ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people who have helped,
advised and supported me in doing my research paper.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Mrs Nguyen
Thi Minh Phuong, my supervisor, who has given me valuable suggestion and
correction as well as taken troubles with this. My debt of gratitude also goes to all
the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number 2, especially the lecturers in
the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of
university work.
I am gratefully indebted to the teachers at Doi Can High School, especially
Mrs Bui Thi Bich Thao for her help and guidance while I was carrying out the
survey.
I am also very happy to acknowledge my gratitude to my friends who has
encouraged me much and have helped me much with collecting relevant materials.
I would like to express my thanks to eleventh grade students at Doi Can High
School who have helped me to answer the survey questionnaire and their work is a
big contribution to completion of this thesis.
Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks to all members in my family who have
made it much easier for me to do my research by supporting me with not only
finance but also time.

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ABSTRACT

Post-determiners are known as an interesting category of English grammar
which was taught and learned at High School. Students often make errors when
they use post-determiners. Therefore, this research will entail studying the uses of
post-determiners and conducting survey for error analysis.
Based on the result of the survey, the types of errors and causes have been

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... iv

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale .......................................................................................................... 1
II. Research presupposition ................................................................................. 2
III. Research objectives ........................................................................................ 2
IV. Research scope ............................................................................................... 3
V. Research tasks ................................................................................................. 3
VI. Research methods .......................................................................................... 3
VII. Significance of the proposed research ......................................................... 3
VIII. Design of the research work ....................................................................... 4

PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
I.1. Literature review in brief .............................................................................. 5
I.2. Determiners .................................................................................................... 6
I.2.1. Definition ...................................................................................................... 6
I.2.2. Classification ................................................................................................ 7
I.3. Post-determiners ............................................................................................ 8
I.3.1. Definition ...................................................................................................... 8
I.3.2. Pre-determiner and post-determiner .............................................................. 9
I.3.3. Types ............................................................................................................ 9
iv


I.3.3.1. Cardinal Numerals ..................................................................................... 9


II.3. Suggested solutions and suggested exercises ............................................. 22
II.3.1. Suggested solutions.................................................................................... 22
II.3.2. Suggested exercises ................................................................................... 24

PART THREE
CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION................................................................................................... 25
REFERRENCES ................................................................................................ 27
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 28
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................. 28
SUGGESTED EXERCISES ................................................................................ 33

vi


PART ONE
INTRODUCTION

I. RATIONALE
Language is a very important means of communication in daily human life.
Human beings use language to express their ideas. However, different countries
have different languages; it makes difficult for people to get along with each other.
In this case, an international language is much needed. One of the languages is the
English language.
English is an international language and it’s used in many fields such as
finance and banking; commerce; politics; etc. In Vietnam as well as in other
countries, the teaching and learning English are now mushrooming. English has
become a compulsory subject in most schools and universities. However, English

3. What are the causes of the errors in the use of post-determiners made by
the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School in the academic year
2013/2014?
Based on these questions about, I am eager to learn about the problems and
make an error analysis in post-determiners so that the major errors related to the
use of post-determiners may be found.
III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The study aimed at the following goals:
1. To find out kinds of errors in the use of post-determiners made by the
eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School?
2. To find out kinds of errors in the use of post-determiners most often made
by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School in the academic year
2013/2014.
3. To find out the causes and the errors in the use of post-determiners made
by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School in the academic year
2013/2014.
2


IV. RESEARCH SCOPE
The general research of this study is grammar:The phenomenon is errors in
the use of post-determiners made by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High
School. Others relating to the postdeterminers are also briefly mentioned.
The population involved in the study is one hundred students in eleventh
grade at Doi Can High School.
V. RESEARCH TASK
The study involves fulfilling the following tasks:
1. To study types of post-determiners.
2. To research into the uses of post-determiners.
3. To conduct a survey to find out error types and causes. On the basic of the

is devoted to the survey. The second one deals with error types and causes. The last
one is on solutions to the problems and suggested exercises on the postdeterminers.

