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Partitives

Partitives are grammatical constructions that mark a portion of a larger whole or an indefinite quantity. They express that the referent is part of something, rather than the entire set, or that only a non-specific amount is involved. Partitives are common across languages, though their form and meaning can vary.

In Romance languages, partitives are often expressed with special determiners for mass nouns. For example, French

Semantically, a partitive contrasts with a whole-reading: two of the students refers to a subset of a

Partitive constructions interact with numerals, measure words, and determiner systems, and their availability is a key

uses
du,
de
la,
de
l’,
or
des
to
signal
a
non-specific
quantity
of
a
substance:
Je
voudrais
du
pain
(I
would
like
some
bread).
English
conveys
partitive
relations
with
of-phrases
or
with
measure
expressions:
a
piece
of
cake,
some
of
the
students,
or
two
of
the
cookies.
Some
languages
rely
on
a
dedicated
partitive
case
or
article,
while
others
use
quantifiers
and
nouns
to
express
the
same
idea.
larger
group,
while
two
students
simply
counts
individuals
from
the
group.
Partitives
also
address
mass
versus
count
nouns:
some
water
versus
two
waters
is
not
grammatical
in
English;
in
English
you
would
say
two
bottles
of
water
or
two
glasses
of
water.
The
choice
can
affect
focus,
emphasis,
or
discourse
structure.
feature
in
the
typology
of
quantification.
They
are
discussed
in
syntax
and
semantics
as
a
means
of
encoding
partial
quantity
or
subpart
relations
within
a
larger
whole.