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 D

D connects determiners to nouns. 

         +-D-+
         |   |
        The dog ran
Nouns have D-connectors conjoined with their main "S+ or O- or J-..." expression. The D-is listed first on the expression, since it must connect closer than the main connection: "I saw the dog", "*The I saw dog".

Many words can act as either determiners or noun-phrases: "some", "many", "all", "this", and a number of others. Such words have D- disjoined with the main "S+ or O-..." found on nouns: 

        many: Dmc+ or Sp+ or O-...;
The first two subscript places on D connectors relate to number agreement. Consider the following simplified entries. 
	the: D+;
	a: Ds+;
	some: Dm+;
	many: Dmc+;
	much: Dmu+;

	dog: Ds- & ...;
	dogs: {Dmc-} & ...;
	water: {Dmu-} & ...;
	war: {D*u-} & ...;
Essentially there are three categories of noun and determiner: singular, mass, and plural. The first subscript place distinguishes between singular ("s") and everything else ("m"); the second place distinguishes between plural ("c") and mass ("u") (for "countable" and "uncountable"). Nouns and articles which are singular-only have Ds; those which are plural-only have Dmc; those which are mass-only have Dmu; nouns which may be singular or mass have D*u-; determiners which may be plural or mass have Dm+; and determiners which may be mass, plural or singular have D+. (A few nouns, such as "fish", may be plural or singular; for these we create multiple dictionary entries.)

Dmcn: Numeric determiners

The Dmcn determiner is used for numeric quantifiers, such as 
      +--Dmcn-+
      |       |
   twenty cookies
As explained above, the "m" subscript is for "multiple", the "c" subscript is for "count"; so "n" here indicates "numeric". This connector has essentially the same meaning as the ND numeric determiner. A future version may (or may not!) make one of these two links obsolete.

D**w: Question-determiners

The third subscript place on D connectors relates only to post-processing. D**w connectors are used for question- determiners: "which", "what" and "whose". The "w" triggers post-processing constraints relating to question-inversion; see "SI: Questions without s-v inversion". D**w connectors are conjoined on question-determiners with other left-pointing connectors (QI- and W-); therefore such determiners cannot be used in normal declarative sentences, since no linkage will be found ("*I bought which eggs today"). Other false positives arise here which require post-processing; see "B: More about dependent clauses".

Ds**v, Ds**c, Ds**x: Phonetic agreement

The Ds**v and Ds**c connectors are used to enforce phonetic agreement of "a" and "an" when used with nouns that begin with a consonant or a vowel, respectively. Thus, for example, the Ds**v connector will link only to nouns starting with a vowel: 
          +-Ds**v-+
          |       |
    I ate an    apple
The Ds**c connector will link only to nouns starting with a consonant: 
          +-Ds**c-+
          |       |
    I ate a     pear
The Ds**x connector will link only to nouns that are preceeded by a modifier, thus invalidating the need for phonetic agreement. In this case the PH connector is used to force phonetic agreement. 
          +--Ds**x--+
          |         |
    I ate a green apple

Determiners and Adjectives on Proper Nouns

In general, proper nouns do not take determiners. However, there are a number of exceptions. A number of proper nouns may take the determiner "the": "The Emir of Kuwait died", "The Supreme Soviet met today". For this we use the DG connector; see "DG". Beyond this, however, one quite often sees proper names taking determiners, for example with brand-names or with people. 
	?The new David Letterman is a happy, secure David Letterman.
	?I bought a Toyota to carry my Macintosh
Thus we give proper nouns D- with cost 2. Note that in the first case the proper noun carries an adjective as well; this is also not uncommon in more colloquial writing. Thus proper nouns carry 
	[[{@A-} & {D-}]] & (Ss+ or O- or J-...)
In giving proper nouns D- and A- connectors, we are essentially allowing them to be treated like common nouns. Other common-noun-like usages are not permitted: we do not allow proper nouns to act as plural forms or to take post-nominal modifiers such as prepositional phrases (but see "JG"). These usages do occasionally arise, however - with brand-names, for example. Some words for nations and religions, such as "American(s)" and "Muslim(s)", really seem like full-blown common nouns; thus they are included in ordinary common noun categories.

Other D subscripts relate to comparatives; see "MV: Comparatives", sections I (Dm*m) and VII (Dm*y). Dm*k and Ds*k relate to the construction "such...that"; see "EAxk: so...that".

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