Practice with Quantifiers

INTRODUCTION | HYPOTHESIZING | NOW TRY THIS
(other practice: Columbus * Washington)

INTRODUCTION:

from First Amendment articles

four nonviolent political expressions X    
five men
any federal laws
eight federal courtrooms
some things
all the facts X
more heat
quite a few alcohol restrictions
four years 		all his bartenders
some bars
some atheists
some atheist organizations  
millions of Americans
much notice
no decision
no objection
some officials 		every day
all men
as much meaning
all the participants
no reason
how many officers
how much overtime
18 public meetings
15 percent of the population

1. First look for the definite nouns above (as discussed in the articles overview). Underline the articles or other words that show you that the nouns are definite. Ignore the words that come before these words, and put the other parts of each noun phrase in the chart below, to the RIGHT of the lines.

2. Then, for each one, put the words that you ignored to the LEFT of the line. These are the "quantifiers", the words that tell us "how many?" or "how much?" of the noun the writer is referring to. (one has been done for you)

DEFINITE
count singular / noncount count plural

3. Do the same for the indefinite nouns. (There may not be an article or other word between the quantifiers and the rest of the phrase, but put the quantifiers to the left, and the rest of the phrase to the right, of the line.)

INDEFINITE
count singular count plural noncount

When you're finished, note: Where do you find of? Do you notice any patterns? (Then scroll down.)

IN SEARCH OF A HYPOTHESIS:

Here is what your charts from the lists above should look like. What can we learn about the use of quantifiers and/or of from them? (Not much yet!)

DEFINITE
count singular / noncount count plural

INDEFINITE
count singular count plural noncount

LOOKING FOR MORE:

If we add quantifiers from four more "First Amendment articles," the following patterns, which were beginning to emerge in the first lists, are more evident:

So we may be getting an idea about which are more frequent -- hypotheses to test out. But we still won't have enough evidence to figure out when of is used with quantifiers.) We need to check for more.

Since quantifiers without of, and quantifiers with indefinite nouns seem to be more frequent, let's add (in addition to all of the quantifiers from the 8 "First Amendment articles") all of the quantifiers with definite nouns and/or with of (ignoring the others) that we can find in the other texts we've looked at this term (the FIFA, Fathers' Day and MTD articles, and "Friends."

DEFINITE
count singular / noncount count plural

INDEFINITE
count singular count plural noncount

Now study the quantifier overview chart, and then look through a different text of your choice for additional quantifiers, and add them to this chart:

LOOK AT YOUR CHARTS:
NOW TRY THIS (The last "First Amendment article," with more quantifiers for you to study)

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Ann Salzmann
Intensive English Institute
University of Illinois