Quantifiers in English Noun Phrases: Narrow and Broad Perspectives, and a Comparison with Vietnamese

Abstract

This article examines English quantifiers through a two-tiered framework distinguishing their narrow-sense role as determiners from their broad-sense ability to function as heads of noun phrases. The analysis demonstrates that English quantifiers display extensive syntactic flexibility, particularly in fused-head and partitive constructions. The comparison with Vietnamese reveals a fundamental typological contrast: unlike English, some Vietnamese quantificational constructions require quantifiers to co-occur with classifiers (which categorize perceived characteristics of noun referents), thereby prohibiting head-like uses and fused-head constructions. This contrast highlights distinct architectural pathways for encoding quantity. The findings refine the theoretical classification of quantifiers by resolving long-standing terminological inconsistencies.

Received: 1^st March, 2026; Revised: 9^th May, 2026; Accepted: 24^th September, 2026