Journal articles: 'Definite Article'

1

Rastall, Paul. "Definite article or no definite article?" English Today 11, no. 2 (April 1995): 37–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266078400008257.

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Jenks, Peter. "Articulated Definiteness without Articles." Linguistic Inquiry 49, no. 3 (July 2018): 501–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00280.

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While it lacks a definite article, Mandarin makes a principled distinction between unique and anaphoric definites: unique definites are realized with a bare noun, and anaphoric definites are realized with a demonstrative, except in subject position. The following proposals account for these facts: (a) bare nouns achieve definite interpretations via a last-resort type-shifting operator ι, which has a unique definite meaning; (b) demonstratives can occur as anaphoric definites because they have a semantic argument beyond their nominal restriction that can be filled by an index; and (c) bare nominal subjects are topics. A principle called Index! requires that indexical expressions be used whenever possible. Mandarin is contrasted with Cantonese, which, like English, is shown to have access to an ambiguous definite article.

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3

Swan, Michael. "The definite article." New Scientist 212, no. 2834 (October 2011): 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(11)62528-1.

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Paliga, Sorin. "Romanian definite article revisited." Linguistica 39, no. 1 (December 1, 1999): 71–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/linguistica.39.1.71-82.

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I shall attempt to resume a long, almost endless discussion: the origin of the Romanian definite article. Any grammar of Romanian or any comparative grammar the Romance languages (e. g. Tagliavini 1977) always observes that Romanian, an iso lated case in the Romance family, has an agglutinated definite article. The typology is not indeed rare: Bulgarian, Albanian, Armenian, Basque and Swedish witness the same mechanism. We cannot approach the topic by analysing all these languages, yet a comparative analysis would be finally useful. In our case, it is obvious that Romanian cannot be isolated from Albanian and Bulgarian. A potential solution must explain the situation in ALL these three "Balkanic" languages, even if Romanian is not Balkanic stricto sensu1. The paper shall focus on the deep roots of the Romanian and Albanian definite arti cle, its typological relations with other linguistic areas, and shall attempt to explain this isolated situation in the field of Romance linguistics. For sure, the Romanian definite article mainly reflects the Latin heritage. Nevertheless, by saying only this, the tableau is not complete: some forms are not Latin but Pre-Latin, Thracian. This paper will try to substantiate this assertion.

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Espinal, M. Teresa, and Sonia Cyrino. "The definite article in Romance expletives and long weak definites." Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2, no. 1 (March 30, 2017): 23. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.160.

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6

Percus, Orin. "A Somewhat More Definite Article." Semantics and Linguistic Theory 8 (October 6, 1998): 185. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/salt.v8i0.2815.

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7

Appleyard, D. L. "A definite article in Xamtanga." African Languages and Cultures 1, no. 1 (January 1988): 15–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09544168808717677.

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8

Payne, D., K. Abbasi, F. Godlee, and T. Delamothe. "The BMJ, the definite article." BMJ 348, jun30 2 (June 30, 2014): g4168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4168.

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9

Velickovic, Marta. "Specificity, definiteness, and l2 article production in the l1 serbian /l2 english linguistic environment." Forum 1, no. 1-2 (December 2019): 153–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.46793/forum19.153v.

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Since little research exists on English L2 article production in the Serbian linguistic environment, the goal of this descriptive study was to identify anytrends in L2 article production,as they pertain to definiteness and specificity (following Ionin et al., 2004). In order to measure this production, four contexts were defined based on the following two semantic features: [±specific] and [±definite]. Considering that Serbian is a language with no article system, and a language that codes specificity (Trenkic 2002, 2004), unlikeEnglish which codes definiteness, combinations of these features should indicate particular contexts that may not only identify any possible patterns in the L2 article production of this segment of the population, but also prove useful as a foundation for further research, and the study of the effects that information of this kind could have on L2 instruction. Based on the findings of previous research, most article substitution and article omission errors are expected in the [+definite, ‐specific] and [‐definite, +specific] contexts. The current results indicated that the sample of participants has a strong tendency of overusing the definite article with indefinites, and to a lesser extent the indefinite article with definites. Furthermore, some unexpected fluctuations were noted in the [+definite +specific] and [‐ definite ‐specific] contexts, indicating that the participants have not yet consistently adopted either the category definiteness or specificity.

