Definite expression and degrees of definiteness

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-137
Author(s):  
Maria Kyriakaki
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Definite Articles ◽  
Definite Expressions

This chapter studies definite determiners formerly treated as semantic expletives and challenges the view that they can be uniformly treated as such. Assuming that definiteness consists of two features, uniqueness (iota) and familiarity (Fam), and depending on the features spelled out by the determiner, it proposes that definite articles can be fully specified for definiteness spelling out both features (full definiteness), partially specified, spelling out Fam (partial definiteness), or, in the case of true expletives, not specified at all (zero definiteness). Fully definite expressions cannot be modified by other definite nominals. In contrast, partially definite expressions form predicative FamPs, which can be modified by other definite nominals. Fam can also introduce proper names and generic kind-denoting nouns. Finally, true expletives appear even in non-definite contexts. An explanatory and descriptive account is offered that provides new insights on the properties of definiteness.

scholarly journals Definiteness

Linguistics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus von Heusinger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Definite Expressions

Definiteness is a semantic-pragmatic notion that is closely associated with the use of the definite article (or determiner) in languages like English, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Lakhota. The definite article can be used in different conditions: deictic, anaphoric, unique, and certain indirect uses, often also called “bridging uses.” Accordingly, there are different semantic theories of definiteness, such as the salience theory, the familiarity or identifiability theory, and the uniqueness or inclusiveness theory. Definite expressions cover personal pronouns, proper names, demonstratives, definite noun phrases, and universally quantified expressions. Noun phrases with the definite article, known as “definite descriptions,” are a key issue in semantics and analytic philosophy with respect to the interaction of reference and description in identifying an object. The research and analysis of definiteness is of great importance not only for the linguistic structure of languages but also for our understanding of reference and referring in philosophy, cognitive science, computational linguistics, and communication science.

scholarly journals Categories of definiteness in Classical Armenian

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelika Müth
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Definite Articles

In this paper, the use of the definite article in semantic and pragmatic categories in the Greek and Classical Armenian New Testament translation is compared. Greek and Classical Armenian agree in their use of the definite article only in NPs determined by contrastive attributes. In all other categories the systems of both languages differ. Generally, Armenian avoids the definite article with proper nouns and nouns with unique reference, while definite articles with proper names in Greek are common (with the exception of sacred or especially “respected” persons such as prophets). If the definite article is present in Greek, it is often motivated by pragmatic factors (e.g. re-topicalization, etc.). There is no clear evidence in Armenian for the use of the definite article as a marker of generic reference, nor for the use in NPs determined by superlative, comparative or ordinal attributes.

Die Bismarck – der Arena – das Adler

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damaris Nübling
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Large Classes ◽  
Definite Articles

AbstractGerman proper names divide in two large classes, with and without obligatory definite articles:

On the morphosyntax of synthetic compounds with proper names: A case study on the diachrony of Greek

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-210
Author(s):  
Artemis Alexiadou
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Synthetic Compounds ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Modern Greek

This paper discusses the formation of synthetic compounds with proper names. While these are possible in English, Greek disallows such formations. However, earlier stages of the language allowed such compounds, and in the modern language formations of this type are possible as long as they contain heads that are either bound roots or root- derived nominals of Classical Greek origin. The paper builds on the following ingredients: a) proper names are phrases; b) synthetic compounding in Modern Greek involves incorporation, and thus proper names cannot incorporate; c) by contrast, English synthetic compounds involve phrasal movement, and thus proper names can appear within compounds in this language. It is shown that in earlier Greek, proper names had the same status as their English counterparts, hence the possibility of synthetic compounds with proper names. It is further argued that the formations that involve bound/archaic roots are actually cases of either root compounding or root affixation and not synthetic compounds.

The Arabic Origins of English and Indo-European “Definite Articles”: A Radical Linguistic Theory Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Zaidan Ali Jassem
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
General Level ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Family ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Definite Articles

This paper traces the Arabic origins or cognates of the “definite articles” in English and Indo-European languages from a radical linguistic (or lexical root) theory perspective. The data comprises the definite articles in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Latin, Greek, Macedonian, Russian, Polish, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Persian, and Arabic. The results clearly indicate that five different types of such articles emerged in the data, all of which have true Arabic cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes and different routes of linguistic change, especially lexical, semantic, or morphological shift. Therefore, the results support the adequacy of the radical linguistic theory according to which, unlike the Family Tree Model or Comparative Method, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit not only belong to the same language family, renamed Eurabian or Urban family, but also are dialects of the same language, with Arabic being their origin all because only it shares the whole cognates with them all and because it has a huge phonetic, morphological, grammatical, and lexical variety. They also manifest fundamental flaws and grave drawbacks which plague English and Indo-European lexicography for ignoring Arabic as an ultimate ancestor and progenitor not only in the treatment of the topic at hand but in all others in general. On a more general level, they also show that there is a radical language from which all human languages stemmed and which has been preserved almost intact in Arabic, thus being the most conservative and productive language

Forms of Direct Linguistic Violence against Women in Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Dar Es Salaam Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Dr. Zelda Sam Elisifa
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Continuous Use ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Excretory Organs

The present study sought to make a descriptive account of how forms language use is violence against young women. It specifically sought to identify various forms of linguistics violence against women and assess the diversity of such linguistics violence on the women’s self image. The study involved 107 students of different levels of secondary education out of whom 71 were females and 35 males. Data were gathered through questionnaire and observation. The findings revealed that linguistics violence is plural as it involved different forms and strategies which were captured under six themes: pejorizing, sexualizing, animalizing, feminizing, masculining and stupidizing. I was also noted that of the six forms of linguistics violence, pejorizing was the most prevalent and most diverse. However, it was sexualizing which was the most pervasive and the most offensive since the women’s sexual and excretory organs and processes are used as disgusting and sickening sight. Further, the continuous use of female-related body parts and psycho-sexual behaviors and processes has resulted in women being adversely affected so much that they are not only the source of linguistic repository from which insults are mined and served to male and female victims, but also the perpetrators of the same.

