Nouns. Semantic groups and grammatical categories. The category of determination. The problems of the article

 The
man
looked very sad; This is 
the man 
you were talking about. The demonstrative 
pronoun individuates by pointing: this man means the man near the speaker who is the deictic 
center, or the reference point of the act of communication. To put it otherwise, the demonstrative 
pronoun does not need prior or prospective mention of the entity. Cf. 
- A house is burning. 
- Which house? 
- This house, not*The house. 
Possessive pronouns also individualize entities. However, apart from the function of 
individuation, they express possession. Cf. the book vs. my book. 
Demonstrative and possessive pronouns are particularizing determiners. The 
other pronouns are non-particularizing determiners. They fall into three 
groups: 1) determiners which are not explicit in regard to the exact number of entities or their exact 
quantity (some, several, a few, etc.); b) determiners which denote a small number or a large number 
of entities or a small quantity or a large quantity of the entity (many, much; a few; a little /little) 
and c) determiners which denote an absolute number of entities or an absolute quantity of entities 
(all, any). 
Semantically, the two types of determiners (grammatical and semigrammatical) are closely 
related. Take, for instance, the definite article and demonstrative pronouns: the book vs. this book. 

---

This means the + here, i.e. the book here. As this in fact includes the, constructions used with both 
are not acceptable: *this the book; *the this book. That is, the article the and the demonstrative 
pronoun form mutually exclusive determiners. The same holds good for the construction *the my 
book: the use of the definite article is redundant: the feature [Definite] is included in the possessive 
pronoun. A different picture emerges when we add a demonstrative pronoun, e.g. *the my book 
vs. this book of mine. In contrast to the definite article, the demonstrative pronoun enriches the 
entity semantically by giving it an emotional colouring. The peculiarity of English lies in the fact 
that the demonstrative determiner is not generally used in preposition to the possessive determiner, 
although some writers do use such constructions, e.g. this our London. English usage demands 
that demonstrative and possessive determiners should be separated. the order indefinite + definite. 
Because of their position, indefinite determiners are called predeterminers and determiners 
following them, postdeterminers. Here are some examples of predeterminers + postdeterminers 
constructions: 
A few of the students came to the party. 
All (of) the box lunches are in those cartons. 
Any (one) of the boys should be able to ride a bicycle. 
None of the small children will sit still for more than a few minutes. 
Every one of the boys has a locker. 
Either of the boys can do it. 
Neither of the boys is here. 
Quite a few of the students understand the article. 
Most of the volunteers are women. 
If we omit the prepositions and the definite determiner, the resulting 
construction will be indefinite: 
A few students came to the party. 
Any boy should be able to ride a bicycle. 
No small child will sit still for more than a few minutes. 
Every boy has a locker. 
All dogs are nasty, smelly brutes. 
Most volunteers are women. 
An apparent exception is the case of either, neither, both: the omission of the preposition and the 
definite determiner does not render the construction indefinite: 
Either boy can do it. 
Neither boy is here. 
I want both books. 
Apart from the pronouns, the noun can also function as a determiner: a 
boy’s book vs. the boy’s book/John’s book. If the adjunct is indefinite, the headnoun is also 
indefinite, and if the adjunct is definite, the head-noun is also 
definite.