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10

Min, Sujung. "Definite Article Usage in Asian Context." Journal of Modern British and American Language and Literature 32, no. 3 (August 31, 2014): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.21084/jmball.2014.08.32.3.1.

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11

Arkoh, Ruby, and Lisa Matthewson. "A familiar definite article in Akan." Lingua 123 (January 2013): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.09.012.

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12

Beardon, Colin. "A definite or an indefinite article?" Digital Creativity 13, no. 3 (September 2002): 189–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/digc.13.3.189.7343.

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13

Renaud, F. "The definite article: code and context." Journal of Semantics 13, no. 2 (May 1, 1996): 139–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jos/13.2.139.

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14

Lipovšek, Frančiška. "Misconceptions about Article Use in English." ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries 3, no. 1-2 (June 20, 2006): 99–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/elope.3.1-2.99-113.

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The paper addresses some major misconceptions about article use in English, proceeding from purely syntactic issues to those relating directly to pragmatics. It is based on authentic, perfectly acceptable examples of article use that many Slovenian students of English would describe as ‘odd’ or ‘not in accordance with the rules’. The students’ explanations as to why the examples in question should be ruled out confirm the hypothesis that misconceptions about article use are largely ascribable to an insufficient understanding of grammatical rules. The rules governing article use are often misunderstood due to inaccurate interpretations of the terms defining/restrictive, definite, identifying, specifying, classifying, etc. The commonest mistake is equating defining with definite, and defining/restrictive with identifying, the consequence being the overuse of the definite article. Another important point made in the paper is that article use is a matter of pragmatics. The choice between the definite and indefinite articles reflects the speaker’s decision to present a piece of information as hearer-old or hearer-new respectively.

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15

Crosthwaite, Peter. "L2 English article use by L1 speakers of article-less languages." International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 2, no. 1 (July 8, 2016): 68–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.2.1.03cro.

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This paper adopts the Integrated Contrastive Model (Granger 1996) to an examination of the use of articles in the L2 English written production of L1 speakers of three article-less languages (Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Thai) across four L2 proficiency levels. Data is sourced from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE; Ishikawa 2011, 2013), comprising 575 written essays totalling 125,588 words across two writing prompts. Accuracy of zero, indefinite and definite articles is measured using Pica’s (1983) Target Language Use across Bickerton’s (1981) semantic/pragmatic article contexts (generic, specific definite, specific indefinite and non-specific indefinite). The results show two different orders of article accuracy depending on L1 background, as well as effects of writing prompt on the accuracy of certain article forms, and evidence of pseudo-longitudinal development for particular article usages as L2 proficiency increases, although not in all cases. Massive overproduction of indefinite/definite articles in generic contexts is problematic for all three L2 groups regardless of L1 background and L2 proficiency. However, Mandarin L2 English users appear to enjoy a significant advantage in L2 article accuracy over Korean or Thai L2 English users in almost all contexts of use and L2 proficiency levels, providing further potential evidence that the often reported grammaticalisation of definiteness/specificity markers in L1 Mandarin is aiding Mandarin L2 English users’ acquisition of the English article system.

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Ionin, Tania, Soondo Baek, Eunah Kim, Heejeong Ko, and Kenneth Wexler. "That’s not so different fromthe: Definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition." Second Language Research 28, no. 1 (January 2012): 69–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658311432200.

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This article investigates how adult Korean-speaking learners of English interpret English definite descriptions ( the book, the books) and demonstrative descriptions ( that book, those books). Korean lacks articles, but has demonstratives, and it is hypothesized that transfer leads learners to (initially) equate definites with demonstratives. Following J Hawkins (1991) , Roberts (2002) and Wolter (2006) , it is assumed that definite and demonstrative descriptions have the same central semantics of uniqueness, but differ in the domain relative to which uniqueness is computed: while the book denotes the unique book in the discourse, that book denotes the unique book in the immediately salient situation. A written elicited production task and a picture-based comprehension task are used to examine whether Korean-speaking learners of English are aware of this distinction. The results indicate that learners distinguish definites and demonstratives, but not as strongly as native English speakers; low-proficiency learners are particularly likely to interpret definite descriptions analogously to demonstrative descriptions, in both tasks. These results pose interesting conceptual and methodological questions for further research into the second language acquisition of article semantics.

