Editing Partitive (section)

==Set partitives and entity partitives==

Partitives can be distinguished [[semantically]] based on whether they involve a part of a whole, called ''entity partitives'', or a subset of a larger set, called ''set partitives''.  The embedded NPs in entity partitives denote either entities at the individual level, such as "a cookie" or entities at the group level, such as "Bob and Sue".  Some phrases such as ‘the linguists’ can be interpreted as either a group level entity and thus participate in an entity partitive – "half of the linguists"; alternatively, it can be interpreted as a set of entities, and thus participate in a set partitive – "one of the linguists".<ref name="hoop">de Hoop, H. (1997). A semantic reanalysis of the partitive constraint. Lingua,103(2), 151-174</ref>

	Set partitives contain plural [[Count noun|countable nouns]] in their embedded noun phrase (NP), and can be combined with quantifier determiners such as "many", and specific numbers such as "three".  Entity partitives can contain either singular countable nouns or [[mass noun]]s (and sometimes even plural countable nouns), combining with [[determiners]] such as ‘much’, or those with a fractional meaning, like ‘half’.  Other determiners can be combined with either type of partitive, including ‘some’, ‘many’, and ‘all’.<ref name="hoop" /> The following is a list of different quantifier determiners in English and their classification as either participating in entity partitives, set partitives, or both:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
|-
! Quantifier determiner !! Type of partitive !! Example
|-
| half || Entity || half of the water; half of the cats
|-
| 20% || Entity || 20% of the water; 20% of the cats
|-
| one third || Entity || one third of the water; one third of the cats
|-
| much || Entity || much of the water; *much of the cats
|-
| three (or any number) || Set || three of the cats; *three of the water
|-
| many || Set || many of the cats; *many of the water
|-
| some || Ambiguous || some of the water; some of the cats
|-
| all || Ambiguous || all of the water; all of the cats
|-
| most || Ambiguous || most of the water; most of the cats
|}