Module 1 Concepts: Determiners

Determiners are structure-class words that precede and modify nouns both grammatically and lexically. Sometimes, nouns need determiners and sometimes they don’t:

• You let the cat out of the bag! (The article the is a determiner.)

• Your cats are driving me crazy! (The possessive your functions as a determiner.)

• Cats will always eat some tuna. (The indefinite some functions as a determiner for tuna, but cats does not require a determiner.)

Several different kinds of structure-class words can function as determiners. The prototypical members of the set are a/an and the. Any word that can stand in for a/an or the is a determiner.

English has two subclasses of the article structure class. The choice of which article to use depends on what knowledge is shared by the speaker or writer and hearer or reader.

definite article: the

The speaker or writer uses the when the hearer or reader knows specifically what is being talked about.

Example: The dog dug up the bushes. à A particular dog that both speaker and hearer know did the digging.

indefinite article: a/an

The speaker or writer uses a/an when it cannot be assumed that the hearer or readers has specific knowledge of what is being talked about.

Example: A dog dug up the bushes. à Some dog that speaker and hearer do not know did the digging.

English has four demonstratives: this, that, these, and those. Just as with the definite article the, demonstratives are used when the speaker/writer and hearer/reader share specific knowledge of what is being talked about.

• Please wash this car.

• Please wash that car.

• Please wash these cars.

• Please wash those cars.

All these sentences refer to one or several specific cars.

Possessives can serve the function of either determiner or pronoun. When acting as a determiner, possessives precede a noun:

• my house (1st-person singular)

• our coursework (1st-person plural)

• your yard (2nd-person singular and plural)

• his/her/its hair (3rd-person singular)

• their business (3rd-person plural)

Possessive nouns can also function as a possessive determiner when followed by another noun:

• the scholarship’s due date

• the travel mug’s handle

Like definite articles, indefinites are used to refer to nonspecific nouns. They include words such as some, any, no, every, other, another, many, more, both, several, and each. The following sentences do not refer to any specific car or cars;

• Please wash some cars.

• Please wash other cars.

• Please wash each car.

• Please wash many cars.

The subclass of common count nouns are considered to be indefinite when they occur in the plural without a determiner:

• Cats and dogs are always at odds.

• Foreign languages are hard to learn.

Cats and dogs and foreign languages refer to any or all cats, dogs, and foreign languages but not to any specific cats, dogs, or foreign languages.

Cardinal numbers can act as determiners when they precede a noun:

• one hedgehog

• two wheelbarrows

• two hundred applications

Ordinal numbers can combine with articles to act as determiners:

• the first day

• a second chance

• the last man standing