Particular Features of Istro-Romanian Pronominal Clitics

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Adina Dragomirescu ◽  
Alexandru Nicolae
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Descriptive Account

"Particular Features of Istro-Romanian Pronominal Clitics. Istro-Romanian is a ‘historical dialect’ of Romanian, a severely endangered linguistic variety, spoken in the Istrian peninsula (Croatia) as an endogenous language, and in USA and Canada as an exogenous language. Using the data extracted from the available corpora, the paper offers a descriptive account of the main features of pronominal clitics in Istro-Romanian, focusing on empirical phenomena such as interpolation, verb(-auxiliary)-clitic inversion, (absence of) clitic climbing, and the position of clitics with respect to other elements of the verbal cluster. Some parallels with Croatian are also drawn, and the importance of old Romanian/old Romance inheritance is also briefly assessed. Future research will concentrate on more closely determining what plays a more important role in the syntax of Istro-Romanian: preservation of archaic Romanian/ Romance features or language contact?

DIRECTIONS OF ASSOCIATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONAL NAMES

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (28) ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
Olena Karpenko ◽  
Tetiana Stoianova
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Communicative Process ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Scientific Value ◽  
The Brain

The article is devoted to the study of personal names from a cognitive point of view. The study is based on the cognitive concept that speech actually exists not in the speech, not in linguistic writings and dictionaries, but in consciousness, in the mental lexicon, in the language of the brain. The conditions for identifying personal names can encompass not only the context, encyclopedias, and reference books, but also the sound form of the word. In the communicative process, during a free associative experiment, which included a name and a recipient’s mental lexicon. The recipient was assigned a task to quickly give some association to the name. The aggregate of a certain number of reactions of different recipients forms the associative field of a proper name. The associative experiment creates the best conditions for identifying the lexeme. The definition of a monosemantic personal name primarily includes the search of what it denotes, while during the process of identifying a polysemantic personal name recipients tend have different reactions. Scientific value is posed by the effect of the choice of letters for the name, sound symbolism, etc. The following belong to the generalized forms of identification: usage of a hyperonym; synonyms and periphrases or simple descriptions; associations denoting the whole (name stimulus) by reference to its part (associatives); cognitive structures such as “stimulus — association” and “whole (stimulus) — part (associative)”; lack of adjacency; mysterious associations. The topicality of the study is determined by its perspective to identify the directions of associative identification of proper names, which is one of the branches of cognitive onomastics. The purpose of the study is to identify, review, and highlight the directions of associative identification of proper names; the object of the research is the names in their entirety and variety; its subject is the existence of names in the mental lexicon, which determines the need for singling out the directions for the associative identification of the personal names.

Khystyyansʹki imena yak tvirni osnovy arkhayichnoyi oykonimiyi Ukrayiny

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Zoryana Кupchyns’ka
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Small Fragment ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Personal Names

Proper names of people as creating stems are represented in oiconymy of Ukraine. Anthroponymy separated from o iconymy of Ukraine ending in *-inъ is only a small fragment of a large amount of proper names and their variants. The actual problem is creating the dictionary of personal names of people, which would contain anthroponymy derived from archaic oiconymy. It would enrich not only the Ukrainian anthroponymicon but AllSlavonic one. 251 anthroponym of canonical origin is distinguished from geographical names of Ukraine ending in *-inъ. Most of Christian anthroponyms are represented in dictionaries as names of people or as bynames/proto-surnames. It is found out that 30 names (12%) are not represented in lexicographical works: Аврата (< Гаврило), Горпа (< Агрипина//Горпина), Демх(ш)а (< Дем’ян), Домашла (< Домна, Домнікія, Домаха), Ільпа (< Ілля), Кузята (< Кузьма), Макиш(х)а (< Матвій, розм. Макій), Макош(х)а (< Матвій, розм. Макій), Манята (< Марія), Мар’ята (< Мар’яна), Матюш(х)а (< Матвій), Митула (< Дмитро), Михла (< Михайло), Мишера (< Михайло), Мишута (< Михайло), Нита(я) (< Нит), Ол(ъ)ма (< Олъма), Панчоха (< Пантелеймон), Парута (< Парасковія), Пилипчата (< Пилип), Савара (< Север, Северин), Стеська (< Степан), Таша (< Наталія), Теола (< Теофіла, Феофіла), Тимота (< Тимофій), Томара (< Тамара), Фетюха (< Федір), Юриця (< Юрій), Якота (< Яків), Янкулиха (< Ян).

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