on and so forth.

Re: Parse this sentence please.

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:59:46 GMT

this is what I have so far, but I'm not sure where to go from here.

Normal 0 A (article) twitch (noun) at (preposition) the (article) controls (noun) could (verb) swerve (verb) the (article) catâ (noun), but (conjunction) the (article) driverâs (noun) hands (noun) could (verb) not (adverb) twitch (verb) because (conunction) the (article) monster (noun) that built (verb) the (article) tractor (noun), the (article) monster (noun) that sent (verb) the (article) tractor (noun) out (preposition), had somehow (adverb) got (verb) into (preposition) the (article) driverâs (noun) hands (noun), into (preposition) his (possessive pronoun) brain (noun) and (conjunction) muscle (noun), had goggled (verb) him (pronoun) and (conjunction) muzzled (verb) him (pronoun) âgoggled (verb) his (possessive pronoun) mind (noun), muzzled (verb) his (possessive pronoun) speech(noun), goggled (verb) his (possessive pronoun) perception (noun), muzzled (verb) his (possessive pronoun) protest (noun).