Determiners

Lecture 5

Grammatical Determiners

‘Grammatical determiners’ is a concept related to function.

It is used to make reference to various linguistic units.

They all play a part in building up the grammatical status of the noun

The articles are central among these units

They have no function independent of the noun. These linguistic units constitute a closed system.

In addition to articles, this system includes the pronouns: possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, negative, distributive, quantitative, etc.

Personal Pronouns

We call pronouns a subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence:

Noun Pronoun

John got a new job ~He got a new job

Children should watch less television

~They should watch less television

There are three personal pronouns, and each has

a singular and a plural form: 

The first set of forms (I, you, he...) exemplifies the SUBJECTIVE CASE

the second set (me, you, him...) exemplifies the OBJECTIVE CASE

Person Singular Plural 1st I we 2nd you you 3rd he/she/it they

Person Singular Plural 1st me us 2nd you you 3rd him/her/it them

The Other Types of Pronoun 

Pronoun Type Members of the Subclass Example

Possessive mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs The white car is mine

Reflexive myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

He injured himself playing football

Reciprocal each other, one another They really hate each other

Relative that, which, who, whose, whom, where, when

The book that you gave me was really boring

Demonstrative this, that, these, those This is a new car

Interrogative who, what, why, where, when, whatever

What did he say to you?

Indefinite anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none, no one

There's something in my shoe

Many of the pronouns belong to another word class - the class of determiners.

They are pronouns when they occur independently, without a noun following them, as in

This is a new car. But when a noun follows them they

are determiners.  

This car is new.

The class of nouns as a whole is an open class, the subclass of pronouns is closed.

A major difference between pronouns and nouns generally is that pronouns do not take the or a/an before them.

Further, pronouns do not take adjectives before them, except in very restricted constructions involving some indefinite pronouns (a little something, a certain someone). 

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are marked for person, number and gender.

Possessive pronouns vs. possessive adjectives one set is used when the head in the NP is

expressed (This is my car), the other set is used when the NP has

undergone ellipsis (the head is omitted: Your car is bigger than mine ).

Possessive pronouns

Singular Plural

Subject case

Object case

Subject case

Object case

First person my mine our oursSecond person

your yours your yours

Third person m.

his their theirs

f. her hers

n. its

Reflexive pronouns marked for person and number in 3rd person sg. they are also marked for gender oneself (third person singular, but unmarked for

gender)

Singular Plural

First person myself ourselves

Second person yourself yourselves

Third person m. himself themselves f. herself

n. itself

Reflexive use

The reflexive pronouns are used instead of personal pronouns as direct or indirect object to indicate that the object NP is co-referential with the subject NP in the clause.

John went to the barber's, and the barber shaved him.

The barber shaved himself.

Granny felt tired, so Mary made her a nice cup of tea.

Mary made herself a nice cup of tea.

Reflexive verbs

Certain verbs which can only occur with a reflexive object - reflexive verbs.

There is a difference in meaning:e.g. enjoy a film 'be amused/thrilled/moved by a film' vs. enjoy oneself 'have a good time' (not 'be amused/

thrilled/moved by oneself'!).

Emphatic use

The reflexive pronouns can also be used to give special emphasis.

Mrs. Grant herself served the tea. Mrs. Grant served the tea herself.

There is a subtle difference in meaning:1. we get the impression that Mrs. Grant's serving the tea was

something remarkable, a great honour for the guests, etc.2. we only learn that it was Mrs. Grant and nobody else who

served the tea, perhaps because nobody else wanted to take the trouble

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are marked for number and for proximity (proximate and distal); this/these, that/those

Proximity in space: this book (refers to a book close to the speaker), that book (to a book further away).

Proximity in time: This is the hottest summer since 1930 vs. I remember the summer of '55: that was also a hot summer.

Wh-pronouns Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are marked for animacy of referent (who vs. what; which is used with both) and for selectivity (which vs. who/what).

In addition, who is marked for case

Non-selective Selective

Animate Inanimate

Subject case who what which

Object case who(m) what which

Genitive whose - -

Interrogative pronouns

introduce interrogative main clauses (What has happened?)

or nominal subclauses expressing indirect questions (He asked me what had happened).

