Determiner and Article

Determiner

A determiner is a word, phrase or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the 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. Common kinds of determiners include definite and indefinite articles (like the English the and a or an), demonstratives (this and that), possessive determiners (my and their), and quantifiers (many, few and several).

Function: To declare the posisition or number of nouns.

Example:             

• Definite/Indefinite article : a, an, the

I bought a book yesterday. The book is borrowed by Merry today.

“a” pada a book adalah indefinite article karena saya belum pernah menyebutkan sebuah buku sebelumnya.

“the” pada “the book”  adalah definite article karena saya sudah menyebutkan buku pada kalimat pertama. “the book” dikalimat kedua mengkhususkan bahwa buku yang dipinjam Merry adalah buku yang saya beli kemarin.

• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those (kata tunjuk)

That house is mine.

“that” pada house adalah kata yang menunjukan rumah saya disitu.

• Possesive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their (kepemilikan)

He is waiting for my parents.

“my” pada parents adalah menyatakan orang tua saya.

• Quantifiers: a few, a litte, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any (kata yang menujukkan jumlah)

I have much money.

“much” pada money menyatakan bahwa saya memiliki banyak uang.

 Article

An article  is a word (or prefix or suffix) that is used with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. 

Function: The English language uses three words as articles: “a” before indefinite singular nouns starting with a consonant sound, “an” before indefinite singular nouns starting with a vowel sound and “the” before definite nouns. The number of specific rules and exceptions regarding usage can frustrate students of English as a second language, but most uses of articles fall under a few fundamental rules.

Example: 

He is looking for a job in Bali.

"a" pada job menyatakan bahwa pekerjaan yang dicari masih bersifat umum.

I saw a dog this morning. The dog was barking so loud.

"the" pada dog menyatakan bahwa anjing yang menggonggong itu adalah anjing yang saya lihat tadi pagi.