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Scatton, Ernest A., and Gerald L. Mayer. "The Definite Article in Contemporary Standard Bulgarian." Slavic and East European Journal 33, no. 4 (1989): 635. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/308307.

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18

WAHID, RIDWAN. "Definite article usage across varieties of English." World Englishes 32, no. 1 (February 21, 2013): 23–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/weng.12002.

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19

KOLLIAKOU, DIMITRA. "Monadic definites and polydefinites: their form, meaning and use." Journal of Linguistics 40, no. 2 (July 2004): 263–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226704002531.

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This paper focuses on two types of definites in Greek – MONADICS and POLYDEFINITES – and provides a constraint-based account of their form, meaning and use. Specifically, I discuss three core issues that have not been addressed in previous work. First, the special pragmatic import of polydefinites. These are associated with contextual constraints that go beyond the uniqueness entailments of standard (monadic) definites. Their idiosyncratic morphosyntax achieves effects similar to those induced in other languages solely by prosodic means and illustrated by phenomena subsumed within the term DEACCENTING. Second, the morphosyntax of definites. I argue that the Greek definite article can be best analysed as a PHRASALAFFIX, and provide a composition approach in the spirit of previous work couched in HPSG. Monadics and polydefinites are treated uniformly, without positing unmotivated complexity in the grammar for deriving the form of the latter. The definite concord and linear order facts that pose problems for previous analyses are directly derived and the morphosyntactic affinity between the Greek definite article and ‘weak form’ possessive is straightforwardly captured. Third, the semantics of definites. A quantificational semantics is provided that ensures that the semantic content of the definite article in polydefinites is integrated into the meaning of the sentence just once. Polydefinites are, therefore, semantically identical to monadics; the special import of the former originates from a contextual constraint on the anchoring of the index that interacts with the common morphosyntactic and semantic basis.

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20

Veličković, Marta. "ENGLISH L2 DEFINITE ARTICLE INSTRUCTION AT THE SERBIAN L1 TERTIARY LEVEL." Facta Universitatis, Series: Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, no. 1 (January 23, 2020): 197. http://dx.doi.org/10.22190/futlte1902197v.

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The study has two main goals: to assess in part the effects of current definite article instruction at the tertiary level in the Serbian L1/English L2 environment, and to analyze whether the use of the definite article in English could be represented by figure/ground alignment in the instruction process. One of the questionnaires used (consisting of fill-in-the-blank tasks) was meant to rate the participants’ L2 definite article production in the contexts for its obligatory use. Another questionnaire consisted of illustrations of figure/ground alignment as cues for a translation task meant to assess whether the definite article would be used in situations where the referent of choice was presented as the figure. An analysis of the data indicated that the participants, who displayed various levels of knowledge of definite article use on the first questionnaire, scored identical (successful) results when establishing a link between the use of the definite article and figure/ground alignment. These results could prove useful for innovating the L2 instruction process in the Serbian L1/English L2 environment.

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Faust, Noam, Nicola Lampitelli, and Shanti Ulfsbjorninn. "Articles of Italian unite! Italian definite articles without allomorphy." Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 63, no. 3 (April 13, 2018): 359–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cnj.2018.8.

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AbstractThis article examines the various realizations of the Italian definite article and concludes, against all previous accounts of this phenomenon, that neither the singular nor the plural realizations constitute a case of allomorphy stricto sensu. Significantly extending Larsen's (1998) analysis, the paper argues that all of the realizations of the definite article, including the problematic [i] and [ʎi], share a single underlying representation. It is proposed that the definite article is associated with a template with separate sites for definiteness and φ-features. It is further argued that [ʎ] is not a primitive entity in Italian; rather, it emerges from a very specific configuration in which /i/ and /l/ are conjoined and followed by a second realized vowel /i/. The templatic and segmental decompositions yield a morphologically unified analysis in which all of the realizations of the definite article are based on a single lexical representation followed by the application of regular phonology.

