Revisit DET MWEs

[nschneid]

We have been using DET for most quantity MWEs starting with "a", but this seems dubious: om "a bit tired" or "a bit of cake", single-word determiners cannot be substituted for "a bit". Contrast "a bit of the cake" = "some of the cake".

Maybe a better policy would be

Without OF	With OF
a_bit(ADV) tired	a_bit(DET) of the cake
a_couple(DET) sheep	a_bit(N? PRON?) of cake

• a_bit(ADV) tired

  • Outside fixed expressions like "a little" and constructions like "the poor", adjectives don't usually have determiners.

• a_bit(DET) of the cake

  • cf. "all(DET) of the cake"

• a_bit of cake, a_couple of people/sheep

  • N? PRON?
  • Note that "all", "much", etc. don't precede "of" + a common noun. But: "all of Scotland"

• a_couple(DET) sheep

• a_little_bit should not be all together

  • a_ little/wee/tiny _bit, a_ very little _bit

Frequency counts:

  14 a bit
   2 a bunch
  13 a couple
  15 a few
  19 a little
   1 a little bit
  32 a lot
   1 a number
   1 a touch
   1 each and every