§ lA Adjectives vs determinatives^117we add very (They are very entertaining can only mean "They are very enjoy
able") or replace be by seem or become (e.g., They became entertaining). The
adjectival interpretation is excluded if we add an object for the verb (They are
entertaining some colleagues), since virtually no adjectives take objects.
'. For [b] the verbal interpretation describes an event: "Someone or something
broke the clock". The adjectival interpretation, by contrast, describes a state:
"The clock was in an inoperative condition". Brokenness tends to be thought of
as a yes-or-no property, so in general the adjective broken doesn't take very as
modifier, but it certainly can (in fact very broken is a common phrase among
computer programmers). And the seem test is also relevant: It seemed broken can
only be adjectival.
1.4 Adjectives vs determinatives
The distinction between adjectives and determinatives is not as sharply
drawn as those between adjectives and nouns or adjectives and verbs. Nevertheless,
the definite article the and the indefinite article a differ strikingly from prototypical
adjectives with respect to both syntax and meaning:
;;> The articles can be obligatory: in most cases NPs with a count singular noun as
head must have some kind of determinative, so in The dog barked or A dog
barked, the article is required: * Dog barked is not grammatical.
" The articles are non-gradable.
" The articles cannot be used predicatively.
�. The articles serve to mark the NP as definite or indefinite rather than denoting
some property of the referent.
Other items can then be assigned to the determinative category by virtue of hav
ing one or more of the following properties:[15] i They don't occur with articles, and articles don't occur with them.
ii They can occur as the only pre-head dependent of a count singular noun.
iii They can occur as fused head in a partitive construction.The examples in [16] show how these properties distinguish the determinative some
from the adjective good:[16] DETERMINATIVE
a. * She gave me the some apples.
11 a. Some guy called to see you.
1lI a. I took some of the books.ADJECTIVE
b. He gave me the good apples.
b. *Good guy called to see you.
b. *1 took good of the books.In [i], [a] is inadmissible because some cannot follow the.
In [ii], guy is a count singular noun and requires a determiner, such as some.
In [iii] some is fused head with a partitive complement, a construction which
does not admit adjectives except for comparative and superlatives (the younger of
the two, the best of the lot).