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). An important point to note is that the traditional grammar of Armenian does not define determiners as a separate word class. Most determiners are traditionally called pronouns; that is, a UD-conformant annotation of 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 քանի/k’ani “how many”, այսքան/aysk’an “this many”, մի քանի/mi k’ani “several”, բոլոր/bolor “all”, ողջ/oġǰ “whole”), which the traditional grammar classifies as a special subclass of pronouns.
Note that Armenian noun phrases usually allow one DET modifier, but there are occasional cases of addeterminers, which appear outside the usual determiner, such as այս/ays in այս բոլոր հարցերը/ays bolor harc’erë “ all these questions.” In such cases, both այս/ays “these” and բոլոր/bolor “all” are given the POS DET.
Examples
- indefinite article: մի/mi “a, an”
- possessive determiners: իմ/im “my”, քո/k’o “your”, նրա/nra “his/her/its”, մեր/mer “our”, ձեր/jer “your”, նրանց/nranc’ “their”, իրենց/irenc’ “their”
- reflexive possessive determiners: իր/ir “his/her own”, իրենց/irenc’ “their own”
- demonstrative determiners: այս/ays as in Այս հարցադրումներն էլ չկան։/Ays harc’adrowmnern ēl čkan “These issues no longer exist.”
- interrogative determiners: ո՞ր/or as in Ո՞ր բառը/Or baṙë “Which word?”
- relative determiners: որ/or as in նա գիտե, թե որ կեռմանում ինչպես պետք է վարվել արգելակների հետ/na gite, t’e or keṙmanowm inčpes petk’ ē varvel argelakneri het “He knows how to handle the brakes at each bend.”, lit. He knows how to act with the brakes at which bend.
- indefinite determiners: ոմն/omn “some (person)”, ինչ-որ/inč-or “some (of one thing)”, ինչ-ինչ/inč-inč “some (of many things)”, մի քանի/mi k’ani “several”, ուրիշ/owriš “another”, այլ/ayl “other”, որոշ/oroš “certain”, որևէ/orewē “one or another”, որևիցե/orewic’e “one or another”, այսինչ/aysinč “such”, այնինչ/ayninč “such”, մի/mi “some/several”
- total determiners: ամեն/amen “every”, ամեն մի/amen mi “each”, բոլոր/bolor “all”, յուրաքանչյուր/yowrak’ančyowr “each”, ողջ/oġǰ “whole”, ամբողջ/amboġǰ “all”, համայն/hamayn “whole”, ամենայն/amenayn “all”
- negative determiner: ոչ մի/oč mi “no” as in Հիմա ոչ մի մեքենա չունենք։/Hima oč mi mek’ena čownenk’ “We have no cars right now.”
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]