Non-specific determiners used in English and Vietnamese
Firstly, on the syntactic aspect, non-specific determiners in English could be divided into : non-specific determiners co-occurring with singular countable nouns (a, an , each and every), with plural countable nouns (few, a few, both, many and several), with uncountable nouns (much, little and a little), with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns (enough, more, and most), and with all types of nouns (singular countable nouns, plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns : all, some, any and no). Besides, we can also realize that while the determiners such as “a, an, every, any, no, some, all, both, much, many, several, few and a few” can be combined with other determiners, the other determiners such as “most, each, enough and little” are never or rarely combined with others determiners.
Secondly, English non-specific determiners are classified into six categories in terms of meaning : talking about a person or thing for the first time (a and an), talking about a group of two (both), talking about the whole of something (all, each and every), talking about the existence of an amount or number of something (some, any and no), talking about a large amount or number of something (many, more and most), talking about a small amount or number of something ( few, a few and several) and talking about a sufficient quantity or number (enough).
A noticeable thing is that some English non-specific determiners are similar in meaning and structure, but they also have rather differences. For example, both “each” and “every” are similar in meaning, can be used for repeated events and are also used with singular count nouns. However they have the differences : “each” has a stronger idea than “every” of separate or successive events. In other words, “each” is used to emphasize this separateness and “every” is used for a collective interpretation ; “each” can be used when talking about two people or things, but “every” is used for numbers larger than two.
Thirdly, after having collecting and making the statistics on the frequency of English non-specific determiners, we have the conclusion that the while determiner A is the most commonly used determiner with 2993 samples, Few is the least commonly used determiner with only 37 samples. Besides, both determiners Much and Enough appear 43 times with 0,7 %.
Finally, the similarities as well as difference between English non-specific determiners and their Vietnamese equivalents can be drawn out. The English determiners, semantically, have nearly the same as Vietnamese ones. In terms of structure, like English non-specific determiners, most of the determiners in Vietnamese often come before a noun phrase. However, there is also the difference between the structure of the determiners “some”, “any” in English and in Vietnamese. The structure of English determiners “some”, “any” has the structure : determiner - noun , whereas the Vietnamese determiners have the structures : determiner - noun - determiner ; noun - determiner.
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