Question

What feature of the noun in *a new furniture makes it ungrammatical? (a) non-animate (b) non-classifier (c) non-cognitive (d) non-countable (e) non-lexicalized (f) non-social yule

Answer 1

Answer:

The feature of the noun in "a new furniture" that makes it ungrammatical is the following one:

(d) non-countable.

Explanation:

"Furniture" is an uncountable noun, and as so it cannot be preceded by the indefinite article "a". The same goes for other uncountable nouns, such as "information", "bread", "water", and "homework". If we were talking about specific pieces of furniture, such as "wardrobe", "table", and "shelf", it would have been correct to use "a", since those nouns are countable. However, the same is not true for "furniture", which is an uncountable noun that expresses a whole, not a part.