1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910557280903321

Autore

Czardybon Adrian

Titolo

Definiteness in a Language without Articles - A Study on Polish / / Adrian Czardybon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

De Gruyter, 2021

Düsseldorf : , : düsseldorf university press, , [2017]

©2021

ISBN

3-11-072042-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (268 p.)

Collana

Dissertations in Language and Cognition

Soggetti

LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / General

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Theoretical basis -- 3 Demonstratives -- 4 Aspect -- 5 Differential object marking and case alternation -- 6 Information structure -- 7 Conclusion -- Appendix: The distribution of the Slavic determiners under investigation -- References

Sommario/riassunto

The aim of this book is to investigate how definiteness is expressed in Polish, a language which is claimed to have no definite and in-definite articles. The central question is how the difference in definiteness is indicated between 'a woman' and 'the woman' in Polish. In English, the definite article 'the' and the indefinite article 'a' express the category of definiteness explicitly. Since definiteness is also relevant in articleless languages, there are other means to indicate that a nominal phrase is definite or indefinite. This study is delimited to four means for expressing definiteness in Polish, which are demonstratives, aspect, case alternation, and information structure. Each strategy is investigated independently from the others, although they interact in a complex way, which is shown at the end of this book resulting in a decision tree. Polish is not investigated in isolation, however, the study is complemented by comparisons with other Slavic languages and also with a Polish dialect called 'Upper Silesian', which differs from Polish. The analysis in this book is based on Löbner's theory of 'Concept Types



and Determination' (CTD). Löbner's distinction of the four concept types (sortal, relational, functional, individual) is crucial since definiteness phenomena under discussion can be explained. Therefore, the interaction of the four concept types with the four definiteness strategies plays a central role in this book. This series explores issues of mental representation, linguistic structure and representation, and their interplay. The research presented in this series is grounded in the idea explored in the Collaborative Research Center 'The structure of representations in language, cognition and science' (SFB 991) that there is a universal format for the representation of linguistic and cognitive concepts.