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

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First-Order Stacking

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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

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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 bloggerthe bloggers
the noun 'blogger' pluralizes by inflection, adding 's' → 'bloggers'
the determiner 'the' pluralizes by declension, keeping its original form → 'the'