scholarly journals Definiteness without determiners

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ljudmila Geist
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Predicate Position ◽  
Functional Concept

The paper investigates conditions for the bare occurrence of noun phrases in the topic position of specificational copula clauses. It is shown that this is a predicate position for non-referential NPs. Specificational clauses in German are special because of the unusual alignment of the predicative position and the topic position. I show that the condition for the bare occurrence of NPs in this position is that the head noun denotes a functional concept. According to the theory of concept types by Löbner (2011), nouns denoting functional concepts are inherently relational and unique. I argue that relationality ensures the anchoring of bare NPs in the discourse via an anaphoric link to a bridging antecedent in previous discourse and qualifies them for being a topic in the sense of discourse-familiarity. The inherent uniqueness of functional concepts is the key to understanding why nouns denoting such concepts can occur bare without a definite article: Since the article in predicate NPs merely conveys uniqueness without referentiality as argued by Coppock & Beaver (2015) and functional nouns in predicate position are unique and non-referential, the definite article is redundant and can be omitted.

scholarly journals The Processing of Spanish Article–Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092097705
Author(s):  
Monika Molnar ◽  
José Alemán Bañón ◽  
Simona Mancini ◽  
Sendy Caffarra
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Gender Agreement

We assessed monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-Basque toddlers’ sensitivity to gender agreement in correct vs. incorrect Spanish noun phrases (definite article + noun), using a spontaneous preference listening paradigm. Monolingual Spanish-learning toddlers exhibited a tendency to listen longer to the grammatically correct phrases (e.g., la casa; “the house”), as opposed to the incorrect ones (e.g., * el casa). This listening preference toward correct phrases is in line with earlier results obtained from French monolingual 18-month-olds (van Heugten & Christophe, 2015). Bilingual toddlers in the current study, however, tended to listen longer to the incorrect phrases. Basque was not a source of interference in the bilingual toddler’s input as Basque does not instantiate grammatical gender agreement. Overall, our results suggest that both monolingual and bilingual toddlers can distinguish between the correct and incorrect phrases by 18 months of age; however, monolinguals and bilinguals allocate their attention differently when processing grammatically incorrect forms.

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.

Case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka

Linguistics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
The State ◽  
State Information ◽  
Lexical Tones

AbstractDinka, a Nilo-Saharan language, is largely monosyllabic, nevertheless it has a fairly rich morphology. Thus, most of its morphology is expressed by alternations in phonological material of the root. The inflectional categories of nouns manifested in this way include state and case in addition to number. The state category consists of an “absolute” state and two “construct” states. The case category includes a nominative, a genitive, an allative, and an essive/ablative. The present article shows how case inflection is manifested in complex noun phrases consisting of a noun in a construct state and a following modifier. It is demonstrated that the case inflection of such noun phrases is manifested almost exclusively by tonal overlays on the nominative (lexical) tones, and that such overlays may occur either in the head or in the modifier or in both the head and the modifier. In this way, a head noun may simultaneously carry state information and case information. Thus, the case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka adds yet another layer of nonlinear morphology to nouns in this language.

scholarly journals Definiteness agreement and the pragmatics of reference in the Maltese NP

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-198
Author(s):  
Albert Gatt
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Production Study ◽  
The Status

Abstract Maltese noun phrases exhibit ‘definiteness agreement’ between head noun and modifier. However, the status of this phenomenon as a case of true morphosyntactic agreement has been disputed, given its apparent optionality. The present paper presents a corpus-based study of the distribution of adjectives with and without definite marking, and then tests the pragmatic licensing claim through a production study. Speakers were found to be more likely to use definite adjectives in referential noun phrases when the adjectives had a specifically contrastive function. This result is discussed in the context of both theoretical and psycholinguistic work on the pragmatics of referentiality.

scholarly journals /s/-Lenition and the Preservation of Plurality in Modern Occitan

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Laurel MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Plural Marking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Using Data

