Not all languages have determiners, and not all systems of grammatical description recognize them as a distinct category.
Bloomfield observed that in English, nouns often require a qualifying word such as an article or adjective.
Other types of words often regarded as belonging to the determiner class include demonstratives and possessives.
Some linguists extend the term to include other words in the noun phrase such as adjectives and pronouns, or even modifiers in other parts of the sentence.
In some languages, the role of certain determiners can be played by affixes (prefixes or suffixes) attached to a noun or by other types of inflection.
For example, definite articles are represented by suffixes in Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Swedish.
"My all many very young children" is not grammatically correct because a central determiner cannot precede a predeterminer.
Quantifiers only indicate a general quantity of objects, not a precise number such as twelve, dozen, first, single, or once (which are considered numerals).
They argue that the concept is Anglocentric, since it was developed on the basis of the grammar of English and similar languages of north-western Europe.
[10] For instance, in Urak Lawoi, a language of Thailand, the demonstrative follows the noun: rumahhousebesalbigituthatrumah besal ituhouse big thatthat big houseHowever, the definite article precedes the noun: koqthenanaqchildrenkoq nanaqthe childrenthe childrenAs Dryer observes, there is little justification for a category of determiner in such languages.