Questions tagged [definiteness]
Definite noun phrases refer to entities that are specific and identifiable in a given context.
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Help sought with understanding an aspect of genitive/possessive
In English, we can use the possessive in such a way that the noun being described is omitted, chiefly in cases where it has already been introduced. For example; "This chair is mine, and that is ...
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Is there a rule when the use of the definite article on proper nouns is appropriate in Semitic languages?
As far as I understand, according to the conventional grammar of Hebrew (and likely other Semitic languages), the definite article is typically only be attached to common nouns, but not to proper ...
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How does lack of definite articles affect Malayalam? [In comparison to Germanic languages]
I am a (semi)-native Malayalam speaker from Kerala who has learned English and German. In Malayalam, an interesting phenomenon is that there is no definite article. It seems to me that indefinite ...
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Definite article and domain of discourse
I am trying to understand a bit more about the mechanics of the definite article. Normally, we are taught that "the" picks out the object with certain properties or is used when we want to ...
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If the definiteness of a noun is dependent on the article that introduces it, can the gender of that noun also depend on that article?
If a chair can become the chair, can a noun's gender change depend on the article that introduces it? My understanding is that the classifier concentrates on the similar characteristics of the noun ...
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How to translate words like "the" to other languages?
So this question boils down to, how do you teach someone in Inuktitut (or elsewhere) about the word "the" (or "a")? How do you translate phrases like "the big red tree" ...
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Earlier stages of definite/indefinite conjugations in Hungarian
Hungarian verbs have definite and indefinite conjugations. However, the indefinite conjugation is used when the direct object is a first or second person pronoun.
This is an interesting wrinkle ...
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Languages with definite and indefinite conjugation
Apart from Hungarian, are there any other languages with definite and indefinite conjugation (verbal inflections)?
For example (in Hugarian):
Definite conjugation: I see the tree. – Látom a fát.
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Definiteness and indefiniteness
Is there a term that encompasses both terms at once? Suppose I am writing a paper titled [Single-word-here] in Language X, where the required word will refer to both definiteness and indefiniteness. ...
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Pronominalized adjectives in Lithuanian
This is a question for those who are native speakers of Lithuanian or have a very good proficiency in Lithuanian as a second language. As for your feeling, are the definite or pronominalized ...
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truth condition of 'uniqueness' in the (neo) Russellian theory
I'm trying to work out how (∀y (student(y) → y = x) represents uniqueness. How come we need that formula there? Doesn't just ∃x student(x) ⋀ met(j,x)) suffice? Or, would it be the expression for I ...
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Definite descriptions and essentially indistinguishable participants
In the analysis of definite descriptions there is a problem called "The Problem of Indistinguishable Participants", exemplified by the so-called bishop sentences:
If a bishop meets a bishop, the ...
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Why is it thought that definite articles develop from deictic markers, and not the other way around?
I read here that "it is cross-linguistically common for definite articles to develop from deictic markers"; "deictic" referring to words such as "I" or "here" whose meaning is dependent on context.
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What about the hypothesis that the Hebrew and Arabic definite articles both evolved from a proto-Semitic word for "god"?
Given the great linguistic similarities between Hebrew and Arabic, it is noteworthy that their definite articles are completely different.
Wikipedia's Arabic definite article talks about the theory ...
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Use of the definite article in European vs. Brazilian Portuguese
When I started learning Portuguese years ago, all the books I used at the time told me that when using possessive adjectives you also have to put the corresponding definite article in front of the ...
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Understanding the purpose of determiners/articles/demonstratives in language
This was an interesting read:
Articles have developed independently in many different language families across the globe. Generally, articles develop over time usually by specialization of certain ...
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Why languages have the concept of "the"
Wondering why you write a sentence like this, with the word the:
The person went to the store.
La persona fue a la tienda.
I don't understand why that extra word needs to be there. It could just ...
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Why does Italian use definite articles before possessive adjectives, except when these are followed by a singular family noun?
In Italian possessive adjectives are preceded by a definite article: “il mio amico” (the my friend), “la nostra casa”, “i tuoi libri”. The article however is always dropped with singular nouns ...
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weak definite article in Engish linguistics
I may be wrong, but I don't seem to have come across the term 'weak definite article' in English linguistics though I think I've encountered it in German or French linguistics. (I've read 'weak ...
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generic definite article with uncountable/mass nouns after preposition 'of' indicating material
The 'generic' subclass of the definite article treated in the pag. 112, section 1.12.3.1 of the Modern Written Arabic: A Comprehensive Grammar reads as follows
"it denotes a generic meaning مائدة من ...
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What is the hypernym of names, unique titles, and definite descriptions?
The name Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the unique title The Queen of England, and the definite description the elder daughter of Cecilia Bowes Lyon all refer to the same unique entity. We might think of ...
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How is the the adjective in a definite noun phrase different from a nondefinite one in Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages?
In the wikipedia article about definiteness I came upon this:
In the Germanic languages and Balto-Slavic languages, for example (as still in modern German and Lithuanian), there are two paradigms ...
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Definiteness as the default interpretation of NPs
In which languages do non-proper NPs have a default unmarked interpretation as definite, rather than indefinite?
In English, the default interpreration of plural and uncountable NPs is normally ...
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Tools to work with definiteness
I am planning to do a research paper in the definite articles of my dialect. Can anyone provide me with any framework that is suitable for analyzing the definite articles?
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(in)definite articles
Do any languages distinguish between indefinite and definite articles thus:
one beer 1sg-drink `I drank A beer.'
beer 1sg-drink `I drank THE/A beer.'
That is, is it possible for a language to mark ...
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Could any one give an example of bare "kind"-denoting relative clause?
There are two kinds of NPs existential and definite. Sometimes NP that we would expect to be existential behave as they are actually definite. One example of such NPs are those that are kind-denoting.
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Usage of definite articles in Germanic and Romance languages
In the Germanic languages, a generic construction using the definite article with mass nouns is unacceptable. In contrast, Romance languages require the definite article to make the generic ...
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How do you gloss a language with no definite or indefinite article?
Some languages have no definite or indefinite article, for example, I think, Polish.
So the Polish word kot could mean "a cat" or "the cat". So in a glossed example, and not knowing the context, how ...
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Distinction between definiteness and specificity
May I have an example of a language which separately marks definiteness and specificity (or indefiniteness and non-specificity), and also a principled way for deciding which of the two sets of terms ...
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References on Definiteness
Does anybody happen to know of any good and fairly readily-available surveys of the language-specific semantics of definiteness cross-linguistically? Specifically, I'm interested in all the various ...
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How is definiteness expressed in languages with no definite article, clitic or affix?
According to WALS Feature 37A: Definite Articles, 198 languages have no definite or indefinite article, and 45 have no definite article but have indefinite articles. These number excludes languages ...
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What diagnostics distinguish demonstratives from definite articles?
Historically, definite articles are often related to demonstratives.
How might one characterize whether a word in a language is a definite article or a demonstrative?
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Why is the definite article in Balkan languages always called a suffix when it really seems to be part of the inflection?
The Scandinavian languages have a suffix definite article which is pretty straightforwardly tacked on to to the ends of nouns: -en, -et.
But in languages of the Balkan Sprachbund, Romanian, Bulgarian,...
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