Bare Nominals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Le Bruyn ◽  
Henriëtte de Swart ◽  
Joost Zwarts
Keyword(s):  
Definite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
Bare Nominals ◽  
Made In ◽  
Generic Sentences

Bare nominals (also called “bare nouns”) are nominal structures without an overt article or other determiner. The distinction between a bare noun and a noun that is part of a larger nominal structure must be made in context: Milk is a bare nominal in I bought milk, but not in I bought the milk. Bare nouns have a limited distribution: In subject or object position, English allows bare mass nouns and bare plurals, but not bare singular count nouns (*I bought table). Bare singular count nouns only appear in special configurations, such as coordination (I bought table and chairs for £182). From a semantic perspective, it is noteworthy that bare nouns achieve reference without the support of a determiner. A full noun phrase like the cookies refers to the maximal sum of cookies in the context, because of the definite article the. English bare plurals have two main interpretations: In generic sentences they refer to the kind (Cookies are sweet), in episodic sentences they refer to some exemplars of the kind (Cookies are in the cabinet). Bare nouns typically take narrow scope with respect to other scope-bearing operators like negation. The typology of bare nouns reveals substantial variation, and bare nouns in languages other than English may have different distributions and meanings. But genericity and narrow scope are recurring features in the cross-linguistic study of bare nominals.

Articulated Definiteness without Articles

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jenks
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
Type Shifting

While it lacks a definite article, Mandarin makes a principled distinction between unique and anaphoric definites: unique definites are realized with a bare noun, and anaphoric definites are realized with a demonstrative, except in subject position. The following proposals account for these facts: (a) bare nouns achieve definite interpretations via a last-resort type-shifting operator ι, which has a unique definite meaning; (b) demonstratives can occur as anaphoric definites because they have a semantic argument beyond their nominal restriction that can be filled by an index; and (c) bare nominal subjects are topics. A principle called Index! requires that indexical expressions be used whenever possible. Mandarin is contrasted with Cantonese, which, like English, is shown to have access to an ambiguous definite article.

scholarly journals Indefiniteness

Linguistics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriëtte de Swart
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Generalized Quantifiers ◽  
Discourse Representation Theory ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Bare Nominals

The philosophical work on definite and indefinite descriptions of the form “the N” and “a N” focuses on the logic of natural language. Definites and indefinites are sometimes treated as devices of reference and at other times associated with quantificational expressions. Along with quantificational noun phrases such as “every N” they receive a unified analysis as generalized quantifiers. Insights into the semantic properties of generalized quantifiers have led to productive lines of research on indefinites in existential contexts and indefinites under negation, including negative polarity items and negative concord items. Clearly, indefinites have referential features as well. Unlike true quantificational expressions, they serve as anchors for anaphoric pronouns in subsequent discourse, which motivates Discourse Representation theory as a dynamic extension of first-order logic. Their variable quantificational force is accounted for by the treatment of indefinites as variables, which depend on other quantifiers in the sentence. The observation that indefinites can scope out of scope islands such as embedded clauses gave rise to analyses in terms of choice functions. Finally, indefinites are frequently found in predicative contexts, which have led to analyses in terms of property denotations. Many analyses focus on one particular aspect of indefinites, or posit ambiguities between different types of denotations. However, the quantificational, referential, and predicative roles of indefinites can be reconciled in a type-shifting framework, which allows indefinites to live in different types. Besides singular indefinite articles, languages may also have plural indefinite articles. Interestingly, many languages do not grammaticalize indefinite articles and instead use bare plurals or bare singulars. In English, bare plurals are ontologically different from full indefinites in that they may refer to kinds, besides regular individuals. They also display a different scopal behavior, in that they take obligatory narrow scope with respect to other scope-bearing operators. In languages where we find them, bare singulars share these features. Typological variation raises a special interest in grammaticalization patterns over time. Indefinites have also drawn attention in the psycholinguistic literature in which their cognitive status and the relation of indefinites with bare nominals and definites in acquisition and processing has been investigated. All in all, the study of indefiniteness is relevant for philosophy of language, semantic theory, the syntax-semantics interface, language typology, historical linguistics, and psycholinguistics. Additional relevant references to indefinite descriptions and indefiniteness appear in the Oxford Bibliographies articles Definiteness, Anaphora, Negation, and Polarity.

scholarly journals Estudo da interlíngua de surdos usuários de Língua de Sinais Brasileira na aquisição de português (L2): nominais nus e definidos genéricos (Study of the interlanguage of deafs, users of Brazilian Sign Language, in the acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese )

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heloisa Maria Moreira Lima-Salles ◽  
Adriana Cristina Chan-Vianna
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Brazilian Sign Language ◽  
Bare Nominals

O estudo examina a interlíngua de surdos (usuários de Língua de Sinais Brasileira) aprendizes de português como segunda língua, considerando, em particular, a manifestação de definidos genéricos (no singular e no plural) e de nominais nus (no singular). A alta frequência de nominal nu no singular é analisada como transferência de L1, já que a LSB não possui artigos. Partindo-se da hipótese de que a categoria de número é interpretável no DP definido genérico, propõe-se que o desenvolvimento linguístico ocorre mediante o mapeamento de propriedades morfo(fono)lógicas do artigo definido (plural) na projeção do núcleo funcional Número. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Aquisição de língua. Língua de sinais brasileira. Português L2. Definido genérico. Nominal nu.ABSTRACT The study examines the interlanguage of deafs (users of the Brazilian Sign Language) learning Portuguese as a second language. In particular, the manifestation of bare nominals (in the singular) and definite generics (in the singular and in the plural) is taken into consideration. The high frequency of singular bare nouns is analysed as L1 transfer, given that LSB does not have (definite) articles. Assuming that number is an interpretable feature on the generic definite DP, it is proposed that the linguistic development takes place through the syntactic mapping of morpho(phono)logical properties of the (plural) definite article on the functional head Number. KEYWORDS: Language acquisition. Brazilian Sign Language. L2 Portuguese. Definite generics. Bare noun.