What man could resist such an offer? (non-selective) vs.

Which book did you buy? (selective)

A selective pronoun is one that indicates that the referent is selected from a specific group

of possible referents

When Great-aunt Emma was young, both the butcher and the blacksmith in the village proposed to her.

Oh yes? Which of them did she marry? Neither; she moved to London and ran a shop instead

of marrying.

which and neither are selective forms, indicating that the referent is to be selected from the group of referents

The non-selective pronouns who and nobody are used to indicate that there are

no limits to the set of possible referents

This is a picture of Great-aunt Helen; she married the village school-teacher. And this is Great-aunt Emma as a young girl.

Who did she marry? Nobody; she moved to London and ran a shop

instead of marrying.

Indefinite pronouns (and quantifying determiners)

Since many of the indefinite pronouns coincide in form with quantifying determiners, the two groups will be presented together.

3 groups of indefinite pronouns: existential, quantifying, and generic.

Existential indefinite pronouns The existential indefinite pronouns are unmarked for

gender, status and animacy of referent. Semantically they can be divided into

Simple Compound

Personal Non-personal

Universal Distributive every everyone, everybody

everything

each; either - -

Collective all; both - -

Assertive some someone, somebody

something

Non-assertive any; either anyone,  anybody anything

Negative no, none; neither no one, nobody nothing

Universal existential pronouns

each vs. every – slight difference

Each favours a selective interpretation, esp. before an of-phrase: each member of the Council, each of the members.

Every is used in clearly non-selective contexts: Every star was shining bright on the firmament.

Quantifying indefinite pronouns 2 groups, multal and paucal forms, with parallel sets of

forms for use with C and U nouns

The multal forms indicate a great number of referents (many) or a great amount (much);

The paucal forms indicate a small number (few) or a small amount (little).

Multal Paucal

Countable many few

Uncountable much little

The generic indefinite pronoun

the generic indefinite pronoun one vs. numeral one & prop word one

Numeral Indefinite article

Prop word Generic pronoun

Singular one one one one

Plural - - ones -

Genitive - - one’s one’s

Reflexive - - - oneself

The numeral one is used in a noun phrase: John lost one dollar.

The prop word one replaces the head of a noun phrase: John has a blue car, and Mary has a red one.

The new biscuits taste better than the old ones.

The generic pronoun is used with generic reference: One should not think so much of oneself and one's own problems.

The Articles

John saw a unicorn in the garden.

The person (John), the animal (unicorn) and the garden in question are said to be the referents of the expressions John, a unicorn, and the garden, respectively.

To sum up: reference is a relation between an expression (an utterance) and whatever in the

outside world that particular utterance is about

specific reference is to one or more specific, identifiable referents, e.g. John saw a tiger in the garden. The reference is here to one specific tiger and one specific garden.

generic reference is to a whole class of referents, either distributively to any member of the class, e.g. Tigers are beautiful beasts, or collectively to the class as a whole, e.g. Sabre-toothed tigers are extinct.

Article distribution The definite and the indefinite articles can never be

pronouns. They are always determiners. Countable nouns

Specific reference

Singular

Plural

New information

I read a book  and some journals on the train. 

The train drove past Ø villages, Ø fields and Ø clumps of trees.

Given information

The book was boring,  but the journals were interesting. 

The villages looked dirty, but the fields and the trees were covered with white snow.

Generic reference Singular

Plural

A lion is a dangerous beast. (distributive generic reference)  The lion is a dangerous beast. (collective generic reference)  Lions are dangerous beasts. (collective or distributive generic reference)

Uncountable nouns

Specific reference

Singular

Plural

Singular

New information

I bought some wine  and some clothes yesterday.

There's some/Ø beer in the

fridge.

Given information

The wine was expensive,  but the clothes were cheap.

The beer should be cold by now.

Generic reference Singular

Plural

John likes Ø wine./Ø Wine is expensive here.  Ø Clothes are cheap there

Special cases

The definite article

We can recognize a number of cases where the definite article is used without contrasting with the other articles.

