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Messages - John Johnson

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1
You Asked Me This Question / Re: Auxiliary verbs
« on: September 11, 2014, 01:15:53 AM »
Thanks a lot for the answer!
But I wasn't able to open the link. Is it OK?

2
Use and Misuse / Re: Noun clauses
« on: September 11, 2014, 01:13:18 AM »
Oh, now I have a lot to study! I think that my mistake was that I thought that if-clauses and whether-clauses are always  interchangable.

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You Asked Me This Question / Re: Auxiliary verbs
« on: September 10, 2014, 01:37:53 AM »

Is it correct to say that ‘have’ and ‘be’ are ‘lexical modals’ in ‘I have to go’ and ‘we are to leave tomorrow’?

And when we talk about ‘do’ as an intensifier in ‘I do love her’ what is it in terms of auxiliaries and full verbs? Is it an auxiliary verb or maybe a kind of modals?

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 09, 2014, 11:17:28 PM »
Great! What should I do? Do I have to fulfil a new registration or it is technically possible to change 'John Johnson' to 'Ivan Ivanov'?

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 09, 2014, 09:20:29 PM »
Yes, you are right. I thought about it but then decided that it would be clear from my English that I am not a native speaker  :). Indeed, I’ll think up some Russian username (or maybe will use my real name) so that there will be no misunderstanding. Actually, Ivan Ivanov is a Russian counterpart of John Johnson.   :) Maybe it would be OK? I think that 'Ivan' is quite known as a typical Russian name.

Alexey.

6
Use and Misuse / Noun clauses
« on: September 08, 2014, 11:28:17 PM »

 
As far as I know there are two main kinds of noun clauses: that-clauses and wh-clauses. But is it possible to use the term ‘whether-if-clause'? To what kind of clauses does the subordinate clause in ‘I wonder if you’ve met Jane’ belong? How many kinds of noun clauses exist?

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 08, 2014, 11:16:20 PM »
Thanks a lot, Joe!

By the way, it was very flattering for me to appear in the Manila Times.  :) Only I should have chosen as a nickname ‘Ivan Ivanov’ or something like this, probably some readers think now that John is a typical Russian name  :).

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 07, 2014, 11:53:21 PM »
Thank you very much for such detailed and interesting explanations! It is very helpful to get such advice from a professional and I think that now I've begun to understand the subject much better.

And I have one more question (maybe so far the last one about determiners). I have encountered the term ‘Distributives’ (ALL, BOTH, HALF, EACH, EVERY, EITHER, NEITHER). Do you think that it is worth learning? And if yes, what is this category for?

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Use and Misuse / Re: Determiners
« on: September 05, 2014, 08:49:18 PM »

Yes, and I like the scheme you gave very much, but I have a new question… You said: ‘the premodifiers could be determiners, adjectives, adverbs, participles, or other nouns’. As far as I can see all possible choices  in the list are parts of speech. Also you said that ‘ “parts of speech” is a term in traditional grammar for the eight categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences’ and I agree with it too, of course. But why in this case we can’t say that determiners are some kind of an ‘additional’ part of speech, so to say? Indeed, it is a function, but adjectives usually have a very similar function – they modify a noun.

Then we could say that the premodifiers are as follows:

1.   “that” – determiner
2.   “exquisitely” – adverb
3.   “beautiful” – adjective
4.   “September” – another noun

so ‘building bricks’ for a premodifier are parts of speech: determiners, adjectives, nouns etc.

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 02, 2014, 10:47:51 PM »
After your explanations it would be very interesting for me to know how we can use the term ‘determiner’ in practice, so to say. If we agree that determiner is a functional element, does it mean that it would be correct to say that ‘noun phrase has the structure: determiner + modifier + nominal head’? Or if it’s wrong, what are relations between determiners and clause elements: subject, verb, object etc?  

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Use and Misuse / Re: “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: September 01, 2014, 03:21:35 AM »
Thanks a lot for such detailed answers! Of course, now I need some time to think about what you have written.

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Use and Misuse / “Precisely determining what ‘determiners’ are”
« on: August 31, 2014, 03:25:31 AM »
As I have understood from your explanations, there are two types of determiners (identifiers and quantifiers), and both can be divided into subcategories: four types of determiners and two types of quantifiers. My questions are:

1) What determiners are in the first place? Is there any clear definition? After reading some sites I would think that it is half a part of speech and part a function… Or we can say that they are a part of speech?

2) Is it possible to consider ordinal numbers and some/any as a kind of identifiers (I’ve heard that some do it)? I think there is some resemblance: ‘he is my friend’/he is the second winner’ and ‘give me a pen’/give me some pens’.  

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Use and Misuse / Re: Possessive pronouns
« on: August 28, 2014, 06:53:44 PM »
Thanks a lot! Actually, you have answered some questions which I was just going to ask and I’ll ask some others about determiners after studying the links you gave.

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Use and Misuse / Re: Possessive pronouns
« on: August 28, 2014, 01:40:50 AM »
Thank you very much for the explanations! It seems that I was misled by some grammar sites. They often give sentences like ‘this table is mine’ as an example for Possessive pronouns. I couldn’t understand why ‘pronouns’ are used on the position of an adjective. What you said explained it to me.   

As for ‘specific determiners’ and ‘general determiners’ is it the same things as definite and indefinite identifiers (I have read about them in a book) which can answer the question ‘which one(s)?’

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Use and Misuse / Possessive pronouns
« on: August 27, 2014, 06:39:41 PM »
There is no doubt that ‘mine’ is a pronoun in ‘She is an old acquaintance of mine’. But I am not so sure for ‘this table is mine’. Is it a pronoun or adjective/determiner and why?

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