English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
A3.2 Determiners
A3 Noun phrases and determiners
Section A. Introduction
Determiners are a closed word class (see B1). They are words which come first in the noun phrase and which ’determine’ the noun. By ’determine’ we mean that they show what kind of reference the noun has; this tree (the one near me) as opposed to that tree (the one near you) or a tree (one you do not know about). The reason why they come first in the noun phrase is that they specify the most general features of nouns such as their nearness to the speaker/listener, their definiteness, their ownership, their quantity, etc.
Determiners thus allow nouns to have a potentially unlimited number of referents, to be re-used continually. We could imagine a primitive people who live in a world where there are only proper nouns, where every object (not just the people and places) has to have its own name. Every time a new object is encountered a new noun is needed, even if it is, say, a stream just like the one near their cave; they would not be able to say ’Look, another stream’. This would be a very inefficient and limiting system of communication. Determiners are what make the difference between human language and such a system.
Activity A3.5
Identify the determiners in the above paragraph. Look at the list of classes below if you are not sure.
Classes of determiners
Determiners can be divided into a number of separate sub-classes:
a) demonstratives: this, that, these, those
b) possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their (see B2)
c) articles: the (definite), a/an (indefinite) (see B3 for more about them)
d) interrogatives: which, what, whose (Whose money was stolen?) (see B9)
e) relatives: whose (the boy whose money was stolen) (See B10)
f) wh-ever words: whatever, whichever (Whatever choice you make will be wrong.)
g) quantifiers: all, any, both, each, either, enough, every, few, little, much, many, no, several, some
h) personal pronouns: us, we, you (’you people’).
Activity A3.6
Which of the above classes can also be pronouns? Which cannot?
It is not always easy to decide which words are determiners. There are several classes of words whose status as determiners is debatable, numerals (numbers) in particular. In fact, there are two classes of numerals:
a) the cardinal numerals: one, two, three, etc. These seem to be most like quantifiers (but precise ones as opposed to vague ones), since they can function as determiners (e.g. two friends) and pronouns (e.g. two (of them) are coming); compare this with some. They can also combine with definite determiners (my two friends) or have plural inflections like nouns: They arrived in twos and threes.
b) the ordinal numerals: first, second, third, etc. plus next and last. They are also preceded by definite determiners: the second week and can function as nouns: A third of the class was missing.
In other words, numerals are very hard to classify, and it may be best to put them in a separate word class.
We also need to bear in mind that the genitive of nouns (A2) occupies the same position in noun phrase structure as determiners, e.g. John’ s money.
The ordinal numerals look very similar to adjectives. The strongest argument for including them in determiners is that they can precede other determiners: the first few weeks. But there seems to be an adjective element to some other determiners as well, in that they
□ have comparison: fewer/fewest, less / least
□ can be modified by adverbs: very few/many
□ and can appear (formally) as predicatives (see A8): their excuses were many
The division between adjectives and determiners is therefore not entirely clear in structural terms, just as that between pronouns and determiners is not clear in membership terms.
Some cases where two determiners occur together need to be treated as single determiners. This applies to a few and a little, as their grammar shows:
a few drinks (a is otherwise not possible before a plural head noun)
a little money (a is not possible before a noncount noun)
Many a is similar since it only precedes singular count nouns (not plurals): many a battle.
Number and agreement with nouns
With determiners it is important to know which type of noun they go with. Some pairs of quantifiers are distinguished according to whether they ’agree with’ plural count or noncount nouns: many chairs vs much furniture, few loaves vs little bread. Demonstratives, on the other hand, have a straightforward singular/plural distinction: this/that chair/furniture, these/those chairs.
Some as a quantifier is used with both plural count and noncount nouns (some coins, some money), but it can also be used with singular count nouns:
Some woman was looking for you.
Here it is not a quantifier referring to a vague or unknown number or quantity, but indicating an unknown individual.
Some quantifiers are semantically plural but grammatically singular: each, every, many a. The distinction in meaning between each, every and all is particularly subtle. All three are used to refer to the total members of a group, but are different in their number agreement; all goes with plural nouns:
All children have fears.
Each/every child has fears.
Each tends to pick out each member of a group singly (and there may only be two), while every talks about them together (and there must be at least three):
I’ve marked all the exam papers. (as a whole)
I’ve marked almost every exam paper. (some idea of separate marking)
’I’ve marked almost each paper.’ (not possible)
There are also structural differences; for example, every is one of the few determiners that cannot be used as a pronoun, while all can be used in front of other determiners: all these arguments.
See the exploration in C3 and the reading in D3 for more issues to do with determiners.
Comments
Activity A.3.1: 1, 3 and 5 are nouns, 2 and 4 are adjectives, while in 6 there are both. Note that an adjective premodifier comes before a noun premodifier. (By the way, in the phrase adjective modifier, the word adjective is actually a noun modifier!)
Activity A3.2: In one meaning English is an adjective premodifier, meaning someone from England. In the other English is a noun premodifier, meaning the language. The same ambiguity would be possible with many nationality/language words such as German, French, Chinese, which can all be nouns as well as adjectives.
Activity A3.3: The two look very similar and the meanings are similar, too, but there is a difference. Healthy food is food that has the quality of being good for you. It is gradable and comparable (see A4), so some food can be ’very healthy’ or ’healthier’. Health food, however, is a type or class of food (designed to be good for health, but not necessarily so - ’health food’ isn’t always ’healthy food’). Some adjectives and all nouns used as premodifiers have this function of classifying, as opposed to expressing a quality. So, for example, a ’foreign’ investor is distinct from a local one.
Activity A3.4: The head nouns are postmodification, phrase, system and phrases. Everything after them in 1, 3 and 4 constitutes the postmodifiers, which contain other noun phrases: a particular preposition in 1, communication in 3, and several instances and such recursion in 4. Note that the postmodifier consists of a prepositional phrase in 1 and 3 and a non-finite clause in 4 (involving . . . ).
Activity A3.5: There are seven (not counting repetitions): a, every, the, its, their, another and such. There are also a number of noun phrases which have no determiner, for example human language.
Activity A3.6: The answer is that most can. As a result, it can be argued that determiners are not a separate word class. This issue is discussed at length in the article in D3 (in the section entitled ’Troubles for linguists’).