4


PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I.1. LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF
Post-determiner is a universal phenomenon in linguistics. It has been
described by many grammarians like Randolph Quirk (1985), Reginald Arthur
Close (1979), Ron Cowan (2008), Marting Hewing (1999), Sidney Greenbaum,
Randolph Quirk (1976) and so on. They each have their own way to describe the
post-determiner. Generally, they focus their attention on the definition,
classification and uses of post-determiners.
Ron Cowan (2008) in the book The Teacher’s Grammar of English refers to
post-determiners in its definition and types. According to him, post-determiners
include: quantifiers (many, much, a little….), cardinal numbers (one, two….),
ordinal numbers (first, second, another…..) and partitives (glass / bottle / jar of…).
Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum (1976) in the book A University
Grammar of English refer to post-determiners in term of its definition,
classification and the uses of each type. He said that post-determiners have three
main types: cardinal numerals, ordinal numerals and general ordinals and
quantifiers.
In the book Advanced Grammar in Use, Martin Hewing (1990) focuses his
attention on describing only one type of post-determiner. He gives a full

For example: I want that book not this one
Howard Sargeant in the book Basic English Grammar claimed that:”
Determiners are special adjectives used before nouns”. For examples:
6


John is reading a book.
That animal is making a funny.
All children seem to like chocolate.
I.2.2. Types of determiner
In the book Basic English Grammar, the author classified determiners into six
kinds. They are articles, demonstrative determiners, quantifying determiners,
interrogative determiners, possessive determiners and numerals.
For examples: You’ll need a ruler and a pencil. (Articles)
This car belongs to my mom. (Demonstrative determiners)
I have fewer CDs than you. (Quantifying determiners)
Which boy is your brother? (Interrogative determiners)
I gave my sandwich to John. (Possessive determiners)
Our family has two dogs. (Numerals)
Ron Cowan (2008) in the book The Teacher’s Grammar of English classified
determiners based on the “relative order of occurrence of determiners within a
noun phrase”. Thus, he classified into three categories predeterminers, central
determiners and postdeterminers. According to him, pre-determiners include:
quantifiers (all, both, and each), multipliers, fractions. For examples:
Both sisters wanted to go. (Quantifiers)
We stopped once every mile. (Multipliers)
He did it in one-third the time it took me. (Fractions)
Post-determiners consist: quantifiers (much, many, few, a little, less, least,
more, most), cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, partitives. Examples:
I bought three ties and one shirt. (Cardinal numbers)

For example: The first three planes were American.
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I.3.2. Pre-determiner and post-determiner
Pre-determiners can occur only before articles or demonstratives all the meat,
all the students. ( Randolph Quirk, 1976)
Quirk (1985) said that central determiners may be surrounded by a predeterminer or a post-determiner.
Pre-determiner often occur before certain central determiners all the girls,
twice my salary, one-third the time. However, post-determiner always follows
central determiners or pre-determiners my three children, the first day.
I.3.3. Types of postdeterminers
I.3.3.1. Cardinal numerals
Cardinal numerals, according to John Sinclair (1990), are used to “indicate
how many things you are referring to”.
For examples: There was the only one gate into the palace.
In the sentence, cardinal numerals often stand before the noun and after the
determiner.
For example: All three candidates are coming to Blackpool later this week.
Cardinal numerals can occur with plural count nouns (two, three, four, etc...)
except one. One only occurs with singular count nouns.
Examples: He has written another two novels.
I am going to ask you only one question.
Moreover, Reginald Arthur Close, Louis George Alexander (1979) stated that
cardinal numerals can use with a mass noun.
Examples: She bought twenty bottles of milk.
She eats six loaves of bread.
Furthermore, cardinal numerals can function as pronouns or labels.
For examples: The best thirty have the potential tobe successful journalists.
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I.3.3.3. Closed – class quantifiers
According to Randolph Quirk (1976) closed – class quantifiers include two
groups. The first group is the words that can occur with plural count nouns and the
second one only occur with non-count nouns.
Many, few, a few, several only occur

with plural count nouns (A

Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language).
For examples: There aren’t many portraits of Shakespeare.
This is a very modern city. There are few old buildings.
Several is rarely preceded by a determiner.
Several friends went with me.
A few children are absent today.
Although few and a few can occur with plural count nouns, few is used to
express negative ideas and a few expresses positive ideas (Raymond Murphy).
Much, a little, little only occur with non-count nouns.
Examples: We’ll have to hurry. We haven’t got much time.
The weather has been very dry recently. We’ve had little rain.
Listen carefully. I’m going to give you a little advice.
Similar to few, a few, a little is used to express a positive idea and little
expresses negative idea.
“Few, little, much, many are gradable, and also have comparative and
superlative forms” (Randolph Quirk, 1985).
Further examples: There were fewer people today than yesterday.
Harry made the fewest mistakes.
Please make less noise.
George gives me the least trouble.


COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF POST-DETERMINERS AMONG
THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT DOI CAN HIGH SCHOOL

This chapter presents the findings of the practical research with the eleventh
grade students at Doi Can High School. It falls into three sections. Section II.1
deals with survey questionnaire which was designed to map out some common
errors made by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School. Section II.2
presents common errors and causes. Section II.3 provides students and teachers
with some suggested solution to minimize the errors related to the use of postdeterminers.
II.1. Survey questionnaire
As it was mentioned above, the study does help students have deep insight
into the post-determiner in English. Moreover, the study also points out some
difficulties, especially some errors that students usually make. Making errors in the
use of post-determiners is unavoidable at all educational levels. However, due to
the framework of a thesis, this thesis is only focused on common errors in the use
of post-determiners by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High School. A
survey questionnaire was conducted to find out the errors of students.
II.1.1. Rationale behind the survey questionnaire
Survey questionnaire was chosen for the study because of four main reasons.
Firstly, it is believed that it is an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially
large number of respondents. Secondly, it can reach a large number of people in a
very short time. As it is in the case, with the students in Doi Can High School, a
survey questionnaire was designed to find out the common errors in the use of
post-determiners in English made by the eleventh grade students at Doi Can High
School in the school year of 2013/2014.

13


Another advantage of this tool is that the collected data are relatively easy to

2. Exercise 2: Choose the suitable word to fill in the blank.
3. Exercise 3: Which word A, B, C, or D is not true?
II.1.6. Preparation of the survey
II.1.6.1.Test items
There are many possible errors in the use of post-determiners that a survey
cannot find out. Thus, it is necessary to predict possible errors and include them in
the survey. In this survey, possible errors were classified into the following
categories.
1. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with singular count nouns
2. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns
3. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with mass noun
4. Errors in the use of ordinal numerals with singular count nouns
5. Errors in the use of ordinal numerals with plural count nouns
6. Errors in the use of quantifiers with plural count nouns
7. Errors in the use of quantifiers with non-count nouns
II.1.6.2. Arrangement of the survey
After being classified, the test items were arranged into the following
numbers:
1. Test on the use of cardinal numerals with singular count nouns, numbers 1,
15, 38.
2. Test on the use of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns, numbers 2,
22, 36.
3. Test on the use of cardinal numerals with mass noun, numbers 3, 17, 21.
4. Test on the use of ordinal numerals with singular count nouns, numbers 7,
16, 34, 35, 37.
5. Test on the use of ordinal numerals with plural count nouns, numbers 4, 5,
19, 23.

15



Based on the survey analysis, the errors made by the eleventh grade students
at Doi Can High
gh School were noted as follows:
1. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals
numerals with singular count nouns

37.2%

2. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns

41.9%

3. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with mass nouns

39.53%

4. Errors in the use of ordinal numerals with singular count nouns

34.88%

5. Errors in the use of ordinal numerals with plural count nouns

48.8%

6. Errors in the use of quantifiers with plural count nouns

35%

7. Errors in the use of quantifiers with non

Further example: This is the first people I’ve seen this week.
A

B

C

D

Students answer: D. this week.
Correct answer: C. people.
In the example above, some students had no change to acquaint with this
exercise. They didn’t know that ordinal numbers can be preceded by a cardinal
number. In this case, it occurs with a plural count noun. So that, when they did this
exercise, they made wrong answer.
II.2.2. Errors in the use of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns
The errors in the use of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns make up
41.9%. They rank second to the errors related to the use of ordinal numerals with
plural count nouns. There were six students whose percentage of errors in the use
of cardinal numerals with plural count nouns is 100%. In contrast, there were ten
students who did not make any errors. For example:
18


Choose the most suitable option to complete the sentence
Bill’s…..granddaughters are visiting from Australia.
A. one
B. three
C. third
D. once

a little

Students choose A. much but the answer is C. three.

19