This is always the case with the following categories of proper nouns:

A. Plural geographical names

Countries and regions: the Netherlands, the United States, the Midlands

Mountain ranges, groups of islands: the Rockies, the Himalayas, the Pyrenees, the Andes; the Hebrides, the Scillies, the Canaries (or the Scilly Isles, the Canary Islands).

B. Singular geographical names

Seas: the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Pacific

Rivers: the Thames, the Avon, the Danube, the Euphrates, the Nile, the Potomac

Canals: the Suez Canal, the Erie Canal Certain countries: the United Kingdom, the

Soviet Union

C. Various social institutions

Cultural institutions (theatres, museums, libraries, galleries, cinemas): the Globe, the Victoria and Albert, the Bodleian, the Palladium

Restaurants, clubs, hotels: the Ritz, the Sheraton

D. Newspapers: The Times, The Independent, The Observer, The New Haven Advocate (but zero article in names of magazines and journals: Punch, Time, Life, Language)

E. Ships: the Victory, the Titanic

F. Organizations: the United Nations, the European Union

The definite article is also used with nominalized adjectives, including certain nationality adjectives. Such constructions always have generic reference: the poor, the rich, the blind, the English, the Irish.

Note the difference between the English (generic) and the Englishmen (specific).

The with longer noun groups

We do not normally use the with U nouns because they refer to sth in a general way.

However, the is required if the U noun is followed by a qualifier which relates it to a particular person, thing.

Example: / am interested in the education of young children.

The indefinite article

It is used to talk about things or people in an indefinite way.

A or an are put in front of the sg. form of a C noun.

Example: An old lady was calling to him.

The indefinite article

it derives historically from the unstressed form of 'one',

there are still many contexts in which this numerical function is uppermost.

So 'one‘ could be seen as a slightly emphatic equivalent of 'a'.

Example: a mile or two /one or two miles/

The indefinite article

when we are mentioning s.o. or sth. for the first time

it’s the 'unmarked' article in the sense that it is used where the conditions for the use of 'the' do not obtain.

Unlike the definite article the indefinite article does not signal co-reference with a preceding indefinite noun phrase.

The indefinite article

with noun phrases which do not refer, but ascribe a property to the referent of the subject noun phrase or pronoun:

Ian is a Scot.Peter is an engineer.She is a first-year student.He is a bachelor.

If, on the other hand, the NP refers to a unique holder of an office/position, the definite article (or the zero article) is used: Peter is (the) chairman of the Board.

After the preposition as, however, the zero article is used: Speaking as chairman, I cannot accept this proposal.

The indefinite article

Although we do not normally use determiners with uncountable nouns, we can use a or an with an uncountable noun when it is modified or qualified.

Example: She had an eagerness for life.

The indefinite article

when using one individual person or thing to make a general statement about all people or things of this type

Example: A computer can only do what you program it to do.

This is not the usual way of referring to groups. Normally, we would use the plural form of a noun without a determiner.

The zero article

in NPs with sg. C nouns and with specific reference if the information is contextually given rather than textually given.

This is the case with certain kinship terms (Mother, Father, Uncle, Granny) and with a few occupational terms (Cook, Nurse).

Note the difference b/n Mother helped them (the speaker's mother) and The mother helped them (a mother previously mentioned in the text).

The same use of the zero article is found with town, as in Lulu's back in town.

In the following cases English uses zero article corresponding to definite forms of

nouns in Bulgarian abstract uncountables with generic reference: Life is

a struggle; Late 19th century art became increasingly decadent;

activities associated with institutions: go to church/school; go to/be in hospital/prison (AmE the hospital) (but the definite article is used with reference to the buildings: They went to the church but the door was locked so they couldn't get in);

meals (Dinner is ready); certain time expressions: Spring seemed a long way

away; Easter is early next year; at down, after dark, before morning came

Means of transport and communicationExample: travel by car,communicate by telephone Illnesses The zero article is normally used for illnesses. Example: appendicitis, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia. But the is often used, in a more traditional style of

speech, for some well-known infection diseases. Example: (the) flu, (the) measles, (the) mumps