1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820210003321

Titolo

Determiners : universals and variation / / edited by Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul, Martina Wiltschko

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, Pa. ; ; Amsterdam, : John Benjamins Pub. Company, c2009

ISBN

1-282-39545-9

9786612395451

90-272-8895-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

247 p

Collana

Linguistik aktuell/Linguistics today, , 0166-0829 ; ; v. 147

Altri autori (Persone)

GhomeshiJila

PaulIleana

WiltschkoMartina

Disciplina

415

Soggetti

Grammar, Comparative and general - Determiners

Definiteness (Linguistics)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Determiners: universals and variation / Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul & Martina Wiltschko -- Part I. The features of determiners: what's in a determiner and how did it get there? / Martina Wiltschko -- The proper D connection / Jila Ghomeshi & Diane Massam -- Argumenthood, pronouns, and nominal feature geometry / Elizabeth Cowper & Daniel Currie Hall -- Part II. The function of determiners: from local blocking to Cyclic Agree: the role and meaning of determiners in the history of French / Eric Mathieu -- Kinds of predicates and reference to kinds in Hebrew / Keren Tonciulescu -- Part III. Definiteness and beyond: on the presence versus absence of determiners in Malagasy / Ileana Paul -- The semantic core of determiners: evidence from Skwxwú7mesh / Carrie Gillon.

Sommario/riassunto

This article explores definiteness as expressed by the determiner system of Malagasy. In particular, noun phrases with and without an overt determiner are compared in terms of familiarity, uniqueness, and other semantic notions commonly associated with definiteness. It is shown that the determiner does not uniformly signal definiteness (as typically understood) and that bare noun phrases can be interpreted as



either definite or indefinite. The determiner instead signals the familiarity of the discourse referent of the DP and the absence of a determiner signals a non-familiar DP. In certain syntactic positions, however, where the determiner is either required or banned, the interpretation of DPs is underdetermined.