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.

Traditionally, Turkish grammars and dictionaries do not make the distinction between a determiner and an adjective (but modern grammars do, see Göksel and Kerslake 2005, ch.15).

Turkish does not have a definite article, but the numeral bir “one” also acts as an indefinite article. We mark it as DET in this usage.

Examples

• demonstrative determiners: bu “this”, şu “this/that”, o “that”
• interrogative determiners: hangi “which”, kaç “how many”
• quantity/quantifier determiners: bütün “all”, bazı “some”, hiçbir “none”

References

Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake. Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge, 2005.