Variation in Classifier Languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 255-305
Author(s):  
Li Julie Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Classifier Languages ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
The One ◽  
Numeral Classifier ◽  
Nominal Arguments

Chapter 5 develops a uniform account of bare nominal arguments (i.e., bare numeral classifier phrases, bare classifier phrases, bare nouns) in classifier languages. It achieves that by extending the scope of discussion to more classifier languages. It starts with three points on which Mandarin and Nuosu Yi differ and which make this comparison interesting from the perspective of building a theory of cross-linguistic variation. Their differences are: (i) whether or not they have the function category D in their grammar, (ii) whether or not they freely allow numeral-less classifier phrases to appear in argument positions, as a result of applying covert argument formation operations unrestrictedly, and (iii) whether or not they allow one-deletion from the [one Cl N] phrase in the PF. Three parameters based on these differences account for the variation.

scholarly journals Of nouns, and kinds, and properties, and why one D is null or not

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Diana Guillemin
Keyword(s):  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
Null Element ◽  
Definite Articles ◽  
Nominal Arguments

AbstractThis paper assumes that the basic denotation of nouns can be that of kind or property and that the determiner system of a language is a direct consequence of this cross-linguistic variation. An analysis of how definiteness and specificity are marked across three languages with different determiner systems, namely, English, French and Mauritian Creole (MC), provides evidence of the co-relation between noun denotation and determiner system. Languages with kind denoting nouns (English and MC) admit bare nominal arguments, which are barred in French, whose nouns denote properties. However, English and MC differ in that English has an overt definite article, which is a lacking in MC. This null element requires licensing by an overt specificity marker in some syntactic environments. The English and MC definite articles are analyzed as operators that quantify over sets of kind denoting nouns, and they serve a different function from the French definite article, which is specified for number and selects properties.

scholarly journals Reference to kinds in L2 English

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Yılmaz Köylü
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Acceptability Judgments

This study investigated the acquisition of kind referring noun phrase interpretation in L2 English by learners with Turkish, Arabic and Chinese L1 backgrounds. 37 advanced learners of English with Turkish (10), Arabic (10) and Chinese (10) L1 backgrounds, and 7 native English speakers were recruited. The tasks were a 48-item Fill in the gaps task and a 64-item Acceptability judgment task. The results indicated that: (a) native speakers, and L2 learners mostly produced bare plurals for count nouns and bare singulars for mass nouns for kind reference; (b) L2 learners of English transferred the morphosyntactic manifestation of kind reference from their L1s, substantiating the Full Transfer Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996); and (c) the similarity between the participants’ L1s and L2 did not always lead them to produce correct noun forms and articles for kind reference, neither did such a similarity consistently help the learners in their acceptability judgments for kind reference.

scholarly journals Misconceptions about Article Use in English

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Frančiška Lipovšek
Keyword(s):  
Definite Article ◽  
Made In

The paper addresses some major misconceptions about article use in English, proceeding from purely syntactic issues to those relating directly to pragmatics. It is based on authentic, perfectly acceptable examples of article use that many Slovenian students of English would describe as ‘odd’ or ‘not in accordance with the rules’. The students’ explanations as to why the examples in question should be ruled out confirm the hypothesis that misconceptions about article use are largely ascribable to an insufficient understanding of grammatical rules. The rules governing article use are often misunderstood due to inaccurate interpretations of the terms defining/restrictive, definite, identifying, specifying, classifying, etc. The commonest mistake is equating defining with definite, and defining/restrictive with identifying, the consequence being the overuse of the definite article. Another important point made in the paper is that article use is a matter of pragmatics. The choice between the definite and indefinite articles reflects the speaker’s decision to present a piece of information as hearer-old or hearer-new respectively.

scholarly journals Difficulties in The Acquisition and Use of English Articles among Adult Pashto Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalil Ahmad ◽  
Addul Qadir Khan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
English Articles

The acquisition of the English articles is one of the most difficult areas for the second language learners particularly when there are no articles in the first language of the learners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties in acquisition and use of the English articles. The study aims at identifying the errors the EFL learners make in using the English articles. Two theoretical approaches regarding noun classification for articles choice were adopted in this study. The data were collected in the form of a gap-fill task from seventy five (75) adult Pashto learners of English. The results showed the students used the definite article ‘the’ and the indefinite article ‘a/an’ more often than the zero article Ø. In noun types, a few subjects made errors in using articles before count nouns. In the noun phrase environments, the lowest error rate was in referential indefinite while the highest error rate was in generics. The reasons for difficulties in acquiring and using the English articles were found to be mainly the identification of noun types, NPs environments, and language transfer.

A Causal Semantics of IS Generics

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert van Rooij ◽  
Katrin Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Probabilistic Analysis ◽  
Causal Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Similarity ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The One ◽  
Causal Semantics ◽  
Do So ◽  
Generic Sentences

Abstract The felicity, or acceptability, of IS generics, i.e. generic sentences with indefinite singulars, is considerably more restricted compared to BP generics, generics with bare plurals. The goal of this paper is to account for the limited felicity of IS generics compared to BP generics, on the one hand, while preserving the close similarity between the two types of generics, on the other. We do so by proposing a causal analysis of IS generics, and show that this corresponds closely with a probabilistic analysis of BP generics.

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