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For example:

Mr. Chan

Chef Akbar

President Obama

Doctor Tom

My question is what are these titles, that is Mr, chef, president and doctor, called in English during parsing? Are they an adjective or a determiner?

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They are called "english honorifics", or simply "honorifics". They are usually placed inmediately before a person's name and they serve as titles to many purposes, mostly to convey esteem or show respect when addressing or referring to a person. I give you some examples:

  1. Formal titles (Mr, Mrs, Sir, Madam, etc).
  2. Occupations (Dr, Captain, Coach, Professor, PhD, etc).
  3. Religious organizations (Reverend, Father, Brother, etc).
  4. Royalty - these are very particular, since they act as a complete replacement for the person's name (Your Majesty, Your Honour, Your Royal Highness, etc)

You can refer to these and these links for more info about them.

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3
  • gr8 answer. And could you recommend me how to parse them? are they an adjective, appositive, what? – Juya Mar 5 '14 at 0:27
  • The best fit is that they are adjectives. – David Antunes Mar 5 '14 at 3:20
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    EDIT: The best fit is that they are adjectives. Honorific an personal titles are considered adjectives when they are attached to a name (according to Grammar monster at here ). I consider this is right, since they are acting as adjectives describing the social status or occupation of the person. – David Antunes Mar 5 '14 at 3:29

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