What's what with "Collect them all"

Question

What is the modern grammarian's part-of-speech for all in

Collect them all!

I believe all is a small clause and its POS is a (floating) quantifier. "Collect" is the verb and "them" is the object. — Diamond, Jun 08 '17 at 19:50
Because "them" is a pronoun, not a modifier unless it is in its informal, dialect form, which is not the case here. — Diamond, Jun 08 '17 at 22:00
I told you. This is not the case here. This is not a dialect, informal situation. — Diamond, Jun 08 '17 at 22:16
@Tᴚoɯɐuo ... Diamond has told you, and I trust you are now appropriately mollified. — P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica, Jun 09 '17 at 08:00
What would be the missing predicate in this particular 'small clause'? And if we treat it as a small clause, wouldn't all then become analogous to flat in "Diamond pounded the nail flat" -- a "predicative expression"? — TimR, Jun 09 '17 at 10:09

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '17 at 21:14

2

A dictionary shows that all can function as an adverb or a determiner (with a couple of minor uses). In this sentence, it is an adverb, roughly synonymous with "entirely" or "completely". It modifies the imperative verb "Collect".

answered Jun 08 '17 at 21:14

James K

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Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini · Answer 2 · 2017-06-09T00:16:49.160

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I don't know modern grammar, but The Teacher's Grammar of English suggests it's a determiner functioning as a quantifier. And the process of moving it to the final position is called a quantifier-pronoun flip.

Collect all of them

Collect them all ^{Quantifier-pronoun flip}

This quantifier-pronoun flip applies to a pronoun that is not a subject of the sentence.

edited Jun 09 '17 at 00:16

answered Jun 08 '17 at 23:55

Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini

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CGEL might call it a determinative, perhaps. – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini Jun 09 '17 at 00:15
A double equivocation? – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jun 09 '17 at 08:01
Sorry @P.E.Dant, I don't understand you are trying to say. Do you mean answer is unclear? If so, I hope you can tell me what is unclear so I can fix it. – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini Jun 09 '17 at 08:07
The comment is a comment upon your comment, not upon your answer. The conditional might and the adverb perhaps both express uncertainty. You must be familiar with the noun equivocation! – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jun 09 '17 at 08:12
@P.E.Dant Yes, I'm familiar with that noun :). The comment is just as a side note (and I'm very sure with that). I don't have a copy of CGEL but I heard that they consider "determiner" a function name not as a word class. And this function is realized by the so-called "determinative". (That is quite an arcane term to me.) – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini Jun 09 '17 at 08:18
Are y'all sure about it applying only to a pronoun that is not a subject of the sentence? – TimR Jun 09 '17 at 10:02
@Tᴚoɯɐuo According to Ron Cowan (Author of TGE), native speakers sometimes apply it to a subject. But it usually results in an awkward or questionably grammatical sentence. – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini Jun 09 '17 at 10:12

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 09 '17 at 16:58

Collect [them all].

Here them all is a Compound-Pronoun.

In general, a compound word is formed by multiple lexemes, and hence individual lexemes can be classified into various known word-classes.

But here in them all, it's really hard to determine the word class of all. However, we have no problem identifying the Personal Pronoun - them. If pressed, I would call this all a Determinitive. But I'm not 100 percent sure about this.

What's what with "Collect them all"

3 Answers3