non-head nominals and number agreement

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 25, 2007, at 4:01 PM, Lary Horn wrote:

> It's standard for such constructions as "a lot of", "a number of",
> etc. to take plural agreement, inidcating that the nominals in such
> constructions are not heads but quantifiers (functioning essentially
> like "many").

yes, they're now noun constructions functioning as (quantity)
determiners.  the count/mass and sg/pl properties of the whole NP are
determined by the true head (marked with the preposition "of"); the
determiners are "transparent" to these properties.

>   I've been hearing some new ones lately.

almost any element with quantity semantics is eligible for
reinterpretation as a determiner.  for instance, "bunch" and "pile"
are collective nouns that have gone this route fairly recently in
colloquial english (of course, the collective noun usages are still
available too).  there's a *lot* of variation in which elements have
developed determiner uses.

i have scattered sightings in a number of files (on my computer and
on paper).  i suppose it's time to collect these things in one place.

discussion in CGEL: sec. 3.3 ("Non-count quantificational nouns") of
ch. 5 (pp. 349-52).

arnold

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