Fawcett's Quantifying Determiner Viewed Through The Lens Of SFL Theory

Fawcett (2010: 256-7):

Consider the underlined portions of the following examples: sixty books, many books, plenty of books, a lot of books, a very large number of books, a huge heap of books, two hundred books, over sixty books and over two hundred books. In each case the underlined portion expresses the 'quantity' of books. Sometimes this is marked by the presence of the item of (which expounds the selector in a nominal group) and sometimes it is not. (Thus here of is not a preposition; in a functional grammar such details of realisation at the level of form should be fitted in around the major generalisations about the meanings of the elements.) In all of the above examples, then, we shall want to say that the quantifying expression functions as a quantifying determiner in a nominal group whose head is books.

This brings us to the question to be addressed here. If you work your way through the string of examples that I have just given, there is a point at which you will decide that the quantifying determiner is not directly expounded by an item, but is instead filled by a unit with its own internal structure. For me this would be a lot of books (because we must also allow for a(n absolutely) huge lot of books, etc.).

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the underlined portions of Fawcett's examples are instances of the Numerative element of nominal group structure:

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the of in such instances serves as a structure marker. That is, they are not preposition groups that serve as the minor Process/Predicator element of a prepositional phrase.

[3] To be clear, from the perspective of SFL Theory, the Numerative elements in these instances differ in how they are realised at word rank:

(i) word (± structure marker) serving as Numerative of nominal group:

(ii) word complex serving as Numerative of nominal group:

(iii) embedded nominal group serving as Numerative: