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The paper investigates the rare case where a single English proper name is used with two articles, e.g. the real Billy the Kid. The article placed to the right of the personal name, i.e. Billy, is called the inner article, while the article located to the left of the personal name is termed the outer article. The usage of the inner article is first explored against the historical record, and it is demonstrated that it remains robust wherever the use of modern surnames has not yet taken hold, e.g. in regnal names, nicknames, names of cartoon characters, etc. It is shown that proper names requiring the use of the inner article carry identifying information that is needed to ensure that they refer uniquely and that such information is encoded in embedded NPs, which motivates the use of the article and explains why it is placed inside the linear order of proper name constituents. The outer article is shown to mark the (in)definiteness of a referent manifestation/spatial-temporal slice created by modifying a proper name. In double article cases like the real Billy the Kid the inner article and outer articles mark thus the (in)definiteness of two different linguistic entities: the proper name itself (the inner article) and its spatial-temporal slice (the outer article). Consequently, the former is always definite while the latter can be either definite or indefinite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Ladusaw (1979) the term ‘free choice indefinite’ is the generally accepted term for the meaning of any in primarily modal and generic sentences, such as Any owl hunts mice, but not for what is generally called the ‘polarity-sensitive’ or ‘negative polarity’ meaning, as in Did you take any? At least part of the inspiration for Ladusaw was Vendler (1967), but Vendler took a notion of ‘freedom of choice’ to characterize all uses of any. This paper has three goals: (i) to offer a critical survey, updating earlier ones by Horn (2000a, 2000b, 2005) of the question whether English any has one meaning – a univocal account – or two – an ambiguist account, with the two alleged meanings involving negative polarity, on the one hand, and free choice, on the other hand; (ii) to confirm, in agreement with much current work, that Vendler (1967) was right, and to suggest, in disagreement with most if not all current work, to make terminology reflect the insight and no longer restrict the term ‘free choice’ to just a few of the meanings of any; and (iii) to offer a new univocal approach of any, hypothesizing its meaning to contain the components ‘existence’ and ‘free choice’, and using the notion of ‘at-issueness’.

Indefinites in French do not always express indefiniteness as mentioned in some grammars. They can, in certain contexts, refer explicitly to clearly identified referents or speech acts. The objective of this article is to determine the conditions in which the indefinition occurs. Those conditions depend on the context of enunciation and the communication intentions of the speaking subject. By referring to a corpus composed of 702 statements extracted from six Cameroonian newspapers and which content gives rise, from determiners and indefinite pronouns, to the indefiniteness or not of the referent, we deal with the semantic and referential complexity of this grammatical category. The derivational grammar of Muller (2002) serves us, for this purpose, as a theory of analysis. We therefore postulate that the use of indefinites arises from the mental operations of the speaker; their semantic trajectories, because of right, left, median or zero, are an invitation to also suggest the name indefining in grammar to refer to the category of “indefinites”.

My aim in this essay is to shed light on the origins of Peircean vagueness. The intention is therefore primarily historical-philological, exploring the logical-semiotic roots of vagueness. First, I distinguish the two senses in which Peirce treats the notion of vagueness: one referring to the subject, the other to the predicate within a proposition, specifying that I am only concerned here with the first sense of vagueness. Second, I argue that Brock and Chauviré, while attempting to unravel the origins of Peircean vagueness through the notion of the individuum vagum , fail to fully resolve the problem. Third, I expound the medieval theory of suppositio , which concerns the denotation and quantification of the propositional subject. This medieval logical theory aimed to clarify the meaning of indefinite and indeterminate propositions. Fourth, I present textual evidence in which Peirce demonstrates his thorough knowledge of the medieval theory of suppositio , Peter of Spain's theory in particular. In the same section, I highlight a neglected detail within R 530, in which Peirce directly refers to the origins of the notion of vagueness. Finally, I argue that once the quantifiers (existential and universal) were discovered and formalized, Peirce gradually lost interest in the theory of suppositio as a useful tool for clarifying vague (indefinite) and general (indeterminate) propositions, since he had a better logical tool at his disposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is meant as a contribution to the research project on variation and optionality in the determiner system in Italo-Romance, with novel data from the Sicilian dialect of Delia. The study is based on fieldwork interviews and the construction of a small corpus of 850 observations by 24 native speakers of Deliano (mean age: 36.37; age range: 19–72). The participants were asked to (i) describe in Deliano a 3 min videotape of an Italian speaking woman during her shopping session at a supermarket and (ii) talk about their own shopping routines in Deliano. These activities were designed mainly to detect the following strategies to express indefiniteness: (i) ART, i.e., a definite article with an indefinite interpretation; (ii) ZERO, a zero determiner for bare nouns; (iii) DI+ART, the so-called "partitive article"; (iv) pseudo-partitives such as 'a bit of'; (v) the grammaticalised cardinal 'two'; and (vi) the grammaticalised cardinal 'four'. The data confirm (i) the preference for ZERO in negative episodic sentences in the past; (ii) the general lack of bare DI and DI+ART, and of certo 'certain' used as an indefinite; (iii) the use of different specialised forms of pseudo-partitive 'a bit of' in older speakers of Deliano; (iv) the neutralisation of this pseudo-partitive specialisation and the consequent emergence of some true optionality in younger speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some languages assertions about 'somebody' or 'nobody' are existential in a strong sense, i.e. they need or prominently allow an explicit syntactic marker of existence ('there is', 'exist'). This paper presents a state-of-the-art typology of existential indefinite constructions and finds the typological understanding to be inconclusive in many respects. The paper responds to this inconclusiveness with a study of the existential indefinite constructions in four mainland Southeast Asian languages, namely Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, and Khmer. These are languages in which existential indefinite constructions take pride of place, although the typological literature has not acknowledged this. The paper then sketches the implications of the study of the aforementioned languages for typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether nunation is a marker of indefiniteness is a controversial issue in the literature of Arabic grammar. To date, no study has investigated whether the use of nunation in a speaker’s L1 can affect their second language (L2) acquisition of English articles. This paper reports the results of a study on the use of English articles by speakers of two Saudi dialects, Najdi and Hijazi, of which only the former – Najdi – grammaticalises nunation. The study recruited 56 participants (24 Najdi speakers, 24 Hijazi speakers and 8 native speakers of English). The experimental groups were third-year secondary school students whose English was at the elementary level, according to the Oxford Quick Placement test. The participants completed a 48-item multiple-choice test that examined their use of the English indefinite articles a and ø. It was found that a) the participants used ø more accurately than a; b) Najdi speakers were more accurate in using a than ø due to the presence of nunation in Najdi; and c) because Hijazi does not use nunation, Hijazi speakers were more sensitive than Najdi speakers to the semantic properties of nouns modified by articles.

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Using “A” in noun phrases such as “A father of the vic-tim” is odd, which is commonly explained by the princi-ple Maximize Presupposition, requiring speakers to usethe alternative with the strongest presupposition (here“The”, given its uniqueness presupposition). This re-sults in an anti-uniqueness inference for “A” (clashingwith stereotypical expectations here), sometimes labelledas an ‘anti-presupposition’ (Percus, 2006), as it derivesfrom reasoning over the presuppositions of alternativeforms. We compare these inferences to the uniquenessinferences associated with definites, while manipulatinguniqueness expectations in a picture manipulation taskusing visual world eye-tracking. This offers a minimalcomparison of uniqueness-based inferences that are lexi-cally encoded vs. pragmatically inferred, and furthermoretests the prediction that the accommodatability of the def-inite’s presupposition plays a role in the derivation of anti-uniqueness inferences (Rouillard & Schwarz, 2017).

Words and combinations expressing indefinite quantity in English and Azerbaijani languages are expressed by indefinitequantitative indicators ― quantifiers in different contexts as a result of objective and subjective reasons. In-depth study of theprocess of speech activity can be achieved only through the method of statistical analysis. The use of statistical analysismethods plays an important role in determining the frequency of quantifiers in the compared languages. For this purpose, thefrequency of indefinite numerals (in Azerbaijani)/ quantifiers (in English) in different materials involved in the study from bothlanguages was analyzed on the basis of different formulas and diagrams.

ABSTRACT. In Mexican Spanish, the indefinite quantifier "uno que otro" is used to refer to low cardinalities of entities separated over space or time. Even though they have a strictly singular form, noun phrases with "uno que otro" always refer to more than one entity. And, despite their notional content of plurality, they reject collective predicates. In this paper we propose a semantic analysis of this expression as a distributive indefinite, that is, an indefinite whose reference covaries as a function of a distributive operator, in the way that adnominal distributive numerals do in other languages (Gil, 1983; Cable, 2014). Distributive numerals are supposed not to exist in Spanish; however, we claim that "uno que otro" is a distributed share marker (Choe, 1987; Bosnić et al 2020) related to a set of events (Balusu, 2006; Cable, 2014; Romero, 2006). This set is necessarily plural, although of low cardinality, and involves the precondition that its elements (atomic events) occur in non-contiguous time or space intervals. The semantic characterization of "uno que otro" as a distributive indefinite captures its referential dependence, its plural sense, its rejection of collective predicates and its content of separation as a secondary effect of a precondition on the events over which it is distributed. We thus show that Spanish has an adnominal expression of the same semantic nature as distributive numerals, with the precision that it requires distribution over events and not over entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is meant as a contribution to the research project on variation and optionality in the determiner system in Italo-Romance, with novel data from the Sicilian dialect of Delia. The study is based on fieldwork interviews and the construction of a small corpus of 850 observations by 24 native speakers of Deliano (mean age: 36.37; age range: 19–72). The participants were asked to (i) describe in Deliano a 3 min videotape of an Italian speaking woman during her shopping session at a supermarket and (ii) talk about their own shopping routines in Deliano. These activities were designed mainly to detect the following strategies to express indefiniteness: (i) ART, i.e., a definite article with an indefinite interpretation; (ii) ZERO, a zero determiner for bare nouns; (iii) DI+ART, the so-called “partitive article”; (iv) pseudo-partitives such as ‘a bit of’; (v) the grammaticalised cardinal ‘two’; and (vi) the grammaticalised cardinal ‘four’. The data confirm (i) the preference for ZERO in negative episodic sentences in the past; (ii) the general lack of bare DI and DI+ART, and of certo ‘certain’ used as an indefinite; (iii) the use of different specialised forms of pseudo-partitive ‘a bit of’ in older speakers of Deliano; (iv) the neutralisation of this pseudo-partitive specialisation and the consequent emergence of some true optionality in younger speakers.

This paper examines how 'what'-words extend from referential to non-referential uses, with special attention to their extensions from indefinite and interrogative pronominal uses to negative attitudinal uses. Using conversational data from Jieyang Chaozhou, a Sinitic language, this study examines the attitudinal uses of 'what'-words ▪, ▪, ▪, and ▪ along two grammaticalization pathways. Along the indefiniteness pronoun pathway, all four 'what'-words have developed placeholding functions, with ▪ and ▪ also recruited in the formation of attitudinal constructions (e.g. ▪ 'so whatchamacallit', which could express either a positive or negative speaker attitude depending on the inferred meaning of placeholder ▪). Along the interrogative pronoun pathway, in addition to the frequent use of ▪ as a mirativity marker, the 'what'-words ▪, ▪, and ▪ have also evolved attitudinal marking functions, typically negative in tone and often used to express the speaker's annoyance, dismissiveness and challenge toward someone, something, some event or some state of affairs raised in the prior speech turn. Crucially, this study sheds light on the intimate relationship between indefiniteness, interrogativity and speaker stance, with both indefinite and interrogative uses of 'what'-words often interacting to form attitudinal constructions with stronger negative overtones. • In Chinese, 'what'-words are often used as negative attitudinal markers. • Two pathways have been identified for Chaozhou attitudinal 'what'-constructions. • One is the indefiniteness pathway; the other the interrogativity pathway. • Indefinite uses, mediated by evaluative placeholders, are less face-threatening. • Interrogative plus indefinite uses yield challenging and dismissive attitudinals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In languages that have a definite article but no indefinite article, the definite article typically maps to definites, and the bare noun maps to indefinites. We investigate this mapping in Malagasy, which imposes an additional restriction: bare nouns cannot be subjects. We ask whether the subject can be interpreted as indefinite, given the obligatory nature of the article. We also look at DPs in other positions (direct object, clefted subjects) to determine whether the mapping between form and meaning is one-to-one. To answer these questions, we administered an on-line questionnaire that presented participants with the choice of the article or the bare noun in the different positions (subject, object, cleft) in contexts that favoured an indefinite/novel interpretation. As predicted, the article was obligatory in subject position, but disfavoured in the object and cleft position. These results confirm current descriptions in the literature. We compare these results with a similar case of definite article in indefinite nominals found in Italian and propose that the article does not carry definiteness features (at least in these cases) but overtly marks (abstract) Case assignment on subjects, while it can remain silent on objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present an original approach to analyze the compositionality of indefinite expressions in Romance by investigating the relevance of their syntactic distribution in relation to their meaning. This approach has the advantage of allowing us to explore the question of how syntactic structure can determine the meaning of different forms of indefiniteness. To that end, we postulate a common derivation for bare plurals, bare mass and de phrases, whereby an abstract operator de is adjoined to definite determiners and shifts entities into property-type expressions. Quantificational specificity is proposed to be derived from a syntactic structure in which weak quantifiers select for indefinite de-phrases, no matter whether de is overt at Spell-Out or not; these quantifiers turn properties into generalized quantifiers. The anti-specificity meaning of some indefinites is derived by adjoining in the syntactic structure an abstract operator alg that encodes the speaker's epistemic state of ignorance to a quantifier encoded for specificity, and it turns a generalized quantifier into a modified generalized quantifier. The paper also brings some general predictions on how indefiniteness is expressed in Romance, as it provides extensive support from five Romance languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, French, Italian and Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optionality is an issue within the minimalist theory of language, in which the principle of the "last resort" does not admit competing options to express the same meaning. What is needed is a solid empirical base showing that apparently competing forms do specialize for some syntactic/semantic traits. Hence, the aim of this pilot study is to investigate optionality in the choice of competing indefinite determiners in Piacentine, an Italo-Romance variety spoken in north-western Italy. Sixteen native Piacentine speakers were presented with a questionnaire to collect linguistic data. Statistical analyses of the data were performed to seek correlations between the choice of the indefinite determiners and some syntactic/semantic traits that were controlled for. The results indicate that Piacentine displays four main determiners, labeled ART, di+art, bare di, and ZERO. ART and di+art are the most widespread determiners allowing both narrow and wide scope and occurring in all the investigated contexts. Bare di is instead the unmarked form for expressing non-existential indefiniteness in negative contexts and only has narrow scope. ZERO co-varies with bare di, and its use was strengthened by contact with Italian, preventing its loss, differently from French, which lost ZERO instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of e-Scripta Romanica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Revealing the hazard features of forfeiting areal ranges for nonidentical scenarios of shifting climatic conditions is pivotal for the conformation of reptiles to climatic warming. Taking 115 reptiles in China as an example, the indefiniteness and danger of shrinking geographical range for the reptiles under stochastic and nonrandom scenarios of moving climatic situations were inspected via exploiting the scenarios of shifting climatic status associated with the representative concentration pathways, Monte Carlo simulation, and the classifications scheme based on the fuzzy set. For non-stochastic states of altering climatic elements, the richness of 115 reptiles improved in certain sites of northeastern, and western China and dropped in several areas of northern, eastern, central China, and southeastern China: roughly 59–74 reptiles forfeiting less than 20% of their present ranges, roughly 25–34 reptiles narrowing less than 20–40% of their present areal ranges, and roughly 105–111 reptiles inhabited more than 80% of their overall areal ranges. For the random status of shifting climatic elements, the count of reptiles that forfeited the various extent of the present or entire areal ranges descended with raising the eventuality; with a possibility of over 0.6, the count of reptiles that minified less than 20%, 20–40%, 40–60%, 60–80% and over 80% of the present ranges was roughly 28–49, 5–10, 1–3, 0–1 and 13–18, separately; the count of reptiles that inhabited below 20%, 20–40%, 40–60%, 60–80% and more than 80% of the entire real ranges was roughly 0–1, 5–6, 1–5, 0–2 and 35–36, separately. About 30% of 115 reptiles would face disappearance danger in response to moving climate conditions in the absence of adaption steps, and the conformation measures were indispensable for the reptiles that shrunk their areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In languages that have a definite article but no indefinite article, the definite article typically maps to definites, and the bare noun maps to indefinites. We investigate this mapping in Malagasy, which imposes an additional restriction: bare nouns cannot be subjects. We ask whether the subject can be interpreted as indefinite, given the obligatory nature of the article. We also look at DPs in other positions (direct object, clefted subjects) to determine whether the mapping between form and meaning is one-to-one. To answer these questions, we administered an on-line questionnaire that presented participants with the choice of the article or the bare noun in the different positions (subject, object, cleft) in contexts that favoured an indefinite/novel interpretation. As predicted, the article was obligatory in subject position, but disfavoured in the object and cleft position. These results confirm current descriptions in the literature. We compare these results with a similar case of definite article in indefinite nominals found in Italian and propose that the article does not carry definiteness features (at least in these cases) but overtly marks (abstract) Case assignment on subjects, while it can remain silent on objects.

This work contributes to the discussion on the realisation of indefinite determiner phrases, whose physical manifestation is rare, except in a few languages of the world. However, language-specific mechanisms to indicate indefiniteness are available in each language. The semanticpragmatic theory of definiteness helps to discuss with precision the concept of indefiniteness in the nominal domain in Kinyakyusa. Evidence shows that the lexical element -mo 'certain/some', which was grammaticalised from the numeral -mo 'one', has developed to the indication of specific indefinites in the language. Evidence also shows that the reduplication of the lexical element -osa 'any' signals the nonspecific indefinite nouns. The pre-prefix is also used to mark definiteness in Kinyakyusa. Briefly, occurrence of the pre-prefix together with prenominal demonstratives provides indefinite interpretation of the DP. This is obvious for circumstances of interrogative sentence, which basically provides non-specific indefinite interpretation. But in the same context, when the pre-prefix is used on the lexical nouns, we obtain definite interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of English articles is the most challenging task for the EFL learners particularly when there is no articles in their native language (L1). The purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying reasons for the difficulties in using English articles by analyzing the learners' own experiences. The data was collected in the form of written feedback from seventy-five adult Pashto (L1) learners of English (L2) having three different educational backgrounds. The data were analyzed by using qualitative thematic analysis software 'MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020'. The results brought forth useful insights for learning and teaching the use of English articles for the adult EFL learners. The underlying reasons were found to be the failure in the identification of the concepts of countability, definiteness/indefiniteness of nouns, variability in physical form and concept of nouns, variability across languages, learners/teachers' attitudes towards articles, lack of article-check in computer software and pedagogical instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optionality is an issue within the minimalist theory of language, in which the principle of the “last resort” does not admit competing options to express the same meaning. What is needed is a solid empirical base showing that apparently competing forms do specialize for some syntactic/semantic traits. Hence, the aim of this pilot study is to investigate optionality in the choice of competing indefinite determiners in Piacentine, an Italo-Romance variety spoken in north-western Italy. Sixteen native Piacentine speakers were presented with a questionnaire to collect linguistic data. Statistical analyses of the data were performed to seek correlations between the choice of the indefinite determiners and some syntactic/semantic traits that were controlled for. The results indicate that Piacentine displays four main determiners, labeled ART, di+art, bare di, and ZERO. ART and di+art are the most widespread determiners allowing both narrow and wide scope and occurring in all the investigated contexts. Bare di is instead the unmarked form for expressing non-existential indefiniteness in negative contexts and only has narrow scope. ZERO co-varies with bare di, and its use was strengthened by contact with Italian, preventing its loss, differently from French, which lost ZERO instead.

Copyright of Slovene Linguistic Studies /Slovenski Jezik is the property of Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the syntactic structure of Arabic vocatives, focusing on case-marking of vocatives. The assignment of accusative and nominative-like case can be accounted for in the light of Hill (2017)'s proposal which provides the basic structure of the vocative phrase. This paper argues that in Arabic vocatives (i) the particle YAA is a transitive probe with valued [ACC-Case] and unvalued [2nd] and [Distance] features; (ii) The D has the unvalued case feature [u-Case], and it has both the [2nd] and [+Distance] features if it is a free pronoun and (iii) The vocative noun carries the valued [2nd] and [+/-Distance] features. Based on these assumptions, I argued that indefinite vocatives are assigned accusative case only if they are merged with an overt D - n , otherwise a nominative-like case surfaces on the noun by default. Proper names have the same analysis since the presence of the indefinite article - n is a prerequisite for accusative case assignment. Concerning vocatives as heads of Construct States, N-to-D movement takes place in order to assign [+def] feature to D and is assigned accusative case by YAA. Regarding vocatives in demonstrative phrases, the existence of a null D prevents the vocative noun from being assigned an overt accusative case. Concerning vocative pronouns, only accusative case is assigned since the determiner carrying the [u-Case] feature is overt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the heart of this special issue are partitive elements (i. e., partitive articles, partitive pronouns, and partitive case markers) which can express different "shades" of partitivity, namely true partitivity, pseudopartitivity, or indefiniteness, that is, the absence of a part-whole relation in the meaning, in contrast to (pseudo)partitivity. Since these partitive elements express (at least) two such notions, as they can be truly partitive but often are not, the questions around partitivity are complex, interrelated and challenging. This special issue, with a strong and wide crosslinguistic (typological) coverage, deals with two overarching topics: first, the geographical distribution of partitive elements and the identification of potential instances of language contact, and, second, sometimes in combination with the first topic, the formal description and explanation of different partitive constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I explore how typological approaches can be used to construct novel classification schemes for Arabic dialects, taking the example of definiteness as a case study. Definiteness in Arabic has traditionally been envisioned as an essentially binary system, wherein definite substantives are marked with a reflex of the article al- and indefinite ones are not. Recent work has complicated this model, framing definiteness instead as a continuum along which speakers can locate referents using a broader range of morphological and syntactic strategies, including not only the article al-, but also reflexes of the demonstrative series and a diverse set of ‘indefinite-specific’ articles found throughout the spoken dialects. I argue that it is possible to describe these strategies with even more precision by modeling them within cross-linguistic frameworks for semantic typology, among them a model known as the ‘Reference Hierarchy,’ which I adopt here. This modeling process allows for classification of dialects not by the presence of shared forms, but rather by parallel typological configurations, even if the forms within them are disparate.

