User talk:Alastair Haines/Singular they

Quantifiers

You say: Quantifiers are adjectives used with either countable or uncountable nouns to describe quantity. They include words like: some, much, many, few, little, a lot, half, three.

No quantifiers are not adjectives, and to say they are is a linguistic howler. To be fair to what you claim is the source for this very odd claim, even this (a curious "authority" to cite in a linguistics article) doesn't assert that they are adjectives.

You should be aware that quantifiers sometimes are, sometimes aren't classed as determiners: there are indeed categorial disputes over them. But I don't think any linguist regards them as adjectives. Don't believe me? Then let's try comparing a quantifier and an adjective:

1a. I read each book. 1b. *I read big book.

2a. I read this big book. 2b. *I read this each book.

3a. It's a truly big book. 3b. *It's a truly each book.

4a. The book is big. 4b. *The book is each.

5a. I'll buy each. 5b. *I'll buy big.

Et cetera. About the only similarity is that they both have prenominal uses.

I get the impression that you're relying on ancient grammar books supplemented by some ad hoc linguistics reading here and there. Please dump the ancient grammar books and hold off on the ad hoc reading while you do some systematic reading up on parts of speech as elucidated in some recent grammar book (one written by one or more linguists for advanced undergraduate or graduate would-be linguists). Huddleston and Pullum's student grammar is a good introduction; the introductory section of any of Radford's recent syntax books is also good but takes a different approach to H&P. -- Hoary 16:04, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, references are especially appreciated. Yes, my field is grammar of ancient languages, though I read (and write) modern approaches to grammatical analysis of those languages, I'm hardly going to drop reading grammar of ancient languages while writing a dissertation on an ancient poem though! LoL

As you don't seem to be familiar with the area, linguistic analysis of ancient languages is not much different to analysis of modern languages, though it tends to major on diachronic issues. In citing sources at Wiki, I generally give priority to non-technical web accessible options. Especially when they are English grammar articles rather than technical linguistic articles.

But back to the issue at hand, yes, adjective stands in the text as a relic of a still incomplete decision about how to divide the information for ease of understanding. It is not correct as it stands, I need no pursuading of it. I agree quantifiers are not adjectives. Thanks again for taking the time to look at the draft. Cheers! :D Alastair Haines 17:47, 22 April 2007 (UTC)