In linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, a determiner phrase (DP) is a syntactic category, a phrase headed

Head (linguistics)

In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head....

 by a determiner. The noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

 is strictly speaking a determiner phrase, and NP designates a constituent of the noun phrase, taken to be the complement

Complement (linguistics)

In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add...

 of the determiner. This is opposed to the traditional view that determiners are specifier

Specifier

In X-bar theory in linguistics, specifiers, head words, and complements together form phrases. Specifiers differ from complements because they are not sisters of the head, but rather sisters of the phrase formed by the head and the complement...

s of the noun phrase. The DP analysis of noun phrases is the majority view in generative grammar

Generative grammar

In theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of syntax. A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences...

 today, but it is a minority stance in the study of theoretical syntax in general.
On the DP analysis of noun phrases, determiners govern the referential or quantification

Quantification

Quantification has several distinct senses. In mathematics and empirical science, it is the act of counting and measuring that maps human sense observations and experiences into members of some set of numbers. Quantification in this sense is fundamental to the scientific method.In logic,...

al properties of the noun phrases they embed. The idea that noun phrases preceded by determiners are determiner phrases is known as the DP hypothesis. The DP hypothesis is compatible with the theory of generalized quantifier

Generalized quantifier

In linguistic semantics, a generalized quantifier is an expression that denotes a property of a property, also called a higher-order property. This is the standard semantics assigned to quantified noun phrases, also called determiner phrases, in short: DP...

s, which is the prevailing theory of the semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

 of determiners.

In some versions of the Minimalist Program

Minimalist program

In linguistics, the Minimalist Program is a major line of inquiry that has been developing inside generative grammar since the early nineties. It started with a 1993 paper by Noam Chomsky....

 the DP is itself the complement of a phase head, n*, from which it inherits the ability to agree with its complement and assign case

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

.