User:RockRockOn/A Minimalist Theory of Syntax/Determiner

	Category: Determiner
	Determiner - Complementizer - Inflection - Noun - Preposition - Verb - A Category - Invisible
Last:Invisible	Notation: D	Next:Complementizer

Key Tests

First-Order Stacking

determiners must always precede nouns, adjectives, and whatever else they might point to.

For example:

Some happy dog

but not

*Happy some dog

When more than one determiner is present, there is often an order in which the determiners must be arranged. There is not Free Order Stacking within determiners.

For example:

these five awesome dudes

but not

*five these awesome dudes

Even though the determiners precede all of the adjectives and nouns in the phrase, they still conflict with each other.

Plural Declension

determiners pluralize by declension, not by adding a plural morpheme (inflection)

For example:

Singular: this dirty crook

Plural: these dirty crooks

Notice how the noun 'crook' pluralizes by adding 's' → 'crooks'

In contrast, the determiner 'this' pluralizes by changing its entire form → 'these'

Some plural declensions are in the exact same form as the singular declension:

the blogger → the bloggers

the noun 'blogger' pluralizes by inflection, adding 's' → 'bloggers'

the determiner 'the' pluralizes by declension, keeping its original form → 'the'