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This page pertains to UD version 2.

DET: determiner

DET: determiner

Definition

Determiners are words that modify nouns or noun phrases and express the reference of the noun phrase in context. Ιt is possible to replace a single determiner (that seems to function like a pronoun PRON) with a synonymous full noun phrase. They are often used to modify a noun phrase rather than replacing it.

The traditional grammar of Modern Greek does not specify the category “determiner”; rather it specifies definite and indefinite articles, adjectives and pronouns.

The label DET is assigned to the two articles, certain traditional adjectives (and their comparatives) and to a set of pronouns.

Examples

The preposition από is sometimes used not as such but rather to ensure distributive readings; in these cases it is assigned the PoS DET: Για τις θέσεις 1 και 2 υπήρξε από ένας υποψήφιος for the positions 1 and 2 existed from one.NOM candidate.NOM `there was a different candidate for each of the positions 1 and 2’

Most of Modern Greek determiners inflect for el-feat/Gender, el-feat/Number and el-feat/Case. They tend to inflect like adjectives, in particular because they often have three genders. They agree in gender, number and case with the nouns they modify. The determiners κάτι / kati “some”, κάθε / kathe “every”, τίποτα/ε / tipota/e “nothing/anything” do not inflect.

References

Holton, David, Peter Mackridge & Irene Philippaki-Warburton. 1997. Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language. Routledge, London 1997; reprinted 1999, 2002 & 2004

Mackridge, Peter. 1985. The Modern Greek Language. A Descriptive Analysis of Standard Modern Greek. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1985. (Paperback edn, 1987, reprinted 1989 & 1992)

Κλαίρης, Χρήστος & Γεώργιος Μπαμπινώτης. 2001. Γραμματική της Νέας Ελληνικής Τόμος Γ’. 2η έκδοση. Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα.

Τζάρτζανος, Αχιλλέας, 2002. Νεοελληνική Σύνταξις της Κοινής Δημοτικής. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κυριακίδη. σελ. 225.

Τσοπανάκης, Αγαπητός Γ. (1994). Νεοελληνική γραμματική. Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδοτικός Οίκος Αδελφών Κυριακίδη.


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