DETERMINERS

This topic has already been introduced as part of the material in class 2
(categories and functions) but here we will see them in detail.

What are determiners?

They are words that can only be used before a noun. They always have a
premodifying function. In addition, they denote specific reference (distance,
possession, quantity, etc) in relation to the nouns they precede. Examples:

a.my favourite pop group (possession)

b.those soldiers (distance)

c.eighty people (quantity)

d.second winner (order) and so on.

The three classes of nouns considered are as follows: countable singular,

countable plural and uncountable. In the following table, we can see how
determiners combine with nouns.

determiner type countable nouns uncountable

nouns
singular nouns plural nouns (singular)
zero article (Ø) -------------- houses coffee
indefinite article (a/an) a house, an eagle --------------- ----------------
definite article the house the houses the coffee
possessive determiner my, her, our house my, her, our houses my, your, our
coffee
demonstrative determiner this/that house these/those houses this/that coffee
quantifying determiner every/each house ------------- ---------------
------------- all (the) houses all (the) coffee
------------- many houses much coffee
------------- some houses some coffee
-------------- (a) few houses (a) little coffee
-------------- enough houses enough coffee
--------------- several houses --------------
either/neither house both houses --------------
any house any houses any coffee
no house no houses no coffee

numeral determiner
a-cardinal numerals one house two/six/ten houses two/four coffees
b-ordinal numerals first impression third and fourth rows second coffee
There are other determiner not included in the table above; for instance: a lot
of, other, another and wh-words (which, what, whose), the latter as
interrogative determiners.
Examples:
a.Which restaurant do you love best?
b.Whose coat is on the sofa?
c.What university did you go to?

As seen wh-words are interrogative determiners when they come before a

noun. But, when they are used on their own, i.e. without a following noun, they
are pronouns (interrogative pronouns) as in the following examples:
a.What did you say?
b.Who is she?
c.Which is your house?

The determiner slot can also be filled with genitive case; for example: Tina’s
bedroom; Alfred’s wallet since genitive case can be changed into a possessive
determiner (her bedroom, his wallet). That’s why it is also called “possessive
case.”
Sometimes, more than one determiner can occur before a noun, e.g. all the
cats.
In the same way as adjectives, determiners have also a fixed position; so we
can distinguish them as:
 central determiners
 pre-determiners
 post-determiners

The following table shows how determiners combine with one another and the
different slots (place and position) they occupy:

pre- central post-determiners head

determiners determiners (1) (2)
all the four teachers
all those other handbags
both these problems
half a glass
half the size
twice/double the size
the many/few occasions
her first exam
the last two months
the other three men
 Pre-determiners: all, both, half, “multipliers” like double, twice…
 Central determiners: articles, demonstrative determiners, possessive
determiners,…
 Post-determiners (slot 1): ordinal numbers, “semi determiners” like same, other,
next,…
 Post-determiners (slot 2): cardinal numbers, “quantifying determiners” like every,
some,…

Collective nouns behave in a similar way to quantifying determiners and semi-

determiners like a few, a lot of, such, same, other, another, last. Like these
determiners, expressions like a load of, a couple of, a kind of, and others, qualify the
following nouns in terms of quantity or type, for example:

-We met masses of sailors.

-There were so many people in the concert.
-This sort of food makes me ill.
-Such food makes me ill (more formal).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Greenbaum, S. and Randolph Quirk (1990). A Student’s Grammar of the English
language. Great Britain: Longman.
Swan, M. (2005). Practical English Usage. Third Edition. Fully Revised. Oxford: OUP.
Thornbury, S. (2009). About Language. Great Britain: CUP.