Alexey86
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- Nov 3, 2018
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Hello! I was reading an article about noun phrases with partitives/quantifiers and came across the statement that the sentence, "Some of green slime is created by bacteria" is "not welcome" (I understood it as "ungrammatical"). Here's the excerpt where I found it:
(36) a. Ants had gotten into most of some jars of jam Bill had stored in the basement.
b. Three quarters of half the population will be mothers at some point in their lives.
c. Any of several options are open to us at this point.
d. Each student only answered a few of many questions that they could have.
e. Half of all dentists who chew gum prefer Trident.
With the exception of the last example ((36e)), each of the underlined NPs above is intuitively
indefinite, and would not be classified as definite by any of the analyses of that concept which
we have looked at so far. The last example has an embedded universal (all dentists who chew
gum) with a group interpretation.
Data like those above (and more examples can be easily found) suggest that any NP that
can have a group interpretation can appear embedded in a group partitive. The only exception
is bare plural and mass NPs, which are not welcome there, as illustrated by (37).
(37) a. * Most of books by Chomsky are on politics.
b. * Some of green slime is created by bacteria.
As is also indicated by these two examples, it does not matter whether the bare NP is interpreted as indefinite (as in (37a)) or generically (as in (37b)). Neither is possible embedded in a partitive. (Interestingly, in this characteristic bare plural and mass NPs are different from
proper names; viz., e.g., Most of Australia is desert.)
As I see it, (37a) should be, "Most of the books by Chomsky are on politics." But I can't see what's wrong with (37b). Is the problem with "some", or maybe something should be added between "of" and "green slime"?
(36) a. Ants had gotten into most of some jars of jam Bill had stored in the basement.
b. Three quarters of half the population will be mothers at some point in their lives.
c. Any of several options are open to us at this point.
d. Each student only answered a few of many questions that they could have.
e. Half of all dentists who chew gum prefer Trident.
With the exception of the last example ((36e)), each of the underlined NPs above is intuitively
indefinite, and would not be classified as definite by any of the analyses of that concept which
we have looked at so far. The last example has an embedded universal (all dentists who chew
gum) with a group interpretation.
Data like those above (and more examples can be easily found) suggest that any NP that
can have a group interpretation can appear embedded in a group partitive. The only exception
is bare plural and mass NPs, which are not welcome there, as illustrated by (37).
(37) a. * Most of books by Chomsky are on politics.
b. * Some of green slime is created by bacteria.
As is also indicated by these two examples, it does not matter whether the bare NP is interpreted as indefinite (as in (37a)) or generically (as in (37b)). Neither is possible embedded in a partitive. (Interestingly, in this characteristic bare plural and mass NPs are different from
proper names; viz., e.g., Most of Australia is desert.)
As I see it, (37a) should be, "Most of the books by Chomsky are on politics." But I can't see what's wrong with (37b). Is the problem with "some", or maybe something should be added between "of" and "green slime"?
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