This paper examines the variable weakening and deletion of /s/ in the Languedocian variety of Modern Occitan, with particular attention to how it has affected the system of plural marking in noun phrases. Using data from linguistic atlases, I demonstrate that /s/-lenition in this variety involves a stage of vocalization to [j]. I find that, where /s/ on the definite article has vocalized to [j], the immediately-preceding vowel of the definite article has undergone concomitant raising to [e]. This raising appears to preserve the difference between singular and plural despite the plural’s weakening /s/. I argue that these results support Labov’s (1994) hypothesis that the meaning of a weakening element may be transferred to a stable, co-occurrent one.

scholarly journals prosody of Símákonde relative clauses

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 159-185
Author(s):  
Sophie Manus
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Final Stress ◽  
The Relationship

Símákonde is an Eastern Bantu language (P23) spoken by immigrant Mozambican communities in Zanzibar and on the Tanzanian mainland. Like other Makonde dialects and other Eastern and Southern Bantu languages (Hyman 2009), it has lost the historical Proto-Bantu vowel length contrast and now has a regular phrase-final stress rule, which causes a predictable bimoraic lengthening of the penultimate syllable of every Prosodic Phrase. The study of the prosody / syntax interface in Símákonde Relative Clauses requires to take into account the following elements: the relationship between the head and the relative verb, the conjoint / disjoint verbal distinction and the various phrasing patterns of Noun Phrases. Within Símákonde noun phrases, depending on the nature of the modifier, three different phrasing situations are observed: a modifier or modifiers may (i) be required to phrase with the head noun, (ii) be required to phrase separately, or (iii) optionally phrase with the head noun.  

scholarly journals Agreement Attraction in Turkish: The Case of Genitive Attractor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utku Turk ◽  
Pavel Logacev
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Feature Matching ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Attraction Effects ◽  
Potential Confound ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
Genitive Case

Previous studies have shown that speakers may find sentences violating subject-verb agreement grammatical when the sentence contains a feature-matching noun phrase. This so-called agreement attraction effect has also been found in genitive possessive structures such as 'the teacher's brother' in Turkish (Lago et al., 2019), which is in contrast with its absence in similar constructions in English (Nicol et al., 2016). This discrepancy has been hypothesized to be a result of the association between genitive case marking and subjecthood in Turkish, but not in English. In the present research, we test an alternative explanation in which Turkish number agreement attraction effects are due to a potential confound in Lago et al.'s experiment, as a result of which subject head nouns were locally ambiguous between the possessive and the accusative case. We hypothesized that this ambiguity may have inhibited the availability of the head noun as an agreement controller as the accusative is a non-subject case in Turkish. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a speeded acceptability judgment experiment and our results suggest that case-ambiguity does not play a role in agreement attraction, and thus lends credibility to the claim that genitive noun phrases may function as attractors in Turkish due to the association between genitive case and subjecthood.

scholarly journals СЪС ИЛИ БЕЗ ПРЕДЛОЗИ: КОЕ Е ВЯРНОТО / WITH OR WITHOUT PREPOSITIONS: WHICH IS TRUE

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (PR) ◽  
pp. 257-275
Author(s):  
SVETLA KOEVA
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Semantic Dependency

The article focuses on the competition between noun phrases in which the head noun is modified by either a relative adjective, noun qualitative modifier or a prepositional phrase. Several tests are proposed to distinguish between phrases with noun qualitative modifier and compounds consisting of two nouns. The type of the prepositions that occur in the prepositional phrases is characterised, and the conclusion is drown that the semantic dependency in the three competing structures is the same, although it is overtly expressed only through the prepositions. Keywords: noun qualitative modifier, syntactic alternations with prepositional phrases, identification of compounds, Bulgarian language

Remnant-internal relativization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Peripheral Position ◽  
Specific Configuration ◽  
The Right

Chapter 2 investigates a specific configuration (dubbed “remnant-internal relativization”) in which the head noun and some modifier/complement related to it appear discontinuously (as in the so-called split or discontinuous noun phrases). It is argued that the analysis of remnant-internal relativization is of particular interest from the theoretical and diachronic point of view. Theoretically it can illuminate the long-standing debate between the right adjunction and the head raising analyses of RRCs, providing evidence in favor of the latter. From a diachronic perspective, it is argued that the loss of remnant-internal relativization with the modifier/complement in the left periphery of the Portuguese relative clauses might be due to a restriction on movement that emerges inside the DP, which blocks the extraction of the modifier/complement to a left peripheral position.

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