prodeterminers

Prodeterminers, also called predeterminers in some grammars, are words that occur before the main determiner in a noun phrase and modify the scope or quantity of the noun. They sit to the left of the determiner (such as the, a, my, this) and help indicate how much or how many is being referred to. A typical noun phrase order is predeterminer, determiner, optional adjectives, noun; phrases can also include an of-phrase after the NP, as in all of the books or half of the cake.

Common members include all, both, half, several, many, and fractions such as two-thirds or one-quarter. These words express totality, plurality, proportion, or approximate quantity. They can appear with count nouns (all the children, several books) or with mass nouns (much of the evidence is inconclusive, half the water). Some predeterminers function with of-phrases, as in all of the participants or half of the population, to describe portions or groups.

In linguistic analysis, prodeterminers are sometimes treated as a subcategory of determiners and sometimes discussed as a distinct class (predeterminers) because of their fixed position before the main determiner. Their presence can influence agreement and the syntactic structure of the noun phrase, though they do not change the noun’s inherent meaning.

Examples: All the students attended; Both of the players were injured; Half the cake disappeared; Many people supported the proposal; Two-thirds of the respondents agreed.