Introduction
When studying determiners, it is essential to understand that a learner is analyzing noun groups. In English syntax, noun groups function as linguistic constituents that can serve as subjects, objects, subject complements, and preposition complements. The head of a noun group is the main noun, while the determiner acts as a noun marker that signals the noun’s presence and meaning. Modifiers restrict, expand, or characterize the head noun, while complements semantically enrich the noun’s meaning. According to Newson et al. (2004), word categories in English can be divided into thematic categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions) and functional categories (inflections, determiners, degree adverbs, and complementizers). Each word in speech falls under one of these categories, affecting its syntactical role. Typically, an English noun phrase includes four basic components: the head, determiner, modifier (epithet or classifier), and complement.”
This article will focus solely on determiners, while other grammatical categories will be addressed in subsequent articles. To enhance readability and aid in understanding the structure, the following linguistic symbols will be introduced as shorthand representations.
|…| form of word
+ morpheme boundary
{…} grammatical element
… intermission
* ungrammatical or unacceptable
Ø zero
The Role of Determiners
A determiner is a pre-head dependency element that functions to identify the headword deictically1 or to express quantity as a numeral. Determiners belong in noun phrases and mark the meaning of nouns, also known as noun markers. There are five types of determiners: articles |a| / |an| and |the|, demonstratives, possessives, numerals, and indefinite determiners. Some of these determiners can function as pronouns and may coexist within a single noun phrase. In the structure of English noun phrases, these determiners are grouped into pre-determiners, central determiners, and post-determiners. Noun phrases also include modifier, head, and complement elements, as shown in the Table.
Table: Scheme of the English Noun Group
| Pre-determiner | Central determiner | Post-determiner | Modifier | Head | Complement |
| all both double such what half two-fifths | a/an the this, that,… my, your, his,… every each no some any enough either neither what whose which wh + ever Peter’s | one, two,… first, second,… next last past further many (a) few several more much little plenty of loads of | – Adjectives – Nouns | – Nouns – Clauses | – some adjectives – NGs – PGs – Clauses |
Pre-determiners
A pre-determiner is a type of determiner that precedes other determiners within a noun phrase. This type usually indicates proportion or multiplication in relation to the noun, such as with multipliers like |double|, |three times|, |two times|, and |four times|. This type of pre-determiner appears with plural nouns, mass nouns, or singular count nouns that express quantity or number. Pre-determiners like |three|, |four|, and |times| belong to the open class category, and thus are not part of the closed class of fixed modifiers. The general structure is {multiplier + article / possessive + plural noun / mass noun / singular count noun} as seen in examples (1), (2), (3), and (4). Pre-modifiers such as |double|, |twice|, and |three times| have no equivalent in |of|-constructions, for example in *double of the amount (Quirk et al., 1972: 140-142).
- double their sallaries
- three times the jars
- twice the honor
- four times my fee
The next pre-determiner is a fraction, such as |one-third|. The structure follows {fraction + article/possessive + noun}, as in (5), (6), and (7), and can also take an alternative |of|-construction, as in ‘He did it in one-third (of) the time it took me.’ The pre-determiners2 |all|, |both|, and |half| follow the structure {|all| + article/possessive + singular/plural/mass noun}, as seen in (8) to (10). With plural count nouns, |all| and |both| omit the article, as in ‘all pens’ or ‘both bags.’ The pre-determiners |all|, |both|, and |half| also have optional |of|-constructions with nouns and obligatory ones with personal pronouns (Jacobs, 1995: 98). They can only precede articles or demonstratives, and, for semantic reasons, cannot co-occur with the following quantitative determiners: |every|, |(n)either|, |each|, |some|, |any|, |no|, |enough|. For further restrictions on co-occurrence with determiners and noun heads, see Fig. 1, and for a broader explanation, refer to Quirk (1975: 140-141).
5. one-third (of) the width
6. two-thirds (of) my salary
7. two-fifths (of) the width
8. half (of) my ink
9. all (of) a life
10. all (of) pens
Fig 1: The Pre-determiner |all|, |both| and |half|
The next pre-determiners are exclamatives3, |what| and |such|. The structure for |what| follows {|what| + article + noun}, as seen in example (11). For |such|, the structure is {|such| + article |a| / |an| + noun}, as shown in examples (12) and (13). The exclamative pre-determiner |such a(n)| is used instead of |such| when the noun phrase head is a singular countable noun, unless |such| is pre-modified, as in |some such| or |any such|. For further information, see Quirk (1975: 407, 703-706, 927).
