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 Western Armenian does not define determiners as a separate word class. Most determiners are traditionally called pronouns; that is, a UD-conformant annotation of Western 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”, քանի մը/k’ani më “several”, բոլոր/bolor “all”, ամբողջ/amboġǰ “whole”), which the traditional grammar classifies as a special subclass of pronouns.
Note that Western 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 “this/these” in պէտք է այս բոլոր խեղճութիւնները բարեփոխել/pētk’ ē ays bolor xeġč̣owt’iwnnerë barep’oxel “all these miseries must be remedied”. In such cases, both այս/ays “these” and բոլոր/bolor “all” are given the POS DET.
Examples
- indefinite article: մի/mi, մը/më “a, an”
- possessive determiners: իմ/im “my”, քու/k’ow “your”, անոր/anor “his/her/its”, մեր/mer “our”, ձեր/jer “your”, անոնց/anonc’ “their”
- reflexive possessive determiners: իր/ir “his/her own”, իրենց/irenc’ “their own”
- demonstrative determiners: այս/ays, աս/as “this”, as in աս տեղէն կ՚սպասէին ճանբորդել/as teġēn k՚spasēin č̣anbordel “They were expecting to travel from this place.”
- interrogative determiners: ո՞ր/or as in ո՞ր բնագիրները օգտագործեցին/or bnagirnerë ògtagorçec’in “Which source texts did they use?”
- relative determiners: որքան/ork’an as in որքան ատեն, որ կը յաջողի/ork’an aten, or kë yaǰoġi “as long as it succeeds”, lit. as much time as it succeeds.
- indefinite determiners: ոմն/omn “some (person)”, ինչ-ինչ/inč-inč “some (of many things)”, քանի մը/k’ani më “several”, ուրիշ/owriš “another”, այլ/ayl “other”, որոշ/oroš “certain”, ոեւէ/oewē “one or another”, այսինչ/aysinč “such”, այնինչ/ayninč “such”
- total determiners: ամէն/amēn “every”, ամէն մէկ/amēn mēk “each”, բոլոր/bolor “all”, յուրաքանչյուր/yowrak’ančyowr “each”, ողջ/oġǰ “whole”, ամբողջ/amboġǰ “all”, համայն/hamayn “whole”, ամենայն/amenayn “all”
- negative determiner: ոչ մէկ/oč mēk “no, not any” as in Ոչ մէկ աստղ կ՚երեւէր այդ գիշեր։/Oč mēk astġ k՚erewēr ayd gišer “Not a single star was visible that night.”
DET in other languages: [axm] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fr] [fro] [ga] [grc] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [it] [ja] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [no] [pal] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sla] [sv] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]