ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss the semantic and syntactic behavior of the determiners. In the current generative framework, it is generally taken for granted that a determiner defines its own endocentric °projection in the structure of the noun phrase; cf. Abney (1987). It is taken to be the head of a so-called DETERMINER PHRASE (DP), which is located on top of the projection of the head noun, NP. Schematically, example (1a) can be represented in labeled bracketing as in (1b), or as the tree diagram in (1c). Recall that we use the notion of “noun phrase” in a neutral way, whereas the notions DP and NP are used to refer to the substructures marked as such in (1b&c). (1) a. de blauwe auto the blue car b. [DP [D de] [NP blauwe auto]] https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003704751/aee7cfe0-59f2-47f7-96b9-4c3bf56bf5ff/content/pg675.jpg"> The diagram represents a syntactic tree structure. At the top is a node labeled DP, which branches into D and NP. The D node is labeled de and points downward. The NP node branches into two parts, with the right part labeled blauwe auto. The structure illustrates the hierarchical relationships between these components.
