A determiner, also called determinative (
abbreviated ), is a
word,
phrase, or
affix that occurs together with a
noun or
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently o ...
and generally serves to express the
reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner may indicate whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite element of a class, to a closer or more distant element, to an element belonging to a specified person or thing, to a particular number or quantity, etc. Common kinds of determiners include definite and indefinite
articles (''the'', ''a''),
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s (''this'', ''that''),
possessive determiner Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...
s (''my,'' ''their''),
cardinal numerals (''one'', ''two''),
quantifiers (''many'', ''both''),
distributive determiners (''each'', ''every''), and
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
determiners (''which'', ''what'').
Description
Most determiners have been traditionally classed either as adjectives or
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...
s, and this still occurs in traditional grammars: for example, demonstrative and possessive determiners are sometimes described as ''demonstrative adjectives'' and ''possessive adjectives'' or as ''(adjectival) demonstrative pronouns'' and ''(adjectival) possessive pronouns'' respectively. These traditional interpretations of determiners are related to some of the linguistic properties of determiners in modern syntax theories, such as
deictic information,
definiteness and
genitive case
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
. However, modern theorists of
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
tend to distinguish determiners as a separate
word class from adjectives, which are simple
modifiers of nouns, expressing attributes of the thing referred to. This distinction applies particularly in languages, such as English, that use definite and indefinite articles frequently as a necessary component of noun phrases—the determiners may then be taken to be a class of words that includes the articles as well as other words that function in the place of articles. (The composition of this class may depend on the particular language's rules of
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
; for example, in English the
possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
s ''my'', ''your'' etc. are used without articles and so can be regarded as determiners, whereas their
Italian equivalents ' etc. are used together with articles and so may be better classed as adjectives.) Not all languages can be said to have a lexically distinct class of determiners.
In some languages, the role of certain determiners can be played by
affixes (prefixes or suffixes) attached to a noun or by other types of
inflection. For example, definite articles are represented by suffixes in
Romanian,
Bulgarian,
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
, and
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
. (For example, in Swedish, ' ("book"), when definite, becomes ' ("the book"), while the Romanian ' ("notebook") similarly becomes ''caietul'' ("the notebook").) Some languages, such as
Finnish, have
possessive affixes, which play the role of possessive determiners like ''my'' and ''his''.
Universal grammar is the theory that all humans are born equipped with
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, and all languages share certain properties. There are arguments that determiners are not a part of universal grammar and are instead part of an emergent
syntactic category. This has been shown through the studies of some languages' histories, including Dutch.
Syntactic order
Determiners may be predeterminers, central determiners or postdeterminers, based on the order in which they can occur. For example, "all my many very young children" uses one of each. "My all many very young children" is not grammatically correct because a central determiner cannot precede a predeterminer.
Determiners and pronouns
Determiners are distinguished from
pronouns
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...
by the presence of nouns.
* Each went his own way. (''Each'' is used as a pronoun, without an accompanying noun.)
* Each man went his own way. (''Each'' is used as a determiner, accompanying the noun ''man''.)
Plural personal pronouns can act as determiners in certain constructions.
* We linguists aren’t stupid.
* I'll give you boys three hours to finish the job!
* Nobody listens to us students.
Some theoreticians unify determiners and
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...
s into a single class. For further information, see .
Articles
Articles
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
...
are words used (as a standalone word or a prefix or suffix) to specify the grammatical definiteness of a noun, and, in some languages, volume or numerical scope.
Definite article
The definite article in the English language is the word ''the''. It denotes people, places, and things that have already been mentioned, implied, or presumed to be known by the listener.
Indefinite article
The indefinite article takes the forms of ''a'' and ''an'' in English. It is mostly synonymous with ''one'', but the word ''one'' is usually used when emphasizing singularity.
Demonstratives
Demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are usually
deictic, which means their meaning changes with
context. They can indicate how close the things being referenced are to the speaker, listener, or other group of people. In the English language, demonstratives express proximity of things with respect to the speaker.
Proximal demonstratives
In English, the words ''this'' and ''these'' are the proximal demonstratives. They express that the particular things being mentioned are very close to the speaker.
Distal demonstratives
The distal demonstratives in the English language are ''that'' and ''those''. They express that there is some distance between the things being referenced and the speaker.
Possessive determiner
Possessive determiner Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...
s such as ''my'' and ''their'' modify a noun by attributing possession (or other sense of belonging) to someone or something. They are also known as possessive adjectives.
Quantifiers
Quantifiers indicate quantity. Some examples of quantifiers include: ''all'', ''some'', ''many'', ''little'', ''few'', and ''no''. Quantifiers only indicate a general quantity of objects, not a precise number such as ''twelve'', ''dozen'', ''first'', ''single'', or ''once'' (which are considered
numerals).
Distributive determiners
Distributive determiners, also called distributive adjectives, consider members of a group separately, rather than collectively. Words such as ''each'' and ''every'' are examples of distributive determiners.
Interrogative determiners
Interrogatives are used to ask a question, such as ''which'', ''what.''
As a functional head
Some modern grammatical approaches regard determiners as
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
s of their own
phrases. In such approaches, noun phrases are generally
dominated by determiner phrases whose heads are often
null. Noun phrases that contain only a noun and do not have a determiner present are known as bare noun phrases.
For more detail on theoretical approaches to the status of determiners, see .
Some theoreticians analyze
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...
s as determiners or determiner phrases. See
Pronoun: Theoretical considerations. This is consistent with the determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby a determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be the head of the phrase.
See also
*
Classifier (linguistics)
*
Conservativity
*
Determiner spreading In linguistics, determiner spreading (DS), also known as Multiple or Double Determiners is the appearance of more than one Determiner (linguistics), determiner associated with a noun phrase, usually marking an adjective as well as the noun itself.
...
*
English determiners
References
External links
GrammarBank – Determiners PracticeSIL Glossary of linguistic terms – What is a determiner?
{{lexical categories
Parts of speech
Grammar
Syntactic categories
Grammatical marker type