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22

Krug, Manfred, and Christopher Lucas. "Definite article (omission) in British, Maltese, and other Englishes." STUF - Language Typology and Universals 71, no. 2 (June 7, 2018): 261–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2018-0012.

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Abstract This article investigates factors that underlie the discrepancies in article omission between Maltese English (MaltE) and British English (BrE), with reference to further ENL, ESL and EFL varieties. We investigate seasons of the year, ordinal numbers, languages, proper nouns, titles, institutions and common nouns. Our sources include text corpora, and web and questionnaire-based data. Our key proposal is that MaltE has innovated a rule that the definite article may be omitted when the uniqueness or identifiability of a referent is salient in context. Furthermore, MaltE avoids the definite article commonly when the referent is generic rather than definite. The resulting MaltE system is regulated according to fewer parameters than in BrE, but more consistently.

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23

Ward, Gregory, Christopher Ahern, and Tom Hayden. "An Empirical Investigation of Typicality and Uniqueness Effects on Article Choice in Attributive-Possession NPs." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 36, no. 1 (August 24, 2010): 472. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v36i1.3931.

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In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:Previous analyses of the use of English definite descriptions have generally taken one of two approaches, loosely characterizable as familiarity and uniqueness. That is, felicitous use of the definite article has been argued to require that the referent of the NP be either known to the hearer within the current context of utterance (e.g. Heim 1983, Prince 1992) or uniquely identifiable to the hearer (e.g. Gundel et al. 1993, Birner & Ward 1994, inter alia). What is common to all previous analyses is that the explanatory principle is presented as categorical; i.e. a referent is familiar or not, unique or not. There is generally no provision for gradience within the theory. In what follows we will investigate how familiarity- and uniqueness-based accounts of definiteness fare in accounting for the class of EMBEDDED DEFINITES known as ATTRIBUTIVE-POSSESSION constructions (McKercher 2001) and how the gradient notion of typicality impacts article choice in these constructions.

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Ulfsbjorninn, Shanti. "Segment–zero alternations in Galician definite article allomorphy." Acta Linguistica Academica 67, no. 1 (March 2020): 155–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/2062.2020.00011.

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AbstractGalician presents an intriguing case of opaque phonologically-conditioned definite article allomorphy (PCA). Though Galician features in the general literature on PCA (Nevins 2011), there is a surprising lack of synchronic theoretical discussion of this specific pattern. The data appears to require allomorph selection arranged in a system of Priority (Mascaró 2005; Bonet et al. 2003; 2007). The pattern involves opaque segment ‘deletion’ and resyllabification, where segment deletion counterbleeds allomorph insertion along with morphologically-specific segmental changes. A Strict CV representational reanalysis is proposed in which there is no true allomorphy (no selection between competing underlying morphemes). All the forms are generated from a single underlying form, thereby undercutting PRIORITY.

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조윤경. "Presuppositional Asymmetry Associated with the English Definite Article." Journal of Studies in Language 25, no. 4 (February 2010): 833–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.18627/jslg.25.4.201002.833.

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26

Livingstone, A. "An early attestation of the Arabic definite article." Journal of Semitic Studies 42, no. 2 (September 1, 1997): 258–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jss/42.2.258.

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LIVINGSTONE, A. "AN EARLY ATTESTATION OF THE ARABIC DEFINITE ARTICLE." Journal of Semitic Studies XLII, no. 2 (January 1, 1997): 259–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jss/xlii.2.259.

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28

BARR, JAMES. "‘DETERMINATION’ AND THE DEFINITE ARTICLE IN BIBLICAL HEBREW." Journal of Semitic Studies XXXIV, no. 2 (1989): 307–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jss/xxxiv.2.307.

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29

Halpern, Aaron. "The Balkan Definite Article and Pseudo-Second Position." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 18, no. 1 (August 25, 1992): 338. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v18i1.1593.

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30

Birner, Betty, and Gregory Ward. "Uniqueness, Familiarity, and the Definite Article in English." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 20, no. 1 (October 25, 1994): 93. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v20i1.1479.

