DeterminersPrepared by:

Sophia Akdim

Supervised by:Profs: Jennifer Evans and Youssef Tamer

Change will not come if we wait for person or some other time. We are ones we've been waiting for. We are change we seek.

 Barack Obama 

 

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

 Barack Obama 

 

The difference between an adjective and a determiner

• An adjective qualifies a noun.

• The form of an adjective can change

• An adjective placed before the noun or as a complement of a noun.

• An adjective comes after a determiners

Determiners• Limits the meaning of a

noun.• Determiners do not

change.• A determiner can come

only before a noun.• A determiner precedes

other adjectives that accompany it. to one another.

Adjectives

Outline

1/ the meaning of determiners

2/determiners and their appearance

3/Types of determiners:• Numbers • Fractions• Multipliers• Demonstrative determiners

4/Quantifiers,Partitives and other ways of expressing quantity

5/Problems that ESL/EFL students have with determiners

The meaning of determiners

• Words that precede any pre-modifying adjectives in a noun phrase and which denote such referential meanings as specific reference.

Determiners and their order of appearance

• Determiners include:

• Articles: serve to indicate the specificity of reference of the noun phrase with which it occurs.

• Indefinite: a/an• Definite: The

Ex:He met a man.

The man he met was his neighbor.

• Demonstrative determiners:

This/that ,These/Those

Ex:I want that perfume, not this one.

These books are more interesting than . those books over there.

• Possessive determiners:

My,your,his,her

Ex:That is my sweater.

It’s her puppy.• Nouns as possessive determiners:

Abraham’s ,Kate’s

EX:Kate’s laptop is more sofisticated than Jessica’s laptop.

• Quantifiers:

All,any,few,many

Ex:there are many beautiful articles in that store.

She has all the books I need.• Partitives:

Glass of, loaf of, bit of

Ex:He ate a loaf of bread.

• Cardinal numbers:

One,two,100

Ex:She owns one umbrella.• Ordinal numbers:

First, second, last

Ex:That is the second time he has done that.

• Multipliers:

double ,twice,three times

EX:She brought double the amount we need• Fractions:

Three-fourths,two fifths

Ex:Three-fourth of the population of Morocco consists of young people.

• Determiners belong in three groups that describe their order of appearance before head nouns

• Predeterminers• Central determiners• Postdeterminers

• PS: Different types of quantifiers occupy different positions, for example:

• All is a preterminer• Every central determiner• Many is a postdeterminer

_The other determiner types ,each occupy just one category.

Example:

A. Both girls are smart : Quantifier+Noun

B.The girls are smart:Article+Noun

C.The both girls are smart: Article+Quantifier+Noun

Ungrammatical

Overview

articlesPossessive determiners

Quantifiers

Nouns as possessive determiners

Demonstrative determiners

PartitivesCardinal numbers

Ordinal numbers

Maltipliers

Fractions

Exercise• Identify each determiner in the bracketed NPs using the correct

term(Article,cardinal number,ordinal number,multiplier,fraction,demonstrative determiner,possessive determiner,noun as possessive determiner,quantifier,partitive).

If any NP has an incorret order, explain how the order is wrong ,and then correct it

Example: they didn’t have fresh orange jus in the cafe, so he asked for a fifth of a quart of coffee

Answer: a: article , fifth:fraction ,quart of :partitive

1/ (The first two runners )crossed the finish line two hours after the start of the race.

2/ (His both sisters) are in the army.

3/(One third of her last salary check) went to paying off her debt.

4/I have to attend( that party).It’s a party for( my brother’s twentieth anniversary ).

5/ A:How many (bags of ice) did Maria oder for the party?

B:Twice the number that we ordered for( your party) .

6/While at the supermarket, he bought( a bunch of grapes) and a (loaf of bread).

• Answers:

1/ The: article, first:ordinal number, two:cardinal number

2/His:Possessive determiner, Both:Quantifiers (The order of these two elements is incorrect.Quantifiers precede possessive determiners.)

Correction:Both of his sisters

3/One-third: fraction, her:Possessive determiner, last:ordinal number

4/That: demonstrative determiner, my: possessive determiner, brother’s:noun as possessive determiner, twentieth:ordinal number

5/bags of :partitive, twice: multiplier, your: possessive determiner.

6/a bunch: partitive, a loaf: partitive

Types of determiners

• Numbers, Fractions, and Multipliers

The cardinal number one is used before singular count nouns, and the other cardinal numbers are (two, three, four…) are used with plural count nouns.

a.I will give you one dollar for each.

b.Amelie’s four granddaughters are well mannared.

• Fractions can occur with singular and plural count nouns:

a.Half the team is injured .

b.Two-Thirds of the players were too late for practice.

c.I have finished about one-third of my presentation.

• PS: Fractions are usually followed by an article: a, possessive determiner or « of ».

a:I’m willing to pay half the amount.

b:I’m willing to pay half amount: incorrect.

• Multipliers, such as double, triple and four times, occur with singular and plural count , as well as with noncount. Nouns:

a: He’s twice the man you are .

b:For some reason,she’s earning three times our salaries.

c:The price you are paying is five times the cost of production.

• The ordinal numbers generally have a one to one relation to cardinal numbers:

The ordinal first corresponds to the cardinal one.

• Ordinal numbers accur before singular and plural count nouns, and proceded by another determiners often the definite article.

a: the prize will go to the first winner .

