Negation, des-Indefinites in French and Bare Nouns across Languages

While major restructurings and simplifications have been reported for gender systems of other Germanic languages in multiethnolectal speech, this article demonstrates that the three-way gender distinction of German is relatively stable among young speakers from an immigrant background. We investigate gender in a German multiethnolect based on a corpus of approximately 17 hours of spontaneous speech produced by 28 young speakers in Stuttgart (mainly from Turkish and Balkan background). German is not their second language, but (one of) their first language(s), which they have fully acquired from childhood. We show that the gender system does not show signs of reduction in the direction of a two-gender system, nor of wholesale loss. We also argue that the position of gender in the grammar is weakened by independent innovations, such as the frequent use of bare nouns in grammatical contexts where German requires a determiner. Another phenomenon that weakens the position of gender is the simplification of adjective-noun agreement and the emergence of a generalized gender-neutral suffix for prenominal adjectives (that is, schwa). The disappearance of gender and case marking in the adjective means that the grammatical category of gender is lost in Adj + N phrases (without a determiner).

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The subject, it is here! The varying structural positions of preverbal subjects

DELTA Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada ◽

10.1590/s0102-44502007000300008 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 23 (spe) ◽

pp. 113-146 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Acrisio Pires

Keyword(s):

Brazilian Portuguese ◽

Variable Binding ◽

Null Subject ◽

The Subject ◽

Bare Nouns ◽

Semantic Properties ◽

Structural Positions

This paper analyzes preverbal overt subjects, comparing Brazilian Portuguese to (other) null-subject languages, especially within Romance. It explores syntactic and semantic properties, including resumption, ellipsis, quantifiers and scope, variable binding, ordering restrictions, pronominal distinctions, minimality violations, bare nouns and definiteness. It concludes that preverbal subjects in Brazilian Portuguese can be realized both in argumental positions (Specifier of the Inflectional or Tense Phrase) and non-argumental positions (Topic Phrase specifiers), with the possibility that both types of positions are filled by the subject in the same clause, incorporating properties that have been argued not to be found together in other languages.

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Bare Nouns

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition ◽

10.1002/9781118358733.wbsyncom097 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Denis Delfitto ◽

Gaetano Fiorin

Keyword(s):

Bare Nouns

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Articulated Definiteness without Articles

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/ling_a_00280 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 501-536 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

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.

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