Timeline for What's the function of "a" in "a mere three years later"?
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8 events
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| Jun 9, 2018 at 17:57 | comment | added | user3395 | (There wasn't really a discussion there, just a bunch of links you should probably check out.) But anyway, read the whole thing in CGEL and some things will be clearer regarding determiners. | |
| Jun 9, 2018 at 17:51 | comment | added | user3395 | Sure thing. And yes, that appears to be the case. If you read the accepted answer to the linked question, you'll find an article (Funky a) in which M. Liberman (a linguist) talks about this, and even they're not sure... Okay, I don't want to repeat stuff, so see chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/45067857#45067857. I summed up the bits I'm not sure about there. Hopefully that won't confuse you further. Oh, and, you'll find an article in which another linguist (a co-author of CGEL) tells us they don't know how to analyze article + adjective + name, about which you also asked. | |
| Jun 9, 2018 at 15:48 | vote | accept | Eddie Kal | ||
| Jun 9, 2018 at 15:46 | comment | added | Eddie Kal | @userr2684291 Very helpful. Thank you! I have just read Huddleston & Pullum 2002 p.352-354. I guess my example sentence falls under "dependents that select a singular or quantified plural head." A mere is not on the list, but I think it is comparable to a good. | |
| Jun 9, 2018 at 13:39 | comment | added | user3395 | See this and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum 2002), p.352. | |
| Jun 8, 2018 at 23:08 | history | edited | Eddie Kal |
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| Jun 8, 2018 at 22:57 | answer | added | J.R.♦ | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 8, 2018 at 22:37 | history | asked | Eddie Kal | CC BY-SA 4.0 |