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Guest Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Plural Nouns without Quantifiers

0 Consider the following sentence: 02br
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00Sentences using plural nouns without quantifying adjectives or phrases such as "all," "most," "some," etc., are vaque. 02br
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00This sentence serves as its own example. Did I mean "all sentences," "some sentences," or what? 02br
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00Is there any language that assumes a default quantifier when none is used? 0-
  

Top answer

0 Incidentally, I was the above guest, now registered. 0-

— Aruzinsky

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14 Answers
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0 Incidentally, I was the above guest, now registered. 0-
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0 Hello aruzinsky. Welcome to EnglishForum. Nice to meet you! 02br
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00You mean the problem of [Bare Plural] or [Indifinite Plural], right? 02br
00I've read that there's some similarity with [Mass Nouns], in their semantics. 02br
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00 Sentences using plural nouns without quantifying adjectives or phrases such as "all," "mos
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0 Hello, Roro. 02br
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001. How did you make those quotes? I see no quote button. 02br
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002. I am not a linguist. I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. 02br
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003. I was unfamiliar with the term so, after you used it, I did a Google search on "Bare Plural" and found this: 02br
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05000 02br
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0 Hello, and thank you for your question, Professor Ruzinsky! 02br
00Beforehand I have to warn you: I'm not a linguist yet. I'm studying it still. 02br
00I try to answer to your question as far as possible, and when my answers are not satisfactory, I'm sure other members are along with me. 02br
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00 1. How did you make those quotes?
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0 Hello Mr Ruzinsky, 02br
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00As to your question about punctuation, please take a look this thread: 02br
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00(And you can link by typing 00the post / thread number00. Be sure to leave no spaces between the brackets and 'post' and '/post', which I inserted here. And [the post / thread number] is indicated in the URL.) 02
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0 Hello Mr Ruzinsky, let me continue. 02br
00As you pointed out, 01blockquote
00 Sentences using Bare Plurals, that is common nouns without quantifiers, are vague. 12blockquote
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00It's true. But sentences with definite /indefinite articles, too, have two (or several) usages. For example: 02br
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10 7. How does any linguist determine what typical people mean and infer except by statistical analysis of large samples? It is my experience that most people do not have a clear idea of what they mean or infer with many bare plurals. It seems to me that maybe some linguists wrongly assume that most people know what they mean, e.g., it might take ma
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0 Roro, thank you for your time. 02br
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00Hello, and thank you for your question, Professor Ruzinsky!12blockquote
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00I am not a professor. That title is reserved for high ranking teachers at universities which I am not. In the USA, a Ph.D. carries a title of "Dr." but I prefer that you simply call me by my registered name, "a
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0 Hello aruzinsky, and thank you for your reply. (Sorry, I just wanted to be more polite!) 02br
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00I think now I understand your question a little bit better. Yes, I intended to define the term 00, of course, using the terms of a set theory. I will. I think H. Verkuyl's explanation/theory is the best one, so I will try to put his idea concisely, in order to explain th
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0 Hello, aruzinsky again! 02br
00I have to ask you: do you need a quick answer? 02br
00I ask you because I more often than not take time to get to the point ! 02br
00It's my tendency 05002br
00If you are in a hurry, I'll do my best to give you a short & concise answer. 02br
00Roro 010id1
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