Search results for 'tag:Determiners tag:Universities' matching tags 'Determiners' and 'Universities'

Re: Some questions

Philip — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:05:38 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

Please answer the following questions:

1. Why the word 'police' does not have a determiner in front of it when my dictionary noted that it could be a singular noun?

... identified by police and parents as the day-care center owner... 'the' could be used, but is often omitted.

2. Is the following adjectival construction acceptable?

... 24 members of a University California, Irvine, rowing crew were ...Acts as an adjective modifyin 'a.....crew'.

3. When you have abbrviations like IRS or NBC, don't you (usually??) put the article 'the" in front of the abbreviations but why not here? Sorry for not providing you with extended versions.

... user guide about IRS ... I'm sure this is done in print; in speaking, I would insert 'the'.

Specter, McKay and Iglesias appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," ... This is fine.

Remember that for many things in any language we simply have no logical explanation. (I'm not saying there is no logical explanation for some of this, but I can't come up with one.)

Some questions

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:01:07 GMT

Please answer the following questions:

1. Why the word 'police' does not have a determiner in front of it when my dictionary noted that it could be a singular noun?

... identified by police and parents as the day-care center owner...

2. Is the following adjectival construction acceptable?

... 24 members of a University California, Irvine, rowing crew were ...

3. When you have abbrviations like IRS or NBC, don't you (usually??) put the article 'the" in front of the abbreviations but why not here? Sorry for not providing you with extended versions.

... user guide about IRS ...

Specter, McKay and Iglesias appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," ...

Re: please correct my essay. happy new year!(you would find it interesting)

nona the brit — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:24:40 GMT

Your answer to the second question is about 200 words too long. Cut it down and bring it back here afterwards. Watch your spelling as well, as you have several silly errors, such as beak for break and Whiteman for Whitman. You need to be able to proof read your own writing and not rely on us to pick up those sorts of daft errors.

I've made a few corrections for you *highlighted in red and pointed out some other problem areas for you by *highlighting in yellow. Your main problem areas are choosing the correct preposition and knowing when to use a determiner.

Pursuing graduate study in finance has not been a cursory decision for me. I still remember the serious expression on a famous financial professorâs face when he was lecturing on the reform of Chinese state banks in our university. It was this lecture that made me determine to develop my career in banking.

According to the protocol on the accession of China to the WTO, China completely opened its financial market to foreign banks in 2006. Facing competition from foreign bank groups, Chinese state banks are actively launching reforms to upgrade their management. However, because of the premature economic situation in China, those reforms involve various risks and difficulties, which directly affect the nationâs fate. As a youth, I feel a responsibility to contribute to the historic reforms. Thus I decided to take part in the Graduate Entrance Examination of the Finance department at Renmin University of Chinaâone of the best Finance departments in China. Paths are usually not easy for people who pursue their dreams. Although I attained satisfying scores in the examination, I finally failed due to the slim probability of admission, which is less than five percent of applicants. However, later experience of job-hunting led me to have a much more practical and specific realization toward my career choice.

Under the trend of opening up in banking, as domestic and foreign banks are competing for attractive market share in China, they are in urgent need of financial professionals who are both familiar with the domestic market and proficient in international bank operations. Nevertheless, my limited knowledge and experience in finance does not qualify me for job vacancies in banks.

I clearly understand that enhancing my academic background is the first step to focus my career in this field.

Specifically, because of the previous monopoly nature of banking backed by Chinese government, investment management is a weak point to most domestic commercial banks. In the face of equal competition with giant foreign counterparts, domestic banks lag far behind in investment skills and experiences. So I plan to focus on investment analysis during my study in MSF program of Whitman School of Management. After graduation, I will try to find a finance or risk analysis position in which I can gain broad version and accumulate practical experience in US. In about three years, I will return to my motherland as an investment expert. Then I will actively adapt myself to domestic environment and devote my passion to improve Chinese banksâ investment management level. As I know, there are few professional bankers in China, let alone women bankers. In the long-term, I have the ambition to be one of the women bankers, breaking through the men-dominated banking field.

The MSF program designed in Whitman School can benefit my career in three aspects, which can rarely be obtained from Finance graduate program of Chinese universities. Firstly, Whitmanâs MSF program emphasizes on providing students with the advanced skills in applied finance. In Whitman, I have the opportunity to absorb the cutting edge information introduced by the internationally recognized finance faculty in a country with the most developed financial market in the world. In contrast, graduate education of finance in China largely focuses on financial theories stemming from the West, and students seldom have practical knowledge about finance. Secondly, the program teaches the quantitative and analytical skills employed in the investment structuring, pricing, and risk management of financial instruments. Although Finance department of Chinese universities are beginning to cultivate studentsâ quantitative skills, qualitative analysis still occupies finance research. Moreover, a good command of English has been a must for a competitive financial professional. Study in Whitman can accelerate my oral and written abilities of business English, for I am often puzzled by the bottleneck of improvement in current circumstance.

