Determiners

Practical work:

We are concerned with Defining the meanings of determiners in terms of

1. an informal semantic profile,
2. a word sketch,
3. an exact definition of specified type.

Note that determiners may appear in more than one of the groups below; this simply means that they have more than one relevant property, and that the groups may cluster determiners according to different kinds of property:

Define the meanings of the following determiners:

1. every, each, all, some, ...
2. exactly ten...
3. approximately nine, ...
4. the, that, this, ...
5. all but ten, every X but John, ...
6. between five and nine, ...
7. my, his, John's, ...
8. two out of three, less than half, ...
9. most of the, more of John's than of Mary's, ...
10. not every, not all, ...
11. at least two but not more than ten, most but not all, ...
12. the first X to set foot on the moon, ...

A fuller list is:

Lexical Determiners:

every, each, all, some, a, no, several, neither, most, the, both, this, my, these, John's ten, a few, a dozen, many, few, ...

Cardinal Determiners:

exactly / approximately / more than / fewer than / at most / only ten, infinitely many, two dozen, between five and ten, just finitely many, an even / odd number of, a large number of

Approximative Determiners:

approximately / about / nearly / around fifty, almost all / no, hardly any, prectically no

Definite Determiners:

the, that, this, these, my, his, John's, the ten, these ten, John's ten

Exception Determiners:

all but ten, all but at most ten, every X but John, no X but Mary

Bounding Determiners:

exactly ten, between five and ten, most but not all, exactly one X in ten, only SOME, just the LIBERAL, only JOHN's

Possessive Determiners:

my, his, John's, no student's, either John's or Mary's, neither John's nor Mary's

Value Judgement Determiners:

too many, a few too many, (not) enough, surprisingly few, many, few

Proportionality Determiners:

exactly half the / John's, two out of three, (not) one X in ten, less thanhalf the / John's, a third of the / John's ten percent of the / John's, not more than half the / John's

Partitive Determiners:

most / two / none / only some of the / John's, more of John's than of Mary's, not more than two of the ten

Negated Determiners:

not every, not all, not a (single), nor more than ten, not more than half, not very many, not quite enough, not over a hundred, not over a hundred, not one of John's

Conjoined Determiners:

at least two but not more than ten, most but not all, either fewer than ten or else more than a hundred, both John's and Mary's, at least a third and at most two thirds of the, neither fewer than ten nor more than a hundred

Adjectivally Restricted Determiners:

John's biggest, more male than female, most male and female, the last X John visited, the first X to set foot on the moon, the easiest X to clean, whatever X are in the cupboard

See: Edward L. Keenan, The semantics of determiners, in Lappin, ed. (1996).