scholarly journals Definite Descriptions, Presuppositions and Reference

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Marco Ruffino
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article

In this article I review some fundamental aspects of the singularist view of definite descriptions taking as paradigm the Frege-Strawson version of it. I consider more closely the role of the definite article and its relation with presuppositions. Finally, I raise some doubts about the coherence of such approach as an explanation for the phenomenon of reference.

scholarly journals Is that Different from the?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Quek Soh Theng ◽  
Mei Yuit Chan
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Positive Performance ◽  
English Articles ◽  
Teachers Training ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Lexical Transfer

English is a language with overt morphological representations of articles. On the other hand, Malay and Mandarin Chinese have none. In Malaysia, pupils are exposed to English articles as early as four years old. Despite early exposure, articles, or the definite article the specifically, appear to be a marked grammatical property for Chinese-speaking and Malay-speaking learners, two languages without articles. Based on the Fluctuation Hypothesis and Article Choice Parameter, this study seeks to investigate and compare the role of first language (L1) transfer on the article acquisition of the 77 L1 Chinese and 116 L1 Malay ESL learners, who were teacher trainees recruited from three teachers’ training institutes in Malaysia. The respondents were tested utilising a production task and a comprehension task. The statistical analyses of the participants’ performance revealed that only the advanced and intermediate groups of both L1 Chinese and L1 Malay ESL learners registered clear distinctions between the usage in the ‘Unique and salient’ and ‘Unique and non-salient’ categories and that usage in the ‘Non-unique’ category. The high accuracy rates suggest that L1 lexical transfer contributed to the positive performance by the ESL learners. The advanced and intermediate L1 Chinese and L1 Malay learners continuously interpreted the singular definite descriptions as referring to uniquely immediate salient entities similar to the demonstrative descriptions, making interpretations of the and that seemed similar.

Asymmetries between uniqueness and familiarity in the semantics of definite descriptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 694
Author(s):  
Sadhwi Srinivas ◽  
Kyle Rawlins ◽  
Daphna Heller
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Future Work

In over a century of research into the English definite article "the", two main theoretical factors have been identified as relevant to its meaning: namely, (i) uniqueness and (ii) familiarity. The identification of these factors has led to an extensive debate in semantics about which of them is more fundamental to the meaning of "the". In this paper, we contribute to this debate by introducing novel data obtained through two controlled psycholinguistic experiments. We manipulated uniqueness and familiarity of potential referents, examining how these factors affect the comprehension and production of English definite descriptions. The behavioral results reveal an asymmetry between these two factors, with familiarity being a weaker cue than uniqueness – a pattern that is unexpected under any existing theory of definiteness. We close with a discussion of possible extensions to existing theories in light of this result, as well as avenues for future work.

Young children use shared experience to interpret definite reference

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1146-1157 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL SCHMERSE ◽  
ELENA LIEVEN ◽  
MICHAEL TOMASELLO
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Joint Actions ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
Communicative Intention ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Referential Choice

AbstractWe investigated whether children at the ages of two and three years understand that a speaker's use of the definite article specifies a referent that is in common ground between speaker and listener. An experimenter and a child engaged in joint actions in which the experimenter chose one of three similar objects of the same category to perform an action. In subsequent interactions children were asked to get ‘the X’ or ‘a X’. When children were instructed with the definite article they chose the shared object significantly more often than when they were instructed with the indefinite article in which case children's choice was at chance. The findings show that in their third year children use shared experiences to interpret the speaker's communicative intention underlying her referential choice. The results are discussed with respect to children's representation of linguistic categories and the role of joint action for establishing common ground.

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.