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31

Browne, Glenda. "The definite article: acknowledging ‘The’ in index entries." Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing 22, no. 3 (April 1, 2001): 119–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/indexer.2001.22.3.4.

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This article examines rules and practice relating to the filing of ‘The’ at the beginning of index entries, recommending that the definite article should be accorded more respect, and be considered in filing when the nature of the index entry warrants it.

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32

Kraiss, Andrew. "The Evolution of the Definite Article in Old High German." Journal of Germanic Linguistics 26, no. 2 (May 19, 2014): 127–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542714000038.

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This paper is an investigation of the early use of the Old High German demonstrative as a definite article. Previous work has often failed to take into account the many ways that the definite article can be employed or the fact that new grammatical structures sometimes evolve over great lengths of time. This paper discusses the evolutionary process and stages of article use in three individual OHG documents, the Isidor translation, the Tatian translation, and Otfrid's Evangelien-buch, the three longest OHG documents in Franconian dialects. It proposes that a definite article did exist from the earliest recorded examples of OHG although with differing uses at different times (and places).*

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33

Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg, and Ron Zacharski. "Definite descriptions and cognitive status in English: why accommodation is unnecessary." English Language and Linguistics 5, no. 2 (September 25, 2001): 273–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1360674301000247.

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A commonly held view of English definite articles is that they signal that the referent of an NP is familiar to the addressee. However, it is well known that not all definite article phrases meet this familiarity requirement. To account for such nonfamiliar uses, Heim (1982) invokes the mechanism of ‘accommodation’, which enables an addressee to remedy a violation of the familiarity requirement by adding assumptions to the ‘common ground’. In this article we argue that the Givenness Hierarchy framework provides an insightful account of all uses of definite article phrases without requiring an appeal to accommodation. Such an account provides a unified treatment of definite article phrases, including demonstrative phrases and personal pronouns, while at the same time distinguishing among them in a principled way. This proposal is supported by results of a corpus-based examination of the use of definite articles and by an examination of cleft presuppositions.

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Kupreyev, Maxim. "The Origins and Development of the Definite Article in Egyptian-Coptic." Studies in Ancient Art and Civilisation 18 (December 30, 2014): 223–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.12797/saac.18.2014.18.14.

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The first appearance of the emphatic demonstratives pA/tA/nA in northern Egyptian letters of the 6th Dynasty and their absence from southern Egyptian sources indicates the growing difference between the language variants spoken in these broadly defined regions. Originating from the Old Egyptian pronominal stems p-/t-/n-, the use of these new demonstratives expands rapidly during the Middle Kingdom. In their weak form as definite articles, they indicate that a noun is knownin discourse and thus signal a hitherto hidden grammatical category – definiteness. Once the definite article is grammaticalised and starts to be used with a priori definite nouns such as pA nTr wa ‘the sole god’ or pA HqA ‘the ruler’ (18th Dynasty), the indefinite article appears. The further development in Demotic and Coptic shows that the article was on the way to becoming a noun marker. When attached to a relative phrase, it created a new noun, which could be further determined (xenpetnanouf ‘some good deeds’, ppetouaab ‘the saint’). The following article traces the regional origins of the definite article as well as the main principles governing their development.

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Dubert-García, Francisco. "Syntax and word-specific phonetics: the origins of the allomorphs of the Galician definite article." Loquens 1, no. 2 (December 30, 2014): e013. http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/loquens.2014.013.

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Majidova, Leyla. "Determiners used with definite and non-definite noun phrases in English language." Scientific Bulletin 2 (2020): 119–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.54414/vefq2416.

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In this article determiners used with definite and non-definite noun phrases in English language are studied. Determiners are words or phrases that precede a noun or noun phrase and serve to express its reference in the context. There are different kinds of determiners and each one serves a different function. These types include articles, quantifiers, demonstratives, possessives, and interrogatives.

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37

Chrabaszcz, Anna, and Nan Jiang. "The role of the native language in the use of the English nongeneric definite article by L2 learners: A cross-linguistic comparison." Second Language Research 30, no. 3 (June 3, 2014): 351–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658313493432.

