Premodification: determiners, adjectives & nouns The Noun Phrase Premodification: determiners, adjectives & nouns

DETERMINERS Articles: the , a(n) Demonstratives : this, these, that, those Possessives: pronouns (my her, your, etc), by adding ‘s (John’s car) Quantifiers: Definite quantifiers - they give an exact idea of how many or what portion you are talking about: both, half, all, either, each and every Indefinite quantifiers – they are an inexact expression for quantities: ( U & C) any, some, a lot of, lots of, (only C) a couple of, a few, several, many, (only U) a little, a great deal of Negative quantifiers: no, neither, few, little

PREMODIFIERS Nouns - they are often used to classify or describe other nouns, and then they are put in the premodifier position: e.g. A computer operator course; a job placement test; a three-room apartment   Adjectives – You can, in theory, use any number of premodifiers in a noun phrase, although it is unusual to use more than two. The rules governing the order of premodifiers are complicated and subtle. In general, you can think of two basic premodifier positions: the describers and the classifiers.

The describers They simply describe the noun. They can be made comparative and can be used with a qualifier. They are a large group that is further divided: Evaluative adjectives: express the speaker’s or writer’s opinion or feeling about whatever is being described. When more than one describer is used, the evaluative one is put first. (e.g. lovely, handsome, temperamental, etc.) Adjectives that describe size, length or height come next. (e.g. big, small, long, short, tall.) Adjectives that describe other qualities follow (e.g. hot, cold, clean, fresh, stupid, smart, sad, etc..) Adjectives that describe color come last.

The classifiers They can be either adjectives or nouns. They classify the noun head in terms of: Frequency: e.g. annual, monthly, weekly, daily Participle adjectives: e.g. broken, homemade, bored, stolen, chosen, etc. Nationality or region: e.g. African, Chinese, Spanish, western Area of activity or study: e.g. educational, medical, political, social