1887
Volume 21, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1384-6655
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9811
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Abstract

Prescriptive grammarians advise against the use of the quantifier in informal positive sentences, unless it is modified by , , or . However, because these grammarians may not have conducted a thorough corpus-based analysis, such advice may be unsound. This is why this article attempts to identify the actual constraints on the use of , by searching corpora for data for and its competitor , with plural count nouns in positive sentences. Conducted within the conceptual framework of cognitive linguistics, the analysis suggests that quantities denoted by are construed as heterogeneous and discrete, hence the relative affinity of for nouns of place and time, as part of adverbial phrases. This core meaning may also account for ’s relative affinity for personal nouns in subject position. Unlike , seems to associate awkwardly with homogeneous substances, which may be why it is rarely found in object noun phrases.

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2016-04-01
2025-02-18
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): boundedness; collocation; discreteness; quantifier; register
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