Determiners

.INTRODUCTION ( DETERMINERS ) 1p.

2.CLASSES OF DETERMINERS 1-2p.

3.DEFINITE AND INDEFINIT EDETERMINERS ( articles ) 3-6p.

4.DEMONSTRATIVES 6-7p.

5. POSSESSIVES 7-8

6. QUANTIFIERS ( gradable ) 8-12p.

7. NUMBERS 13-14p.

8. EXCLAMATIVES 14p.

9. DISTRIBUTIVES 15p.

10. CONCLUSION 15p.

11. REFERNCES 16p.

I.DETERMENERS (what are determiners?)

Determiners are little words that go with nouns and set them in context, words like a , the, my, which, some and etc. They are a consistent stumbling block for most non-native speakers of English. Determiners are particular type of adjective. They precede a noun and add information about that noun. The determiner , along with the adjective , usually indicates whether a noun is singular or plural , masculine or feminine. In other words , it indicates NUNBER or GENDER. This means that most determiners have several different forms. Some common determiners are articles like, a , an ,the; possessive adjectives like, my, your, his ,her, its, our, and their ; and demonstrative adjectives, like this, that , these, and ,those.

Modern grammarians and linguists made a clear distinction between adjectives and determiners , because they have different sorts of meanings and different uses. Adjectives tell us about the qualities of the thing referred to (red cells , a blinding flash ). Determiners set the thing in context.

II. CLASSES OF DETERMIERS

There are seven classes of determiners

A. The Definite and Indefinite articles:

the , a, an

B. The Demonstratives:

this , that , those

C. The Possessives

my , your, his, her, its, our, , their

D. The Quantifiers

A few, a little , much, many, a lot of, most , any, enough, some etc

E. The numbers

F. The exclimatives:

such and what

G. The distributives:

either , or, neither , nor , each , every

A. Definite and Indefinite articles

What is an article?

An article is a member of a small class o determiners that identify a noun’s

- definite or indefinite reference , and

- - new or given status.

The articles do not have gender in English ( there are no masculine or feminine articles). Articles in English are invariable. That is, they do not change according to the gender or number of the noun they refer to , e.g. the boy , the woman , the children.

a. Definite article : the

Examples:

1. The man.

2.The woman.

3.The boy.

4.The boys (n.b. plural)

* The usage of the article the

1.to refer to something which has already been mentioned.

Example: An elephant and a mouse fell in love. The mouse

loved the elephant’s long trunk , and the elephant

loved the mouse’s tiny nose.

2.when both the speaker and listener know what is