Copyright of Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, I discuss the syntax of indefinite DPs in Jordanian Arabic (JA). I argue that in addition to the traditional definite vs indefinite DP split, there exists a third type of DPs headed by the cardinal numeral waaad (one), which functions as an indefinite specific marker when it occurs in prenominal position. I provide several arguments to show that waaad behaves similarly to other indefinite specific markers found in other languages such as English and Modern Hebrew. I put forward an analysis of waaad, where I show that waaad enters the derivation as the head of a classifier phrase, and that it ultimately raises to D. The data and analysis put forward in this paper further support the three-way split between definite, indefinite, and indefinite specific DPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate to what extent grammatical variables are related to each other in order to predict the discourse-based classification of English relative clause extraposition (RCE) construction with the help of a total 597 corpus data. In doing so, an extraposed relative pronoun is assumed to function as a cohesive device, thereby classifying RCE construction into four types according to discourse manner: Discourse-Old-Old-RCE, Discourse-Old-New-RCE, Discourse-New-Old-RCE, and Discourse-New-New-RCE. This discourse-based classification tells us which information is prevalent within an extraposed relative clause as well as a subject NP. Multinomial logistic regression is used for determining which one among the indefiniteness/definiteness of a subject NP, the predicate type (i.e., passive, presentative intransitive, and predicative complement of copula be), and/or grammatical weight (i.e., subject NP-to-extraposed RC length ratio) primarily has the inclination for each type of RCE construction. The definiteness of a subject NP, passive voice, and positive value of the length ratio are critical predictors to bring about Discourse-Old-Old-RCE and Discourse-Old-New-RCE, whereas the indefiniteness of a subject NP is a main predictor of Discourse-New-Old-RCE and Discourse-New-New- RCE. Interestingly, only Discourse-New-Old-RCE taking up the largest portion in this corpus study has a negative correlation with the length ratio. In other words, both a small number of constituents within a subject NP and heavy information within an extraposed relative clause are strongly associated with the occurrence of Discourse-New-Old-RCE. Therefore, the conclusive statement is drawn that the grammatical heaviness within a restrictive relative clause becomes a powerful trigger for the extraposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The paper is concerned with the scope of semi-intuitionistic set theories that relate to various foundational stances. It also provides a proof for a second conjecture of Feferman's that relates the concepts for which the law of excluded middle obtains to those that are absolute with regard to the relevant test structures, or more precisely of Δ 1 complexity. The latter is then used to show that a plethora of statements is indeterminate with respect to various semi-intuitionistic set theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper addresses the contrast between the definite article (el/la/los/las) and the indefinite article (un/a/os/as) from a cognitive approach that not only poses a single meaning for each kind of article, but also highlights the pragmatic (or contextual) aspects that underlie that meaning and establish the use of one form or another. The article’s meaning is shaped by the way we conceptualize the reference: the definite article implies an inclusive reference characterized by the uniqueness of the referent, while the indefinite article implies an exclusive reference characterized by the lack of uniqueness. The possibility to choose one or other way depends on contextual aspects related to the common knowledge shared by the interlocutors, the communicative context (linguistic and situational) and the space (physical or mental) where the referent is located.

