English determiners
English determiners (also known as determinatives)[1] are words – such as the, a, each, some, which, this, no, etc. – that belong to a closed lexical category in English.[2] Their most characteristic syntactic position is at the beginning of a noun phrase, before any modifiers (e.g., some very pretty wool sweaters).[3] Semantically, they are usually definite or indefinite (e.g., the cat v. a cat),[4] and they often agree with the number of the head noun (e.g., a cat but not *many cat). Morphologically, they are usually simple and do not inflect.
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The most common of these are the definite and indefinite articles, the and a(n). Other determiners in English include the demonstratives this and that, and the quantifiers (e.g., all, many, and none) as well as the numerals.[1] Determiners also occasionally function as modifiers in noun phrases (e.g., the many changes), determiner phrases (e.g., many more) or in adjective or adverb phrasese (e.g., not that big).[1] They may appear on their own without a noun, similar to pronouns (e.g., I'll have some), but they are distinct from pronouns.[1]
History
Traditional grammar has no concept to match determiners. Traditionally these words have been classified as adjectives, articles, and pronouns.[1] The articles have sometimes been seen as forming their own category but they too have often been classified as adjectives.
Palmer introduced the concept of determiner to English in 1924, using the term "determinative".
To group with the pronouns all determinative adjectives (e.g., article-like, demonstratives, possessives, numerals, etc.), shortening the term to determinatives (the “déterminatifs” of the French grammarians) firstly because there are divergent opinions as to whether they are adjectives or pronouns, and secondly, because most of the members of this category may be used indifferently as pronouns or as modifiers of nouns.[5]
Bloomfield (1933) introduced the term determiner used in this article.
Our limiting adjectives fall into two sub-classes of determiners and numeratives … The determiners are defined by the fact that certain types of noun expressions (such as house or big house) are always accompanied by a determiner (as, this house, a big house).[6]
In 1985, A comprehensive grammar of the English language was the first work to explicitly conceive of "determiner" as a distinct lexical category.[7]
Terminological issues
Some sources, such as A comprehensive grammar of the English language, use "determiner" a term for a category as defined above and "determinative" for the function that determiners and possessives typically perform in a noun phrase.[7] Others, such as The Cambridge grammar of the English language, make the opposite terminological choice. And still others confusingly use "determiner" for both the category and the function.[8] This article will use "determinative" for the function in the noun phrase.
Alphabetical List (excluding numerals above three)[1]
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Sub classifications
Articles
- The definite article the.
- The indefinite article a.
Demonstratives
- This and that, with respective plural forms these and those.
Interrogatives
- which, what (these can be followed by -ever or -soever).
Relative determiners
- which (quite formal and archaic, as in He acquired two dogs and three cats, which animals were then ...); also whichever and whatever (which are of the type that form clauses with no antecedent: I'll take whatever money they've got).
Compound determiners[9]
- somebody, someone, something, somewhere
- anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere
- nobody, no one, nothing, nowhere
- everybody, everyone, everything, everywhere
Quantifier
- much/many, little/few, and their comparative and superlative forms more, most, less/fewer, least/fewest. Where two forms are given, the first is used with non-count nouns and the second with count nouns (although in colloquial English less and least are frequently also used with count nouns). The basic forms can be modified with adverbs, especially very, too and so (and not can also be added). Note that unmodified much is quite rarely used in affirmative statements in colloquial English.
- a few/a little (learners often confuse these with few/little), several, a couple of, a bit of, a number of etc.
- Cardinal numbers: zero, one, two, etc. (The numerals are also nouns in cases like two times five is ten or hundreds of people.
- Words expressing maximum, sufficient or zero quantity: all, both, enough, sufficient, no.
Distributive
- Words such as each and every, which contrast with collective determiners (e.g. all) in that they consider each component of a set individually, rather than as a group.
Negative
- no, none
- neither
- no one, nobody, nothing, nowhere
Temporal
- The words next and last, in phrases like last week and next year.
Consult Wiktionary for more information on the meanings and usage of the words listed here. It also contains a fairly complete list of words that can be classed as determiners in English.
Determiner phrases
A determiner usually forms a determiner phrase on its own, but a determiner phrase can also include modifiers (see also DP hypothesis). The following are some examples of determiner phrases with the head determiner underlined.
