determiner

ratkaiseva tekijä

determinantti puhekieltä A member of a class of words functioning in a noun phrase to identify or distinguish a referent without describing or modifying it.
puhekieltä A dependent function in a noun phrase marking the noun phrase|NP as definite or indefinite. This function is usually filled by words in the determinative class but may be filled by other elements such as a genitive pronoun.
Something that determines, or helps someone to determine, something else.
1901: Azel Ames, The Mayflower and Her Log

The "steel-yards" and "measures" were the only determiners of weight and quantity — as the hour-glass and sun dial were of time — possessed at first (so far as appears) by the passengers of the Pilgrim ship,