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The study uses an elicited imitation (EI) task to examine the effect of the native language on the use of the English nongeneric definite article by highly proficient first-language (L1) Spanish and Russian speakers and to test the hierarchy of article difficulty first proposed by Liu and Gleason (2002). Our findings suggest that there is a clear influence of L1 on participants’ reproduction of the second-language (L2) definite article in nongeneric contexts, but that various contexts present different levels of difficulty for the two L1 groups. The participants whose L1 is Spanish – a language with an article system – perform at a native-like level of accuracy in the grammatical condition of the test, whereas the participants whose L1 is Russian – a language without articles – demonstrate a tendency to omit definite articles in the same contexts. In the ungrammatical condition, Spanish speakers differ from the native speaker control group in their suppliance of the definite article in conventional and cultural contexts, while Russian participants supply the definite article significantly less than both the Spanish participants and the control group along all article categories. The study offers novel insights into what constitutes article difficulty for L2 learners from different L1s.

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Biswas, Priyanka. "Reanalyzing Definiteness in Bangla." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 38 (September 25, 2012): 19. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v38i0.3270.

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<p>Definite descriptions in Bangla are expressed via two morpho-syntactic patterns, namely the bare classifier and the bare noun, discussed in detail in Simpson et al. 2011. The bare classifier form consists of a noun phrase and a classifier without a numeral, syntactically derived by NP-movement across the classifier (“NP-raising”). In the bare noun form, there is no classifier or a numeral accompanying the NP. In this paper, I argue that two factors, “anaphoricity” and “uniqueness”, play important roles in the selection of the pattern of the definite expression in Bangla. The NP-raising structure is used exclusively in anaphoric contexts, and shows similar properties to “strong article” definites cross-linguistically (cf. Schwarz 2009). Uniqueness-based definites are expressed by bare nouns, which are otherwise similar in distribution to the “weak article” definites (Schwarz 2009). This paper contributes to our overall understanding of definiteness in Bangla, and of the cross-linguistic expression of anaphoricity and uniqueness aspects of definiteness.</p>

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EL AMRINI, Hafıda. "THE MOST IMPORTANT STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PROPERTIES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE." International Journal of Humanities and Educational Research 03, no. 02 (April 1, 2021): 12–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.47832/2757-5403.2-3.2.

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The defining and non-defining of words have been thoroughly studied and analyzed in the ancient grammar given their link to all the aspects of the Arabic language, and to most of the different grammatical rules. As for some modern linguistic studies, it has studied the properties of the structure and meaning of speech and its connection with semantic and instrumental meanings and functions, in which the context plays a fundamental role in the selection of its characteristics such as singularisation , trust and designation ... In this research, we aim to study some of the structural and semantic properties of the definite article and its role in imparting contextual and discursive factors within the semantic approach. Based on the foregoing, the problematic of this research can be identified in the following central question: How did some semantic and exclusivist approaches address the concept of definition? And what this question calls for in terms of sub-questions can be defined in: -What are the most important perspectives that are concerned with the meaning of the definite article and the function it performs? - What are the roles that the definite article plays and its contribution to achieving a set of meanings of significance and excuses? We will answer these questions through the conclusions reached, perhaps the most important of which is that the definite article can be discussed according to different perspectives: structural, semantic, and proximate, and the behavior that the definite uses in relation to achieving several connotations is mainly related to what is an excuse and rhetorical that is of interest to this contextual relationship between the speaker and the listener.

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Anastasia Khain. "The definite article in Spanish as a polysemous category." Journal of Cognitive Science 18, no. 3 (September 2017): 255–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.17791/jcs.2017.18.3.255.

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Keydeniers, Darlene, Jeanne Eliazer, and Jeannette Schaeffer. "Definite-indefinite article choice development in Dutch child language." Linguistics in the Netherlands 34 (November 23, 2017): 93–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/avt.34.07key.

