Editing Partitive (section)

==Structural approaches to partitives==
While a number of linguists have proposed different approaches to account for the partitive structure, three approaches will be introduced here.

===A functional projection approach===
In 1995, Guillermo Lorenzo proposed a partitive (π), which is equivalent to the meaning of "out of" in English, is a functional category by itself and projects to a phrasal level. A partitive phrase (πP) is selected by the [[Numeral (linguistics)|Numeral]] (Num) and in turn the partitive head (π) selects the following DP. A Spanish example is shown below:<ref name=syntax />
 
[[File:Lorenzo eng.png|thumb|Tree representation of Lorenzo's view of a partitive structure <ref name=syntax />]]

 8. [<sub>NumP</sub> ''muchos'' [<sub>πP</sub> ''de''[<sub>DP</sub> ''estos'' [<sub>NumP</sub> [<sub>Num°</sub> [''libr<sub>-i+</sub>-os''] [<sub>NP</sub> ''t<sub>i</sub>'']]]]]'' 
         many       of    these            book +s

===Partitive prepositional phrase approach===
Advocates of the ''partitive prepositional phrase (partitive PP)'' approach claim that the partitive meaning is integrated into a PP. Structurally, a quantifier is followed by a noun, and a preposition in between denotes the quantifier is a subset of the following noun.

Within a partitive PP construct, the preposition "of" contains lexical content similar to ‘out of’ and always projects to a PP, hence the name partitive PP. Supporters of partitive PP often assume the presence of an empty noun following the quantifier in order to specify the two sets in relation and the preposition introduces the bigger set. [[Catalan language|Catalan]] provides evidence for this underlying structure:<ref name=syntax />

{{interlinear|number=9. a)
|[tres [<sub>N</sub> '''e'''][<sub>PP</sub> d’aquells [<sub>N</sub> homes] d’allà]
|three {} {} of-those {} men over-there
|}}
{{interlinear|number={{hidden text|9.}} b)
|tres homes d’aquells homes d’allà
|three men of-those men over-there
|}}
{{interlinear|number={{hidden text|9.}} c)
|tres homes d’aquells '''e''' d’allà
|three men of-those {} over-there
|}}

In the first example, the notion denotes the set of "three men" is a subset of "those men". The second example has an overt noun inserted between the quantifier and the partitive PP and is still considered grammatical, albeit odd and redundant to a native speaker of [[Catalan language|Catalan]]. The third sentence has an empty noun holding the final noun position. Altogether this is taken as strong evidence that an empty noun category should be posited to license a partitive meaning.
Alternatively, some linguists argued an empty noun placement is unnecessary if one considers the quantifier’s role to be quantifying a subset. The noun following the partitive PP automatically becomes the bigger set and the whole nominal represents a subset-set relation.

===Quantifier-based approach===
Closely related to the partitive PP approach, some authors propose an alternate analysis which also focuses on looking at partitive distribution in nominals. Vos claims that it is the relationship between the quantifier and the noun collectively determine the partitive meaning.<ref name="Vos">Vos, H. M. (1999). A grammar of partitive constructions.</ref>

Under this view, the preposition belongs to a functional category and its existence is solely for grammatical reasons. In other words, the preposition is not registered with any lexical content. Vos claims the internal relation between the first and second noun in a nominal partitive implicitly denotes a subset-set, possessive or part-whole relation. Similarly, de Hoop embraces the idea that only when a quantifier pairs with a desired type of DP, specific kind of partitive relation can then be determined.  The preposition "of" plays a crucial role in enabling the selected DP to surface.

The deciding factor to label a partitive construction concerns with the presence of an '''internal DP''', as demonstrated in the English examples below:

[[File:Quantifier.png|thumb|Syntactic tree of English partitive "Three of my friends" under a quantifier-based approach. Note that in a partitive, the noun is embedded in a DP and the preposition of is a functional element, i.e., without lexical content.]]

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
|-
! Partitives !! Pseudo-partitives
|-
| three of '''my friends''' || three friends of mine
|-
| many of '''those books''' || many books
|-
| a group of '''those tourists''' || a group of tourists
|-
| a piece of '''this cake''' || a piece of cake
|-
| a glass of '''the red wine''' || a glass of red wine
|}

The nouns in the partitives all refer to a particular bigger set since they are preceded by an internal definite determiner (possessive: ''my'', demonstrative: ''this'' and ''those'', and definite article: ''the''). On the other hand, their pseudo-counterparts lack this implication. Without a definite determiner, pseudo-partitives can only denote an amount of things, and the characteristics of a set are determined by the context of the discourse. In addition, the set denoted in a pseudopartitive does not necessarily have to be bigger.

Intuitively, the last two phrases under the pseudo-partitive column do indicate some kind of partition. However, when they are broken down into [[Constituent (linguistics)|syntactic constituents]], noted in true partitives, the noun always projects to a DP. In contrast, the noun in the phrase-final position projects to a NP (noun phrase) in non-partitives.