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Degree determiners mark a noun phrase as indefinite. They also convey imprecise quantification, with many and much expressing a large quantity and few and little expressing a small quantity. Degree determiners are unusual in that they inflect for grade, a feature typical of adjectives and adverbs but not determiners.
Determiners are distinguished from pronouns by the presence of nouns. [6] Each went his own way. (Each is used as a pronoun, without an accompanying noun.) Each man went his own way. (Each is used as a determiner, accompanying the noun man.) Plural personal pronouns can act as determiners in certain constructions. [7] We linguists aren’t stupid.
a; a few; a little; all; an; another; any; anybody; anyone; anything; anywhere; both; certain (also adjective) each; either; enough; every; everybody; everyone ...
The articles in English are the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an.They are the two most common determiners.The definite article is the default determiner when the speaker believes that the listener knows the identity of a common noun's referent (because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in the same sentence or an earlier sentence).
A difficulty with this reasoning, however, is posed by indefinite pronouns (one, few, many), which can easily appear together with a determiner, e.g. the old one. The DP-analysis must therefore draw a distinction between definite and indefinite pronouns, whereby definite pronouns are classified as determiners, but indefinite pronouns as nouns.
The determiners starting with some-, any, no, and every- and ending with -one, -body, -thing, -place (e.g., someone, nothing) are often called indefinite pronouns, though others consider them to be compound determiners. [2]: 423 The generic pronouns one and the generic use of you are sometimes called indefinite.
Indefinite pronouns are associated with indefinite determiners of a similar or identical form (such as every, any, all, some). A pronoun can be thought of as replacing a noun phrase, while a determiner introduces a noun phrase and precedes any adjectives that modify the noun.
Certain determiners, such as a, an, many, and some, along with numbers (e.g., four items), typically mark a noun phrase as indefinite. Others, including the, that, and genitive noun phrases (e.g., my brother) typically mark the noun phrase as definite. [2] A number of tests have been proposed to distinguish definite from indefinite noun phrases.