11. What a wonderful world!
12. Such a bad man!
13. Such an honour!
Central Determiners
Central determiners appear in combination with a pre-determiner or post-determiner and include articles, possessives, and demonstratives. The definite article |the| follows the structure {quantifier-(|of|) + definite article |the| + singular/plural count noun or mass noun}, as illustrated in examples (14) to (16). The indefinite article |a| / |an| follows the structure {quantifier-(|of|) + indefinite article |a| / |an| + singular count noun}, as seen in (17) and (18). The possessive central determiner follows the structure {quantifier-(|of|) + possessive + noun}, as in examples (19) to (21). Demonstrative central determiners with singular or mass nouns, like |this| and |that|, follow the structure {quantifier-(|of|) + demonstrative |this| / |that| + mass noun / singular count noun}, as shown in (22) and (23). When used with plural nouns, they follow the structure {quantifier-(|of|) + demonstrative |these| / |those| + plural count noun}, as in examples (24) and (25).
14. all (of) the life
15. both (of) the two students
16. half (of) the fatty meat
17. half (of) a beautiful life
18. half (of) an unpleasant journey
19. two-third (of) his second salary
20. all (of) her new salary
21. three times (of) my last salary
22. one-third of this heavy load
23. half of that old book
24. all these literary books
25. all those polar bears
Post-determiners
Post-determiners consist of numerals and quantifiers, positioned after a pre-determiner and, optionally, a central determiner. Numerals indicate specific numbers or quantities, while quantifiers modify the meaning of other words to express quantity. Ordinals—such as |first|, |second|, |third| (see examples 26 and 27)—and words like |another|, |next|, and |last| (see examples 28 to 30) function as post-determiners. In noun phrases, they must follow determiners but precede quantifiers and adjectives. There are two main patterns (see Fig. 2): (1) ordinal numbers like |first|, |next|, |last|, and |another| can optionally co-occur with quantifiers (like |few|) before plural count nouns; (2) ordinals like |second|, |third|, and others modify singular count nouns and do not combine with other quantifiers (Quirk et al., 1972:143). Cardinal numbers as post-determiners, such as |two|, |three|, and |four|, modify plural count nouns, as shown in example (31).
Fig 2: The Ordinal and Cardinal Post-determiners
(Yellow indicates post-determiners and dotted lines indicate optional items)
26. the first class
27. the fourth floor
28. another city
29. the next chapter
30. the last moment
31. all (the) four brothers
Conclusion
The determiners are particles and cannot be derived or inflected. They have a function like definite or indefinite reference or to provide information about quantity and proportion which only have grammatical meaning and do not contain certain lexical meaning. The Determiner words are in noun phrases and as have been shown that they can cluster together. The combinations are quite complicated. The noun, the head of the phrase, is introduced by a complex determiner consisting of three determiner words and the proposition |of|. The number and range of combinations allowed depends primarily on the type of head noun in the noun phrase. Pre-determiners are unique among the pre-modifiers in occurring before the determiners. Cardinal numbers post-determiners are |two|, |three|, |four|, etc (with plural count nouns), except |one| (with singular count nouns) must be investigated and discussed again.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Roderick A. 1995. English Syntax: A Grammar for English Language Professionals. Oxford University Press.
Newson, et.al. 2004. Basic English Sintax with Exercise. [accessed December 15, 2023]. http://primus.arts.u-szeged.hu/bese/contents.htm
Quirk, Randolf, et al. 1980. A Grammar of Contemporary English. Longman Group Ltd.
- A deictic expression or deixis is a word or phrase (such as this, that, these, those, now, then, here) that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking. Deixis is expressed in English by way of personal pronouns, demonstratives, adverbs, and tense (https://www.thoughtco.com/deictic-expression-deixis-1690428), [23.1.2024] . ↩︎
- Distributive: All positions occupied by language elements; the range of positions in which a particular unit of a language, e.g. a phoneme or a word, can occur is called its distribution. ↩︎
- An utterance which shows the speaker’s or writer’s feelings. Exclamations begin with a phrase using |what| or |how| but they do not reverse the order of the subject and the auxiliary verb: How clever she is!, What a good dog!; an utterance, which may not have the structure of a full sentence, and which shows strong emotion. For example: Good God! or Damn! ↩︎