Determiners
Essay title: 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
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