Definition:
A word or a group of words that introduces a noun. Determiners include articles, demonstratives, and possessive pronouns.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "limit, boundary"Examples and Observations:
- "The determiner class is one of the structure classes that straddle the line between a word class and a function. On the one hand, our most common determiners, the articles, do indeed constitute a small, closed structure class. At the other end of the spectrum are the possessive nouns, which function as determiners while retaining their membership in the open class 'noun.' In between are the subclasses of determiners that belong to the closed pronoun class: Demonstrative, possessive, and indefinite pronouns all function as determiners; and, of course, as pronouns they also function as nominals (in fact, 'pronominal' would be a more accurate label than 'pronoun').
"Determiners signal nouns in a variety of ways: They may define the relationship of the noun to the speaker or listener (or reader); they may identify the noun as specific or general; they may quantify it specifically or refer to quantity in general."
(Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar, 5th ed. Allyn and Bacon, 1998) - "There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting."
(David Letterman) - "Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most."
(Joseph Wood Krutch) - "When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said 'No, I made a few mistakes.'"
(Steven Wright)
Pronunciation: dee-TURM-i-nur