Studying variation in Romanian: deletion of the definite article -l in continuous speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana Vasilescu ◽  
Ioana Chitoran ◽  
Bianca Vieru ◽  
Martine Adda-Decker ◽  
Maria Candea ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Broadcast News ◽  
Continuous Speech ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Speaking Style

AbstractStudies of variation in continuous speech converge towards the conclusion that in everyday speech, words are often produced with reduced variants: some segments are shortened or completely absent. We describe an initiative to automatically exploit spoken corpora, in order to better understand linguistic behavior in spontaneous speech. This study focuses on the reduction of the postposed definite article in Romanian. The Romanian corpora used here cover several speaking styles including both prepared and spontaneous speech, such as broadcast news and debates, elicited dialogues and monologues on suggested topics. Taken together, the data sets contain more than 10 hours of speech produced in a variety of communicative frameworks. The deletion of the definite article -l, i.e. L-dropping in continuous speech, is investigated across speaking styles using pronunciation variants aligned with the speech. The main question addressed in the study is the influence of speaking style on the distribution of L-dropping. We examine the role of the surrounding context in L-dropping and L-retention. The results show that, in prepared speech and broadcast news, deletion is triggered by the context as a consequence of the communicative framework and the nature of the following segment (following vowel-initial words favor L-retention, while consonant-initial words favor L-dropping). In spontaneous speech, L-dropping is more frequent and the context is less important in predicting the occurrence of reduced variants than in other speaking styles.

scholarly journals The Role of the Article in the Semantic Interpretation of the Antecedent in Attributive Clauses

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2 (11)) ◽  
pp. 68-73
Author(s):  
Nune Hayrapetyan
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Proper Nouns

The role of the article in all grammar structures leaves no doubt. Attributive clauses prove no exception. Here, the article used with the antecedent contributes to the distinction of the attributive clause. Attributive clauses can be divisible and non-divisible. The antecedent of the latter is closely connected to the thematic continuation which acts as its characterization and does not need any restriction in the use of the article, i.e. both definite and indefinite article may be used here. Unlike non-divisible sentences, the antecedent in divisible attributive clauses is not strongly bound with its subordinate continuation since the latter contains additional information only. The semantic emphasis of the antecedent requires the use of only the definite article which can be used in zero category as an antecedent used in the presence of proper nouns.

Quelques particularités dans l’expression de la détermination du nom. Comparaison entre cinq langues romanes

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Gorana Bikić-Carić
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Change Of Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
Time Description

"Some Features in the Expression of the Noun Determination. Comparison Between Five Romance Languages. In this article we would like to compare the noun determination in five Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian). All the languages examined here share the main uses of articles: known referent, generic use, unique entities, abstract names, inalienable possession for the definite article, or introduction of a new element into the discourse and description for the indefinite article. However, we wanted to show some peculiarities. We used the same text in five languages, (La sombra del viento, Carlos Ruiz Zafón) which is part of the RomCro corpus, composed in the Chair of Romance Linguistics of the Department of Romance Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zagreb, Croatia. The results of the analysis showed a clear difference between French and the other languages. As expected, French uses the indefinite article in plural much more often, as well as the partitive article, which does not exist in Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. Likewise, the possessive adjective is more common in French than in other languages which use the definite article instead. But what is particularly interesting are the differences which indicate a ""change of perspective"", namely a different kind of article than in the original text. Our conclusion is that the noun can have several characteristics at the same time (description or determination by complement, generic use or absence of specific referent etc.) of which the author (or the translator) chooses the one to highlight. Likewise, we have underlined the role of article zero, which can carry different values (unspecified referent, but also unspecified quantity or even definite article value if the noun is introduced by a preposition), depending on its relationship to other articles in the language.

scholarly journals Accent and description: An account of anaphoric epithets

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Charley Evan Beller
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Current Analysis ◽  
Conventional Implicature ◽  
Expressive Content ◽  
Nominal Reference

Anaphoric epithets are definite descriptions that achieve reference anaphorically. They also convey some expressive content. Potts (2003) analyzes the expressive component as a Conventional Implicature. He proposes that the expressive component is provided by the nominal, reference is provided by a phonologically null variable adjacent to the nominal, and the definite article is semantically contentless. The current analysis agrees that the nominal provides the attitudinal meaning. Rather than positing a null syntactic element reference is achieved by incorporating Elbourne's (2005) proposal that the definite determiner takes an index argument and a nominal argument.

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