- the
- not many
- many more
- almost every
The function "determinative"
As stated above, there is some terminological confusion about the terms "determiner" and "determinative". In this article, "determiner" is a lexical category, while "determinative" is the function most typically performed by that category. Determiners are not the only words that can function as determinatives, but they are the most common.
A determinative is a function only in noun phrases. It is usually the leftmost constituent in the phase, appearing before any modifiers.[3] A noun phrase may have many modifiers, but only one determinative is possible.[1] In most cases, a singular, countable noun requires a determinative to form a noun phrase, though plurals and uncountables do not.[1] The determinative is underlined in the following examples:
- the box
- not very many boxes
- even the very best workmanship
- my uncle's house (the determinative is a noun phrase, not a determiner phrase)
- what size shoes (the determinative is a noun phrase, not a determiner phrase)
Difference from other lexical categories
Adjectives
The main similarity between adjectives and determiners is that they can both appear immediately before nouns (e.g., many/happy people).
The key difference between English adjectives and English determiners is that adjectives cannot function as determintives. For example, *I live in small house is ungrammatical because it lacks a determinative. The adjective small is a modifier, not a determinative. In contrast, if the adjective is replaced by a possessive (I live in my house) or a determiner (I live in that house), then it becomes grammatical because those can function as determinatives.[1]
Adjectives can function as a predicative complement in a verb phrase (e.g., that was lovely), but determiners typically cannot (e.g., *that was every).[1]
Adjectives are not typically definite or indefinite, while determiners are. Adjectives as modifiers in a noun phrase do not need to agree in number with a head noun.[1]
Morphologically, adjectives often inflect for grade, while few determiners do. Finally, adjectives can typically form adverbs by adding -ly, while determiners cannot.[1]
There are many more subtle differences.
Pronouns
Both possessive pronouns and determiners can function as determinative (e.g., my/the cat). They can also both function as subject and object without a following noun (e.g., it/each will work).[1]
They key difference between pronouns and determiners is that pronouns typically inflect (e.g., I, me, my, mine, myself), while determiners typically allow no morphological change.[1]
Determiners also appear in partitive constructions, while pronouns do not (e.g., some of the people but not *they of the people).[1]
Also, some determiners can be modified by adverbs (e.g., very many), but this is not possible for pronouns.[1]
There are many more subtle differences.
Various quantificational expressions
Expressions with similar quantification meanings such as a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a great deal of, tons of, etc. are sometimes said to be determiners, but they are not words, or even phrases. Instead, they consist of the first part of a noun phrase. For example, a lot of work is a noun phrases with lot as its head. It has a preposition phrase complement beginning with the preposition of. They could be considered lexicographical units, but they are not syntactic constitutents.
References
- Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-521-43146-0.
- Matthews, Peter (2003). The concise Oxford dictionary of linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Van De Velde, Freek (2011). "Left-peripheral expansion of the English NP". English Language and Linguistics. 15 (2): 387–415. doi:10.1017/S1360674311000086. ISSN 1360-6743.
- Breban, Tine (2012-06-29), Meurman-Solin, Anneli; Lopez-Couso, Maria Jose; Los, Bettelou (eds.), "Functional Shifts and the Development of English Determiners", Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English, Oxford University Press, pp. 271–300, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860210.003.0012, ISBN 978-0-19-986021-0, retrieved 2020-12-28
- Palmer, Harold E. (1924). A grammar of spoken English on a strictly phonetic basis. W. Heffer & Sons. p. 24.
- Bloomfield, Leonard (1933). Language. Holt. p. 203.
- Matthews, Peter Hugoe (2014). The Positions of Adjectives in English. Oxford University Press. p. 74. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199681594.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-968159-4.
- Larsen-Freeman, Diane (2015). The grammar book : form, meaning, and use for English language teachers. Celce-Murcia, Marianne,, Frodesen, Jan,, White, Benjamin,, Williams, Howard Alan (Third ed.). Boston, MA. ISBN 978-1-111-35186-1. OCLC 910168462.
- Payne, John; Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2007). "Fusion of functions: The syntax of once , twice and thrice". Journal of Linguistics. 43 (3): 565–603. doi:10.1017/S002222670700477X. ISSN 0022-2267.
- Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 421–422. ISBN 978-0-521-43146-0.