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3. NOMINAL COMPLEMENTATION AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE<br />

However, this distinction is sometimes fuzzy. Heyvaert (2000: 120, note 1)<br />

considers that the indefinite article, the zero determiner and quantifiers such as no, some<br />

and any, among others, can appear with action nominalizations (i.e. complex event<br />

nominals).<br />

(51) a. [T]he Ministry of Agriculture will allow burning of herbage<br />

seeds, reeds, lavender (…)<br />

b. There was no breaking of ranks with Cabinet colleagues.<br />

This is not surprising because grammarians such and Payne and Huddleston (2002: 339)<br />

state that “under restricted conditions, however, a can combine with a non-count singular,”<br />

that is, with abstract or mass nouns, as nominalizations usually are (Langacker 1987b: 91;<br />

Schachter 1976: 214). Take, for instance, (52) below.<br />

(52) Jill has a good knowledge of Greek. (Payne and Huddleston 2002:<br />

372)<br />

In this particular case, the indefinite article has the effect of individuating a subamount of<br />

knowledge, i.e., her knowledge of Greek (Quirk et al. 1985: 273). Furthermore, the<br />

indefinite article may be used to refer to the members of a class “in toto,” thus having a<br />

generic function, 6 as in (53) below. Quirk et al. (1985: 287) also mention another possible<br />

situation when the indefinite article can occur with noncount nouns, namely when they are<br />

premodified and/or postmodified, as in (54) below. It is usually the case that the greater the<br />

amount of modification, the higher the acceptability of a/an. However, if the adjective is<br />

omitted, the indefinite article must be omitted too (cf. [55] below).<br />

6 However, it must be noted that the indefinite article tends to lose its generic function when it occupies a<br />

nonsubject position. Therefore, whereas instance (a) refers to mystery plays as a genre, (b) refers to only one<br />

play. Finally, (c) is likely to refer to a subset of mystery plays.<br />

a. Nora has been studying the medieval mystery play.<br />

b. Nora has been studying a medieval mystery play.<br />

c. Nora has been studying medieval mystery plays. (Quirk et al. 1985: 281-282)<br />

66

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