What do Determiners determine? [closed]

Question

_{Source: An Introduction to Language (10 ed, 2014) by V Fromkin, R Rodman, N Hyams}

[p 86:] For example, determiners specify whether a noun is indefi- nite or definite (a boy versus the boy), or the proximity of the person or object to the context (this boy versus that boy). Tense provides the verb with a time

[p 563:] determiner (Det)   The syntactic category, also functional category, of words and expres- sions, which when combined with a noun form a noun phrase. Includes the articles the and a , demonstratives such as this and that , quantifiers such as each and every , etc.

determine (v.)   "to come to an end," also "to settle, decide" (late 14c.)

I already read this and understand the definitions above. Hereafter, I am using the definition of 'determine' as quoted above, but please tell me if the Root 'determine' in 'determiner' (hereafter DET) means something else or has changed semantically.

I do not comprehend how DET can be interpreted to 'determine'.
p 86 above states that DET specify (ie: determine) something about the noun, but this appears false because context determines the DET used.

Answer 1

A determiner determines reference. Although in traditional grammar, nouns are spoken of as though they have reference, really they don't. Nouns predicate, but do not refer. Instead, noun phrases refer. That's why linguists insist on making subjects and other sentence arguments noun phrases, rather than nouns.

To get a noun phrase that refers from a noun, which predicates, you combine the noun with a determiner, and now you have something which can refer, a noun phrase. The fact that determiners may have no phonetic shape obscures what is going on and may make it seem sometimes that a noun can refer.

This is not to say that noun phrases with determiners do necessarily refer. But sometimes they do.

Answer 2

From Ionin et al (2008). I think this explains it nicely (if the formalness doesn't scare you off):

The distinction between 'the' and 'a' is one of definiteness. We adopt here a standard view of definites [e.g., 'the'] as presuppositional and indefinites [e.g., 'a'] as quantificational expressions, as shown in (1) (for more discussion of different views of definiteness, see Heim, 1991).

a. Definiteness (Fregean analysis) [the z] j expresses that proposition which is

• true at index i, if there is exactly one z at i, and it is j at i,
• false at an index i, if there is exactly one z at i, and it is not j at i,
• truth-valueless at an index i, if there isn’t exactly one z at i. (Heim, 1991:9)

b. Indefinites (quantificational analysis): A sentence of the form [a z] j expresses that proposition which is true if there is at least one individual which is both z and j, and false otherwise. (Heim, 1991:26)

Ionin, Tania, Maria Luisa Zubizarreta, and Salvador Bautista Maldonado. "Sources of linguistic knowledge in the second language acquisition of English articles." Lingua 118.4 (2008): 554-576.