I have heard the fame of Syracuse for quite a long time, and I believe that the honor of being admitted to Syracuse will be a lifetime fortune.

Why no determiners in front of this countable?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 12:48:51 GMT

Hi,

Why is this sentence from a school brochure does not have a determiner in front of the word "communication"? A countable noun, according to my dictionary.

You maintain communication with the University via a Local Administrative Center.

Also, why is it, "Local Administrative Center," capitalized?

Re: One vs it

CalifJim — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:09:02 GMT

I know Paco through many on-line conversations, so I know he is more than capable of comprehending a complex English sentence. The question is subtle and requires some subtlety to answer it. I'm sure, from my past experience with this student, that he understands at the level I have given the answer. But thank you for your concern in this matter.

As for "specificness", you'll have to take that up with Huddleston, a university professor of English, who wrote Introduction to the Grammar of English for the series "Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics", for it is he who speaks of the parameter of specificness in determiners in English. The header for Section 6.7 of that book is, in fact, (also in bold in the original):

Definiteness, specificness and genericness

I suggest you look up "cheerful" and "courteous" and "tact" and proverbs regarding vinegar and honey.

CJ

Re: Help needed

MrPedantic — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:45:40 GMT

Hello Abbie and Mav

I hope you don't mind if I add something here.

1. 'Your age should not act as a preclusion to your being accepted on the university course.'
2. 'Your age should not act as a preclusion to you being accepted on the university course.'

In #1, 'being accepted' is a verbal noun, and so can take a possessive determiner. However, this construction now has a slightly old-fashioned air to most native speakers, as people tend to precede the ING-form with an object pronoun, as in #2.

You could analyse the two sentences as follows:

#1 'your age' doesn't preclude 'your being accepted'.
#2 'your age' doesn't preclude 'you-being-accepted'.

(Thus in #2, 'age' is precluding a state; whereas in #1 it's precluding an event.)

MrP

Proper nouns --- retry

rvw — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:52:35 GMT

I got one reply to my original post from Mister Micawber, but no reply to my second post.
So here is the discussion so far. (Is there a better way to bring a thread back for further discussion?)
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Proper nouns
Posted: 11-28-2004 11:34 PM

Definitions of 'proper noun' describe it as a noun designating a particular being or thing.

But that is not enough, because in "I am riding my bike.", 'my bike' is a particular bike.

So the definitions add that a proper noun does not take a limiting modifier (such as 'my', 'this', 'a', 'an', ...).

Does anyone know of a satisfactory definition of 'proper noun' that does not resort to the limiting- modifier exclusion?
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Re: Proper nouns
Posted: 11-29-2004 03:53 AM

The modifier is not part of the noun. A proper noun is limited to the proper name of any individual person, place or thing. It is considered a noun phrase in itself (Eiffel Tower). Whether it is preceded by a determiner (the Eiffel Tower-- the real one-- or my Eiffel Tower-- the toy one) is irrelevant.

There is no reason not to accept the limiting-modifier exclusion any more than you would not accept the fact that a proper noun is not a verb. 'Bike' is not a proper noun.

This post represents the enlightened but personal opinion of a university-educated, Canadian-American native English speaker.
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Re: Proper nouns
Posted: 11-29-2004 09:25 PM

I don't think the use of limiting adjectives IS irrelevant.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines 'proper noun' : " a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usu. capitalized in English."

The American Heritage Dictionary: "a noun designating by name a being or thing without a limiting modifier."

Perhaps the dictionaries are saying that a proper noun sufficiently specifies a particular being or thing so that a limiting adjective is not needed to identify the being or thing intended. Saying 'my', or 'this' or 'some', or 'a' Eiffel Tower is redundant or confusing because there is only one. (In your example 'my (toy) Eiffel Tower', there are several toy Eiffel Towers, so here it is a common noun.)

The remarks in the definitions of 'proper noun' about limiting adjectives may just be usage comments and not essential to the definitions. But, as worded, the remarks seem to be integral to the definitions.

I still have two questions:

1. Is there a better definition of 'proper noun', one which does not refer to limiting adjectives and which better communicates the specifying action of a proper noun?

2. The prohibition against using limiting adjectives with proper nouns seems to need some qualifying: her (France's) Eiffel Tower. And what about 'the'? The Eiffel Tower, The United States, ... .