Determinative phrases
at least thirty pages
not many students
Are at least thirty and not many determinative phrases in the NPs above?
Top answer
The words ‘at least thirty’ do not constitute a syntactic unit. ’ ‘not many’ is indeed a determinative phrase.
- The words ‘at least thirty’ do not constitute a syntactic unit.
- ’ ‘not many’ is indeed a determinative phrase.
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The words ‘at least thirty’ do not constitute a syntactic unit. Rather, ‘at least’ is a prepositional phrase modifying the smaller noun phrase ‘thirty pages,’ in which ‘thirty’ is determiner to ‘pages.’
‘not many’ is indeed a determinative phrase.
0On reflection, I think you got it right - ‘at least thirty’ is most probably better considered a DP after all. I was thinking of another, superficially similar construction. Please excuse my rushed reply.
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