Definiteness in Determiner Phrases (DPs)

TOPIC: Definiteness in Determiner Phrases (DPs)

SCOPE: This essay looks into grammatical features of definiteness .It brings out why the makeup of the determiner phrase couldn’t be the sole  factor that shows definiteness. Nevertheless It goes ahead to portray how important it is. It shows how quantification and determiners exemplify in grammar. It goes further to show how they can be actualized  lexically.

Determiners are a class of words, phrase or affix that are used to give more details of a noun. They function in a noun or noun phrase to identify or distinguish a reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context without modifying it.

They may signal whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite element of a class, to a near or more nearer object, to an element which belongs to a particular individual or thing to a specific number or quantity.

 Usually they are a dependent function in a noun phrase marking the determiner phrase as definite or indefinite. This function is usually filled by words in the determinative class but may be filled by other elements like genitive pronoun.

Examples of determiners include articles, demonstratives, cardinal numbers and indefinite numerals.

1.Articles are grouped into two: definite articles and indefinite article. There’s only one definite article ’The’. For example: The  sun rises from the east.

indefinite articles are ‘a’ and ‘an’. For example

a)a boy goes to school.

b)An umbrella is useful during rainy season.

2. Demonstratives (this, those)

3. cardinal numbers(two, five)

4. indefinite numerals(most, any, each)

Therefore, definiteness in determiner refers to the ability of a determiner phrase to be identified by the addressed individual.

Definite DPs direct to certain entities which the addressed individual(s) is in a state to point out/identify.

For example

a) The girl took her book.

b) The mechanic found his spanner.

Indefinite DPs introduce new entities into the discourse which the addressed individual(s)is not in a position of identifying.

a)A girl took a book

b)A mechanic found a spanner

1

In grammar determiners are divided into three types. These are pre-determiners; all, half, both, and multipliers like double, thrice, once and twice.

The second division are the central determiners which are articles ;a, an, and the, denominative determiners for example this, that, these, and those and possessive determiners which include his, her ,whom and whose.

The last division are post-determiners, these are grouped into two: The ordinal numeral and semi determiners which comprise of these, are, later, some, next, other and last.

The second group comprises of Cardinal numeral and quantifying determiners which include; some, a lot of and enough.

QUANTIFIRES

Quantifiers are a class of words which can be used in place of determiners. we use quantifiers when we are required to give someone information about the number of people, animals or something: how much or how many.

Examples: most children start school at the age of five

We ate some bread  and butter

We saw lots of birds.

Some quantifiers can be used with both count and uncounted  nouns.

This include all, any, enough, more, most, less, a lot of, lots of and some.

And some more colloquial forms e.g. plenty off, heaps of, a load of, loads of

Some quantifiers may be used only with count nouns e.g. both, each, either, several, a few, fewer and neither

And some more colloquial forms e.g. a couple of, hundreds of, and thousands of

Other quantifiers may be used only with uncounted  nouns. This include a little, not much, a bit of

They are also used particularly with abstract nouns such as time, money, trouble etc.

We often use: a great deal of, a good deal of.

You can only put a noun after a quantifier when you are talking about members of a group in general.

For example: few snakes are dangerous1

Both brothers work with their father

I never have enough money.

But if you are talking about a specific group of people or things use

‘Of the’

For example few of the snakes are dangerous

All of the children live at home

He has spent all of the money.

Note that if we are talking about two people or things we use the quantifiers both, either and neither.

LEXICAL

Lexical are categories of words in a phrase that carry meaning (have synonyms and antonyms) and they are the heads of phrases. The main lexical categories are the Noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition.

Syntactically the categories can be defined according to what they combine with as in the examples below.

Chair is a noun because it combines with the article(or determiner)The.

For instance, chair, table and a book are nouns since they refer to things.

however if the distinction between a noun as person, place or thing and a verb as an event or action could have been  the only uniqueness, certain nouns such as action and destruction would have been verbs since they imply action.

Here are some of the examples:

i)The actions by the leaders improved their lives.(action noun)

ii)The war resulted to the destruction of the house.(destruction noun)

iii)The action portrayed a positive side of him.(action noun)

iv)The use of hard drugs led to his destruction.(destruction noun)

This elements are never the less seen as nouns.

Thus, in (i)and (ii)action and destruction are preceded by the article ‘The’ and are followed by a phrase starting with a preposition.

THE SYNTAX OF DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE DETERMINER PHRASES(DPs)

These are the set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.

First, in a determiner phrase, at least one determiner functions as the head of the phrase.

For example:

                       i)The plate is broken

                       ii)The clothe is torn.

                      iii)The milk is spilt.

                      iv)The house is good.

                      v)The ball is new.

In the above examples, ‘the’ is the definite article, it serves as the head of the phrase.

                       i) A fruit  sweet is healthy.

                       ii)An airplane crushed.

                      iii)A dozen is enough.

                       iv)An elephant is big.

In this example, ‘an’ is the indefinite determiner and its main work is to function as the head of the phrase.

Secondly, some determiner phrase may consist of two determiners.

For example:

i) All seven doctors.(Quantifier+ Numeral)

ii) All the boys.(Quantifier+ Article)

iii) The four brothers.(Article+ Numeral)

iv) Those eight glasses.(Demonstrative determiner+ numeral)

v) The most expensive.(Article+ Quantifier)

vi) Her many clothes.(Possessive determiner+ Numeral)

vii) Whose two shoes.(Possessive interrogative+ determiner+ Numeral)

The third form of determiner phrases are those consisting of two determiners and a p-word.

 Examples: of such sentences are:

i) most of the scholars.(Quantifier+ p-word+ article)

ii) Most of his friends.(Quantifier+ p-word+ possessive determiner)

iii) One of the following.(Numeral+ P-word+ article)

iv) Two of her daughters.(Numeral +P-word-possessive determiner)

Fourthly, they are formed by three determiners.

