Determiners

English determiners occupy the leftmost position in the nominal complex. Example phrases with determiners are that bag and a bag. In these phrases, that refers to the bag. In contrast to that, a19 _{does not refer to the bag but introduces it in the context of interaction. Determiners} and adjectives precede nouns in English, as in the bag and brown bags. Since both occur pre- nominally, one might think of treating determiners as belonging to the class of adjectives.

19 _{This indefinite article is assumed to have originated from the numeral one via grammaticalisation} (Hawkins, 2004; Heine & Kuteva, 2002; Stockwell et al., 1973; Trenkic, 2008). Lyons (1999:49) regards it as a quasi-indefinite signal in the sense that it is more of a cardinal marker than an indefinite marker; according to Lyons, it does not directly realise but signals indefiniteness in English.

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Empirically, learners with L1s without articles [–ART] are reported to misanalyse English articles as adjectives (Trenkic, 2007, 2008; Jian, 2013). In line with this, some linguists regard determiners as belonging to the adjectival category. However, Radford (1997:46) argues that analysing English determiners as adjectives is untenable since the two categories are syntactically different. Radford bases his argument on the following facts. Firstly, there can be an unlimited number of adjectives stacked in the pre-noun context, but this freedom is not available to determiners. Secondly, whenever both a determiner and an adjective pre- modify a noun, the determiner has to precede the adjective. Finally, determiners are obligatory elements for count singular nouns in English, and this is of course not true for adjectives. This shows that determiners and adjectives do not form a completely homogeneous category in English.

Determiners in English can be classified as multipliers, fractions, intensifiers, distributive determiners, articles, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers and quantifiers (Carnie, 2013; Quirk & Greenbaum, 1976). Considering their syntactic positions within the English nominal complex, these determiners can be grouped into three major types, viz. pre-determiners, central determiners and post-determiners, as shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Determiners in English

Pre-determiners Examples of determiners Examples in phrases

multipliers once, twice twice a day

fractions half, three-quarter half a glass

intensifiers such, quiet such a car

distributive both, all all the people

Central determiners Examples of determiners Examples in phrases

demonstratives this, these, that, those both these tomatoes

articles a/an, the all the children

possessives my, your, her, his, its, our, all your students

Post-determiners Examples of determiners Examples in phrases

quantifiers few, several, many a few replies

ordinal determiners first, third, sixth the third step

cardinal determiners one, three, six the three cars

The determiners within each of the three types above are mutually exclusive. Two central determiners in adjacent positions within an NP lead to an ungrammatical phrase, as in *the this car. This phenomenon has been explained in a number of ways. Drawing on the Minimalist Generative Syntax framework, Carnie (2013:208) remarks that there can only be

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one of each type of determiner in an English NP; likewise, Radford (1997:46) says that only one determiner of a given type (for instance, one referential determiner and one quantificational determiner) can pre-modify a noun. Alexiadou, Haegeman and Stavrou (2007:93) hold that both the definite article and the demonstrative are situated at D in the DP; thus, they compete for the same position20_{. Lyons (1999:18) avers that such items are in} complementary distribution because they are both deictic. Likewise, Hawkins (2004:82ff.) and Stockwell et al. (1973:67ff.) hold that the developed from the English demonstrative; therefore the article and the demonstrative both perform referential functions (see also Heine and Kuteva (2002), Greenberg (1978) and Jovunen (2002)). Referentiality is translated via the head D in the DP (Alexiadou et al., 2007). Considering the Minimalist Generative Syntax framework, both the definite article and the demonstrative in English are thus heads of D (cf. Footnote 20).

Besides the co-occurrence restrictions in English, Breban, Davidse and Ghesquière (2011:2689) noted that determiners can be divided into two major groups: simple determiners and complex determiners. Simple determiners are central determiners such as the and this, and complex determiners are combinations of central determiners and other determiners as in all the boys and these two women21_{. Each of these examples combines a central determiner} and a pre-/post- determiner. Such a combination normally gives rise to a complex determiner. Determiners perform several functions in English. For example, determiners such as first, third and sixth can show ordinal numbers as in the sixth factor (Quirk et al., 1985); while others can show quantity via cardinal numbers as in six factors. Moreover, some determiners can demonstrate relative quantifiers such as half and all as in half the class (Breban et al., 2011).22 _{Having outlined the functions of determiners, it is important to look at their co-} occurence with modifiers in the English nominal complex. Consider the following example.

20 _{However, the noted competition between the definite article and the demonstrative is not universal, since} in Greek, Hungarian and Romanian, definite articles and demonstratives can co-occur within nominal complexes (Alexiadou, et al., 2007; Lyons, 1999).

21

In this example, the central determiner and the post-determiner both precede the head noun. This occurrence necessitates the post-determiner two to function more as an adjective since it appears between the determiner and the head noun. Carnie (2013) recognises the difficulty of determining the category of the numeral in such an example. Therefore, he remarks that either analysis is acceptable.

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In addition, the English temporal adverb then can be used as an attributive adjective, as in the then

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(8) The three auctioned cars that she bought

Determiners pre-modifier N clausal post-modifier

Determiners precede pre-modifiers in the English nominal complex (Mowarin, 2013; Radford, 1997). In (8), the is a deictic item locating the referents by directing the hearer’s attention to the shared set of knowledge about the cars; three is a cardinal determiner quantifying the referents; auctioned is a participial adjective pre-modifier limiting the reference to only the cars that were auctioned; and the post-modifier that she bought limits the reference to only the cars that the woman bought (Radden & Dirven, 2007). As can be noted in this example, the speaker packs a lot of information into one nominal complex by employing this limited set of words (Rodríguez-Navarro, 1984). The following table summarises the morpho- syntactic structure of the English nominal complex.

Table 2.2: The structure of the English nominal complex

Determiners Pre-modifiers Head Post-modifiers

Pre.det Centr.det Post.det Phrasal Adj. N Clausal/phrasal elements

all the three auctioned cars that she bought