• The determiners next,last, other,another are also in the category of ordinal numbers, as they also designate a place in an ordred sequence .

a. the next type of determiners we’ll going to tackle is demonstrative determiners.

PS: Another can sometimes mean the same thing as (an additional) when it appears before the ordinal one.

• Example:

I already have two carpets,but I should buy another one for the bedroom.

Demonstrative determiners

This , and that : count and noncount Singular form.

a.this movie is really worth watching.

b. Do you like that music ?

these, and those:plural count nouns, only.

a.these people are nice.

b..these information have to be read:

incorrect

:

PS: This/that, these/those:

can also function as pronouns.

Meaning demonstrative determiners

The meaning distinction between this/these and that/those applies to four dimensions:

1/Physical distance:

This /these : refer to sth close to the speaker.

That/those: refer to sth more distant.

Ex: I love this lady , not that one over there.

2/The dimension of time:

Demonstrative determiners:refer to more distant in time Vs more immediate in time;

That/those refer to sth that happened farther back in the past.

This and these: refer to sth that happened more recently.

• Ex: we had a wonderful trip this summer .

we had a wonderful trip that summer.

3/Infomation packaging/ introduction of new information, with this and these particularly in nonreferential there constructions:

Ex:There was this realy good looking girl on the other side of the room , and she kept giving him the eye, so he decided to walk over and chat her up .

NPs with that/those constitute infomation that the speaker presumes is familiar to the listener.

Ex: Benkiran keeps asking that   « have you understood » question.

4/ dimension of relevance

this/ that precede nouns of high relevance for the speaker.

Ex: where can we offer our help for hungry people?Where this hunger spreads rapidly.

That/those precede nouns of low relevance.

Ex:where can we offer our help for hungry people?where that hunger spreads rapidly.

Exercise

• Indicate whether the determiner between brackets is grammatical or not.Explain the source of any error:

Ex: I love( those) music

Those: ungrammatical(the plural demonstrative determiner those cannot appear before a noncount noun) : the correct word is (that)

1/He’s (third )student who signed up for this course.

2/(This) orange juice is delicious.

3/There is (one) more luggage is the baggage compartment of the plane.

4/The small statue is (half) size of the big one.

5/We have to move (three )furniture to leave space for the TV

Answers

• 1/third: ungrammatical (ordinal numbers are preceeded by an article,usually a definite one). The third student

• 2/This :grammatical• 3/one:ungrammatical(cardinal numbers can’t precede a

noncount noun )

one more piece of • 4/Half: ungrammatical (fractions cannot precede a

noun)they are followed by an article.

Half the size.• 5/three:ungrammatical(cardinal numbers can’t precede a

noncount: three pieces of …

Exercise

• State the function of each demonstrative determiner :

Ex:a: Do you like this dress?

b: Not really I like the one over there.

this :indicates that the dress is close to the speaker ,and That: the dress indicates that the dress is farther away.

• 1/There was this kid near the bookshop.And he sort of looked at me as if he knew me. So I smiled.

• 2/That summer we travelled all over the place.this summer we have no plans to go anywhere.

• 3/I advise you to watch this amazing film.

Quantifiers,partitives and other ways of expressing quantity

• Quantifiers are a set of determiners that indicate the quantity or number of something:

all, any,both,every,each,(a) few,less (a) little ,many,most,much and several.

• Quantifier floating:

The quantifiers all, both, and each can occur in more than one position in a sentence .The rule that states the alternative positions that quantifiers can have is called: Quantifier floating.

• Quantifier pronoun flip:

The quantifier all, both, and each may appear either before or after a pronoun.

• Partitives:

Are expressions containing a count.noun+of( loaf of,piece of, cup of …)that denotes units by which a following head noun can be counted.

• Other ways of expressing quantification:

a lot of, lots of ,a great deal of, loads of ,plenty of…

Possessive determiners

• Possessive determiners appear before head nouns and indicate possession.

• Nouns as possessive determiners:are inflected with an apostrophe+s.

• Constructions with an (of phrase).

Exercise

• Indicate whether the bracketed NP pattern in each sentence is preferable or not. Explain why

EX:What happened to (Jen’s )arm?

Answer:Preferable( the NP refers to a human)

1/ She ran her fingers through( the shiny red fur of the dog).

2/ I have a passion for (Chicago’s Jazz clubs).

3/There was a deep cut over the left( eyes of the player).

4/It was was only later that I saw him standing in( the corner of the room).

.

Answers

• 1/not preferable : the dog‘s shiny red fur.• 2/The inflected pattern is preferable here

(the of+ the is also correct)• 3/Not preferable: the player’s eyes.• 4/ Preferable: the Of +the noun pattern is

the correct choise the NP’s that refer to inanimate objects

Activity

Problems

Problems that ESL/EFL students have with determiners:

Preference for of+noun pattern over the possessive determiner+noun pattern.

• Demonstrative determiners(Korean)

Korean have a single form –i which corresponds to both;this and these.

• i salam: this person• i salam –tul : these persons

• Ce corresponds to that and those

ce salam : that person

ce salam _tul : those persons

• Ex of Errors:

We admit that those argument is not wrong in some sense.

• Other and another in spanish:

In single form in Spanish,otro, refers to other and another.

Ex: the problem of poverty is other important issue to tackle.

Thank you for your attention