QUANTIFIER

1. Definition: A quantifier is a type of determiner (such as all, some, or much) that

expresses a relative or indefinite indication of quantity.

Quantifiers usually appear in front of nouns (as in all children), but they may also function
as pronouns (as in All have returned).

A complex quantifier is a phrase (such as a lot of) that functions as a quantifier.

Examples and Observations

 "I believe that every person is born with talent." (Maya Angelou)

 "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep
time with short steps."(Hans Christian Andersen, in the instructions for the music
for his funeral)
 "Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple
reason: they made no such demand upon those who wrote them."
 "All politicians should have three hats: one to throw into the ring, one to talk
through, and one to pull rabbits out of if elected."
 "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened."

2. Meanings of Quantifiers

"Quantifiers can be classified in terms of their meaning. Some quantifiers have a meaning
of inclusiveness. That is, they refer to an entire group. Both refers to two members of a
group of two, few to a subgroup of the entire group, and all to the totality of members of a
group of unspecified size. Every and each refer to single members of a group. The
difference between all, a few, and both on the one hand and each and every, is reflected
in subject-verb agreement

"Other quantifiers are noninclusive and have a meaning related to size or quantity. These
quantifiers can be classified by the relative size they indicate. For
example, many and much refer to large quantities, some to a moderate quantity,
and little and few to small quantities . . .."

3. Partitives and Quantifiers: Agreement

 "There is, in fact, a somewhat fuzzy distinction between partitive structures and

inclusives and Quantifiers formed with of. In a clause such as a lot of students
have arrived it is the noun students which determines number agreement on the
Finite (have - plural). It is not normally possible to say *a lot of students has
arrived. Therefore students is the head of the noun group and a lot of is a complex
Quantifier. Similarly, it is also normal to say a number of students have
arrived not a number of students has arrived, that is, to treat a number of as a
complex Quantifier. . . .
 "For beginning learners, it may be best to introduce expressions such as a lot
of and a number of as complex Quantifiers but in other cases to err on
the prescriptive side and encourage agreement with the noun preceding of."
Count Nouns, Mass Nouns, and Quantifiers

"Count nouns (e.g. diamond, bottle, book, board, waiter, table, cat, bush, truck, house)
and mass nouns (e.g. gold, coffee, paper, wood, meat, air, water, coal, smoke, blood, wine)
differ grammatically in the range of articles and quantifiers they occur with. For instance,
count nouns occur with the indefinite article a but not with the complex quantifier a lot
of: a diamond, *a lot of diamond. Mass nouns do the opposite: a lot of gold, *a gold."