Its examples include:

i) All his few neighbors. (Quantifier+ Possessive determiner+ Quantifier.)

ii) All those many problems.(Quantifier+ demonstrative determiner+ Quantifier)

The last form of the determiner phrase are those determiners consisting of three determiners and a p-word.)

i) All of her many accessories(Quantifier+ p-word+ possessive determiner+ quantifier) ii)few of those 100 students (Quantifier+ p-word+ demonstrative+ numeral)

THE STRUCTURE OF THE DETERMINER PHRASE(DP)

The structure of a determiner phrase is how a DP is constructed. They are formed by joining a quantifier phrase, an article(a, an, the) and a numeral.

The quantifier phrase contains a quantifier(all) and a p-word(of).

They can also be formed by a demonstrative determiner ,a numeral determiner and a noun

                                                                    TENSE PHRASES(TP)

A tense phrase is a phrase that containing an abstract to be its head. The tense head, bears tense properties such as tense and person, and this may or may not be realized as separate words in the surface of the phrase that is being represented.

Usually, components of the TP are a verb phrase (VP),which is the compliment of the phrase, and a specifier of the phrase which according to their structure they are always a noun phrase, and serves as the subject of the phrase.

There are usually functional phrase that have tense phrase such as tense and agreement. They are necessarily the same as a sentence, but reflects an analysis whereby a sentence could be taken as having a head, compliment and a specifier.

They are formed by tense elements which include,

will, can, may, might and must.

Examples of tense phrases include.

1. Mary can go to school.
2. You must see the doctor.
3. He might win the race.
4. John may come.
5. Suzan will write the essay.

THE QUALITY OF BARE PLURALS AS OPPOSED TO SINGULAR DEFINITE DPs

Bare plurals are those plurals that refers to a plural noun phrase without having the aid of an  overt determiner.

Some of the examples of bare plurals are:

a)Cats, or pretty girls with blond hair.

Bare plurals can have a general  interpretation while this is not the case that occurs to singular definite determiner phrases(DPs).

Below are examples are examples of bare plurals with a generic elaboration.

a)Dogs are disturbing.

b)Human beings exist by birth.

c)Plants breathe

d)The Cheetah is fast.

They can also have existential interpretation as show cased in this examples.

a)Dogs chased the thief.

b)The plant is poisonous

c)The cheetah is lame

d)The child is playing.

Singular definite DPs don’t occur existentially and from the above we can conclude that Bare plurals are less definiteness compared to singular definite DPs.

THE USE OF INDIFINITE PRONOUNS

Pronouns stand for a noun, an individual or individuals, thing or things  whose identity is made clear in the texts. They cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective. Their examples include you, him, who, me, my, each and other.

The fact that pronouns don’t admit determiners is the core feature that differentiates them from nouns. What comes in to differentiate a pronoun and a determiner is because a determiner always limits the meaning of the noun in a number of ways .While a determiner does this, a pronoun takes the place of the noun phrase.

This can be shown in the following four examples.

i ) He wants some(determiner) and I (pronoun) want some too.

ii)Few students like  her (determinant) lecture but I hate hers (pronoun).

iii)Japheth bought more (determinant) books than him (pronoun).

iv)He fell in love with his (determinant) friend but I (pronoun) didn’t see why.

Pronouns are grouped into seven categories: personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, intensive pronouns, reflexive pronouns and interrogative pronouns.

In this case we will look into indefinite pronouns. The indefinite pronouns do not come in place of  specific nouns but function themselves as nouns. This the main reason why they play a great role in definiteness  in determiner.

Examples of indefinite pronouns in English grammar  include: everybody, anybody, somebody, all, each, every, some, none and one.

One of the chief difficulties we have with the indefinite pronouns lies in the fact that ‘everybody’ feels as though it is referring  to more than one person, but it takes a singular verb.

The indefinite pronoun can be either singular or plural depending on the context that it’s found in. None is nearly always plural( ‘not any’) except when something else makes us regard it as singular (meaning ’not one’) as in ‘none of the food is fresh’. Some can be singular or plural depending on whether it refers to something countable or non-countable.

In features of grammar, there are some  other indefinite pronouns, words that occur twice  as determiners; for example: enough, few, fewer, less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, each, every, any, either, neither, none and some.

For example: 1)few will be chosen, Fewer will finish.

                        2) Little is expected.

                        3)More parents have come, many are yet to come.

                        4)All guests arrived.

COMPARISON BETWEEN GENERAL AND  PARTICULAR QUALITIES IN DETERMINER PHRASES (DPs)

General qualities in determiner phrases are those things which are generalized due to stereotyping, culture or  nature while particular qualities in determiner phrases are those things which are specific at that particular time and can’t occur in a whole group. In this case, general qualities in determiner phrases are indefinite while particular qualities in determiner phrases are definite.

The following are  examples of generic and particular sentences:

1. ‘The leopard has four legs’. In this case we are not referring to a particular but all leopards. In the above example it is generalized. But when you say ‘the leopard has killed an antelope’, you are referring to a particular antelope which has been killed by a specific leopard.
2. ‘The vehicle has an engine’. In this case we are not referring to a particular vehicle but all vehicles. In the above example it is generalized. But when you say ‘The vehicle has been involved in an accident’ you are referring to a particular vehicle which has had an accident.
3. ‘The tree has roots’. In this case we are not referring to a particular tree but all trees. In the above example it is generalized. But when we say ‘the tree has been cut down’ you are referring to a particular tree that has been cut down.

Particular qualities therefore play a major role in definiteness of a determiner as compared to Generic qualities