The Ordering of Determiners

The Ordering of Determiners
Determiners occur before nouns, and they indicate the kind of reference which the nouns have. Depending on their relative position before a noun, we distinguish three classes of determiners.        Predeterminer Central Determiner Postdeterminer Noun I met all my many friends   A sentence like this is somewhat unusual, because it is rare for all three determiner slots to be filled in the same sentence. Generally, only one or two slots are filled.   Predeterminers Predeterminers specify quantity in the noun which follows them, and they are of three major types: 1. "Multiplying" expressions, including expressions ending in times:  twice my salary  double my salary  ten times my salary 2. Fractions    half my salary  one-third my salary 3. The words all and both:    all my salary  both my salaries  Predeterminers do not normally co-occur:    *all half my salary    Central Determiners The definite article the and the indefinite article a/an are the most common central determiners:    all the book  half a chapter As many of our previous examples show, the word my can also occupy the central determiner slot. This is equally true of the other possessives:    all your money  all his/her money  all our money  all their money The demonstratives, too, are central determiners:    all these problems  twice that size  four times this amount    Postdeterminers Cardinal and ordinal numerals occupy the postdeterminer slot:    the two children  his fourth birthday  This applies also to general ordinals:    my next project  our last meeting  your previous remark  her subsequent letter Other quantifying expressions are also postdeterminers:    my many friends  our several achievements  the few friends that I have Unlike predeterminers, postdeterminers can co-occur:    my next two projects  several other people