DET: determiner
Definition
Determiners are words that modify nouns or noun phrases and express the reference of the noun phrase in context. That is, a determiner may indicate whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite element of a class, to a closer or more distant element, to an element belonging to a specified person or thing, to a particular number or quantity, etc.
Under this definition, determiners include both articles and pro-adjectives (pronominal adjectives), such as այս/ays “this”, այդ/ayd “that”, ամենայն/amenayn “all”, մէկայլ/mēkayl “another”, միւս/miws “the other”. An important point to note is that most determiners are traditionally called pronouns; that is, a UD-conformant annotation of Middle Armenian must distinguish between substantive pronouns (UD tag PRON) and attributive pronouns (UD tag DET).
Also note that the DET tag includes (pronominal) quantifiers (words like հանչաք/hančak’ “that many”, հէնչափ/hēnčap’ “that many”, ամէն/amēn “every”).
Note that in Middle Armenian noun phrases usually allow one DET modifier, but there are occasional cases of addeterminers, which appear outside the usual determiner, such as այն/ayn in այն ամէն ջիլքն մարմնոյն/ayn amēn ǰilk’n marmnoyn “all those tendons of the body.” In such cases, both այն/ayn “that” and ամէն/amēn “all” are given the POS DET.
Examples
- indefinite article: մի/mi “a, an”
- possessive determiners: իմ/im “my”, քո(քոյ, քու)/k’o(k’oy, kow) “your”, իր(իւր)/ir(iwr) “his/her/its”, մեր/mer “our”, ձեր/jer “your”, իրենց/irenc’ (also իրանց/iranc’, իւրեանց/iwreanc’, իւրենց/iwrenc’) “their”
- demonstrative determiners: այս/ays “this”, as in Թո՛ղ զսէր աշխարհիս այս անցւորական:/T’o՛ġ zsēr ašxarhis ays anc’worakan “Leave love to this fleeting world.”
- interrogative determiners: ո՞ր/or “which?”, as in ո՞ր տեղւոյ օդն առողջ եւ բարեյարմար է/or teġwoy òdn aṙoġǰ ew bareyarmar ē “Where (lit. in which place) is the air healthy and pleasant?”
- relative determiners: որ/or “which”, as in Հազար երանի՜ նորա, Զոր բարի գործով գտանես/Hazar erani nora, zor bari gorçov gtanes “A thousand blessings upon the one whom you find with a good deed”
- relative possessive determiners: ում(յում)/owm(yowm), որոյ(որու)/oroy(orow) “whose”
- indefinite determiners: այլ/ayl “other”, մէկ մի/mēk mi “someone, any single, a certain”, մէկայլ/mēkayl “another”, միւս/miws “(the) other”
- total determiners: ամէն/amēn, ամէն մէկ/amēn mēk “every”
DET in other languages: [axm] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sla] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]