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Other Determiner/Pronouns

The two bears dance

There are several other sets of words which can serve as determiners. All of them can also be used by themselves as pronouns. Some less common central determiners are the indefinite determiners and the WH-words. There are also groups of words which can either replace an article like "the" or appear with it: numbers and various other quantifiers.

Indefinite Pronouns. When used as determiners, certain indefinite pronouns (some, any, either, no, neither) also occupy the same position as the. When so used, they can also be called indefinite determiners:

(1) (a) Some bears danced.
(b) Did any bears dance?
(c) Did either bear dance?
(2) No bear danced.
(3) Neither bear danced.
Of these, all except no can serve as stand-alone pronouns. The indefinite pronoun equivalent to no is none. There are also a set of indefinite pronouns which are only used as pronouns and are formed by adding one, body, or thing to some, any, no, and every. The resulting compounds are treated as single words, the exception being no one:
(4) Someone flew.
(5) Somebody stank.
(6) Anybody sang.
(7) Anything flew.
(8) No one laughed.
(9) Nothing rocked.
(10) Everyone laughed.

WH-pronouns. English has a large group of pronouns beginning with wh-. Some of these (who, whom, whose, whichever, whatever are used to make the various kinds of relative clauses we'll be talking about later, others (what, where, when) are used to make questions and other kinds of clauses, and yet others (which) are used both ways. Some of these can function as determiners within the clauses they introduce:

(11) I don't know which bear danced.
(12) What idiot laughed?
(13) Whose purse is this?
(14) Whatever choice you make is OK by me.
(15) Whichever road you take will be scenic.?

Numbers. There are two main kinds of numbers: cardinal numbers like one, two, ten, six hundred, etc.and ordinalnumbers like first, second, tenth, and last. Like most determiners, numbers are sometimes labelled adjectives. But they really belong with the group of determiner/pronouns we've been discussing. Cardinal numbers can serve as stand-alone pronouns (16), as replacements for central determiners like "the" (17), or as postdeterminers which follow another determiner (18, 19):

(16) Ten danced.
(17) Ten people danced.
(18) The ten people danced.
(19) My ten friends danced.
Ordinal numbers do not appear as central determiners, but can be postdeterminers as in sentences (20) and (21). Parallel to this, when ordinal numbers are used in a nominal function like subject, they normally require a central determiner in front of them, as in sentences (22) and (23):
(20) The third man sneezed.
(21) His fourth opponent defaulted.
(22) The first shall be last.
(23) My second left me.

Quantifiers. Rather like numbers, a group of words called quantifiers can also appear either as central determiners or as postdeterminers. Many of them can also appear as predeterminers, though some require a following of to do so:

(24) My many friends agree.
(25) Many of my friends agree.
A sentence like (25) can also be treated as having Many as a pronoun followed by a prepositional phrase with of. One reason for regarding constructions like many of as, in this case, predeterminers, is that where there can be a question, the verb agrees with the head noun. Consider these variants of the predeterminer all:
(26) (a) All my heart weeps.
(b) All my friends weep.
(27) (a) All of my heart weeps.
(b) All of my friends weep.
Some frequent quantifiers are few, less, little, many, much, and several. All can operate as stand-alone pronouns, though less and much are not that common. All can be predeterminers with of, and many can appear in front of indefinite articles:
(28) Many a day passes.
Predeterminers. Some quantifiers are either central determiners or predeterminers: all, both, and half. All of these can also be used as pronouns, and all can be used of constructions, as all as sentence (27). Both characteristics are true as well of fractions other than half:
(29) (a) One-tenth the speed would be better.
(b) One-tenth would be better.
(c) One-tenth of the speed would be better.
Other miscellaneous predeterminers include multipliers, the exclamative what, and such, a word which can appear in various odd combinations. Most of these can also appear as pronouns on occasion, and such does so with some regularity:
(30) Double the money suffices.
(31) Once a day suffices.
(32) Ten times the money would be better.
(33) What a mess!
(34) Such a day is rare
(35) Many such days will come
(36) Such is life.

Exercise 1: Kinds of Determiners

Identify as specifically as possible every word serving as adeterminer in the following sentences--e.g., definite article as a central determiner followed by cardinal number in the postdeterminer position:
1.01 All this nonsense annoys me.
1.02 Any girl will do.
1.03 Both men died.
1.04 Esther's three admirers came.
1.05 Half the army deserted.
1.06 Many a summer passed.
1.07 Some dirty rat squealed.
1.08 The seventh seal is broken.
1.09 Whose little Snuggems are you?
1.10 Your many faults are obvious.

Phrase Structure Trees with Multiple Determiners. At least when we have more than one determiner, it makes sense to label the kinds of determiners we have:

How Much of This Will be on the Test?
By this time, we have covered pretty much everything that can appear in a noun phrase except for relative clauses and clausal complements, which will come later. You should be able to take apart most noun phrases, identify their determiners, premodifiers, head nouns, and postmodifiers, and say what kind of words are occupying those positions. This section has finished off our discussion of the determiner function, adding new central determiners (indefinite pronouns and WH-pronouns) and numbers and quantifiers as predeterminers, central determiners, and postdeterminers).