Determiners Page 3

The Ordering of Determiners

DETERMINERS PAGE 3/3

Determiners occur before nouns, and they indicate the kind of reference which the nouns have. Depending on their relative position before a noun, we distinguish three classes of determiners.

	Predeterminer	Central Determiner	Postdeterminer	Noun
I met	all	my	many	friends

A sentence like this is somewhat unusual, because it is rare for all three determiner slots to be filled in the same sentence. Generally, only one or two slots are filled.

Predeterminers

Predeterminers specify quantity in the noun which follows them, and they are of three major types:

1. "Multiplying" expressions, including expressions ending in times:

twice my salary

double my salary

ten times my salary

2. Fractions

half my salary

one-third my salary

3. The words all and both:

all my salary

both my salaries

Predeterminers do not normally co-occur:

*all half my salary

Central Determiners

The definite article the and the indefinite article a/an are the most common central determiners:

all the book

half a chapter

As many of our previous examples show, the word my can also occupy the central determiner slot. This is equally true of the other possessives:

all your money

all his/her money

all our money

all their money

The demonstratives, too, are central determiners:

all these problems

twice that size

four times this amount

Postdeterminers

Cardinal and ordinal numerals occupy the postdeterminer slot:

the two children

his fourth birthday

This applies also to general ordinals:

my next project

our last meeting

your previous remark

her subsequent letter

Other quantifying expressions are also postdeterminers:

my many friends

our several achievements

the few friends that I have

Unlike predeterminers, postdeterminers can co-occur:

my next two projects

several other people

Identify all the determiners in each of the following sentences.

Click on all the words that you think are determiners; the answers you choose for each sentence will appear in the box underneath it. You don't have to type anything but you can click in the box to edit your answers if you need to.

1. I'll just have half a cup

2. She calls her two children twice a week

3. Your photograph is in all the papers

4. Both these books were published last year

5. Other people get double the amount we get

6. I really need a new computer

Verbs...