A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

What

§7.3 Fused modifier-heads 99

In the case of what we need to distinguish carefully between two items: the deter­
minative what and the pronoun what. The determinative functions as determiner
the way other determinatives do, while the pronoun functions as (non-fused) head
the way other pronouns do:

[44] i [What course] are you taking?

ii [What] do you want?

[determinative functioning as determiner]

[pronoun functioning as head]

The way we can tell that there are two items here is that there is a clear difference in
meaning between them.

111 The pronoun what is non-personal: it does not apply to human beings (we need

personal who instead: Who do you want?).

.., The determinative what, on the other hand, is neutral with respect to the per­

sonal vs non-personal distinction: in [i] it accompanies a head that does not

denote a human being, but in What philosophers have you read? it accompanies

a human head noun. (Compare the impossibility of * What wrote this article?)

With what, then, we do not get a fused determiner-head structure: what is either the
determiner or the head, and we can tell which by checking the possibility of human
denotation.

No

Unlike the determinatives discussed above, no does occur in the fused determiner­
head construction, but we find a difference in inflection, with the form none occur­
ring in the fused-head construction, and no everywhere else:

[45] Kim had [no money], and Pat also had [none].

7.3 Fused modifier-heads

Fusion of modifier and head of an NP is seen in the following examples,
where an adjective serves as modifier and as head at the same time:

[46] i SIMPLE

ii PARTITIVE

iii SPECIAL

Should I wear the red shirt or [the blue]?

[The youngest of their children] was still at school.

[The French] don 't take these things too seriously.

• In [i] we understand the blue to mean "the blue shirt".


• In [ii] the reference is to the youngest member of the set consisting of their children.


• In [iii] the French has a special interpretation: it means French people in general.

Modifiers cannot fuse with the head as readily as determiners can. Examples like
these are not grammatical:

[47 1 Kim had hoped fo r a fa vourable review, but Pat wrote [a critical].
ii That mattress is very soft: I'd prefe r [a har4J.
iii *Look through this box of screws and pick out [some small].