A possible classification of indefiniteness exponents in Macedonian The concept or category of determinateness finds its grammaticalization in the category of definiteness. Beginning from the dialectical configuration of reality, which finds its linguistic expression in such features that, in componential analysis, are marked as “plus” (+) or “minus” (-), the formal indicator of definiteness will be juxtaposed with equivalents for the corresponding point/segment at the opposite end of the axis. In the established system of the Macedonian language, indefiniteness may be expressed simply by the absence of a marker; by indefinite pronouns, and, in particular, by one and someone (eden and nekoj), which in terms of definiteness/indefiniteness are counterparts of sorts to the article (the definite article as an exponent of positive marking of definiteness in Macedonian); finally, in certain cases, absence of definiteness may be related to the non-referentiality of noun syntagmas or to ontological meanings. The above-mentioned cases can be classified according to: a) their syntactic function; b) the addressor’s/addressee’s knowledge of the referent (obligatory use of one [eden]/someone [nekoj]]; c) their non-referentiality (either in reality or in the text)/denotation/genericity. Propozycja klasyfikacji wykładników nieokreśloności w języku macedońskim Pojęcie wyznaczoności gramatykalizuje się jako tzw. kategoria określoności. Poczynając od stanu rzeczy w dialektach oraz stosując analizę komponencjalną, w której poszczególnym cechom przypisujemy znaki plus (+) i minus (-),formalnym wykładnikom kategorii określoności przeciwstawiamy ekwiwalenty odpowiedniego punktu/odcinka na przeciwnej stronie osi. W systemie języka macedońskiego nieokreśloność może być wyrażona po prostu poprzez brak wykładnika; zaimkami nieokreślonymi, w szczególności еден i некој – stanowiącymi odpowiedniki rodzajnika (który w języku macedońskim jest wykładnikiem pozytywnego nacechowania ze względu na określoność w języku macedońskim); wreszcie, w pewnych wypadkach, do nieobecności określoności może się przyczynić brak referencji frazy nominalnej lub wiedza ontologiczna. Wymienione sytuacje możemy klasyfikować według: funkcji składniowej, wiedzy adresata/adresatów na temat referenta (obligatoryjne użycie еден/некој), niereferencyjności (w rzeczywistości i w tekście)/denotacji/generyczności.

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This work seeks to establish the role that the Russian deictic TAM 'there' plays in conveying irrealis. TAM has attracted some attention among linguists because of its frequency of occurrence and polyfunctionality. To our knowledge, however, there has been no mention of TAM as described in the present paper. The study explores the semantic and pragmatic features of TAM and argues that this deictic is licensed primarily in irrealis environments (i. e. contrary-to-fact and hypothetical situations, unrealized or future events, negation, commands etc.). This licensing requirement also provides an explanation for other functions of TAM, such as vague approximator, marker of continuation and enumeration, disjunctive connective, marker of indefinite reference and evidential. In a cross-linguistic perspective, the set of functions performed by TAM seems similar to the semantic network developed by several irrealis markers in various languages and echoes the use of deictic spatial morphemes to mark irrealis and future contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the definite and indefinite articles in Castilian may be regarded as an instance of capitalization or adfunctionalization, following partial exaptation of the Latin demonstrative ille, which involves progressive widening without significant loss of function, the rendering of overt distinctions which were previously covert through the contrast between definite article, indefinite article and the “zero„ determiner, the creation of new expressive possibilities and the facilitating of further distinctions in the grammatical system in combination with other determiners (usage with possessives, demonstratives and tal is examined).

The concept or category of determinateness finds its grammaticalization in the category of definiteness. Beginning from the dialectical configuration of reality, which finds its linguistic expression in such features that, in componential analysis, are marked as "plus" (+) or "minus" (-), the formal indicator of definiteness will be juxtaposed with equivalents for the corresponding point/segment at the opposite end of the axis. In the established system of the Macedonian language, indefiniteness may be expressed simply by the absence of a marker; by indefinite pronouns, and, in particular, by one and someone (eden and nekoj), which in terms of definiteness/indefiniteness are counterparts of sorts to the article (the definite article as an exponent of positive marking of definiteness in Macedonian); finally, in certain cases, absence of definiteness may be related to the nonreferentiality of noun syntagmas or to ontological meanings. The above-mentioned cases can be classified according to: a) their syntactic function; b) the addressor's/addressee's knowledge of the referent (obligatory use of one [eden]/someone [nekoj]]; c) their non-referentiality (either in reality or in the text)/denotation/genericity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]