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Abstract Many acquisition studies indicate that across languages, children overgenerate definite articles in indefinite contexts. However, proportions and ages at which children make this error vary, and so do theoretical accounts. Attempting to resolve some of the mixed results, we combined the methods of two different studies (Schaeffer & Matthewson 2005 (SM) and van Hout, Harrigan & de Villiers 2010 (HHV)) and administered them to one group of 82 Dutch-acquiring children aged 2–9 and adult controls (N = 23).1 The results show that definite article overuse takes place in (a) only the youngest age group (2;1–3;7) in the relevant SM indefinite condition, (b) only the two oldest child groups (6;0–9;4) in the HHV indefinite condition, and (c) adults score at ceiling in the SM conditions, while only around 70% correct in the HHV conditions. We argue that (a) the indefinite conditions of the two article choice experiments test different types of knowledge, and therefore their results cannot be compared, (b) the HHV task has more methodological drawbacks than the SM task, rendering its results difficult to interpret, and (c) the results provide less evidence for HHV’s unranked-constraint hypothesis than for SM’s lack-of-Concept-of-Non-Shared-Assumptions hypothesis.

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Agranat, Tatiana. "The definite article in Votic: the process of grammaticalisation." Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics 6, no. 1 (June 9, 2015): 41–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2015.6.1.03.

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The paper is devoted to the grammaticalisation of the deictic pronoun se into a definite article in Votic. The author traces this process diachronically demonstrating the results of her studies with the examples of a folktale written down by August Ahlqvist in the middle of the 19th century, and of a text written down by herself at the beginning of the 21st century. The reason for article-like usage of se in Votic narrative in the 19th century seems to be the same as in Finnish narratives in the 19th century, as we can judge from Laury (1991): NPs that are prefaced with se have references that are important in some way for the narrative. In modern Votic se lost its function of marking NPs as prominent and became the marker of identifiability. The author draws the conclusion that the grammaticalisation of se in Votic is not yet completed, because se is not compulsory.

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Fendley, Paul. "Comment: Five problems in physics without the definite article." Science News 176, no. 2 (October 9, 2009): 32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/scin.5591760223.

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Cirillo, Chiara. "'Corti' or 'la Corti'? Definite article + surnames for women." Italianist 18, no. 1 (June 1998): 272–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/ita.1998.18.1.272.

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Ross, Jillian, and Jaeshil Kim. "Revisiting the Hebrew Definite Article: A Reference Hierarchy Model." Journal of Semitic Studies 67, no. 1 (February 1, 2022): 1–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgab023.

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Abstract The presence of the article ha on Hebrew noun phrases has long been considered the signal for marking definiteness. Scholars have traditionally explained exceptional cases either within the category of definiteness or by genericity. Applying the cross-linguistically conceived ‘reference hierarchy model’ to ha-marked noun phrases in the Book of Judges has revealed that the article ha can also mark specificity, a referential category often associated with indefiniteness in the literature of Biblical Hebrew. In fact, many of Biblical Hebrew’s exceptions fall within this category. These exceptions display a pattern: the ha- marking for specificity is not determined by features within the noun phrase but rather outside of it. They are licensed by a small set of verb types, preposition and sentential moods.

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MONTRUL, SILVINA, and TANIA IONIN. "Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13, no. 4 (September 1, 2010): 449–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728910000040.

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This study investigates the role of transfer from the stronger language by focusing on the interpretation of definite articles in Spanish and English by Spanish heritage speakers (i.e., minority language-speaking bilinguals) residing in the U.S., where English is the majority language. Spanish plural NPs with definite articles can express generic reference (Los elefantes tienen colmillos de marfil), or specific reference (Los elefantes de este zoológico son marrones). English plurals with definite articles can only have specific reference (The elephants in this zoo are brown), while generic reference is expressed with bare plural NPs (Elephants have ivory tusks). Furthermore, the Spanish definite article is preferred in inalienable possession constructions (Pedro levantó la mano “Peter raised the hand”), whereas in English the use of a definite article typically means that the body part belongs to somebody else (alienable possession). Twenty-three adult Spanish heritage speakers completed three tasks in Spanish (acceptability judgment, truth-value judgment, and picture–sentence matching tasks) and the same three tasks in English. Results show that the Spanish heritage speakers exhibited transfer from English into Spanish with the interpretation of definite articles in generic but not in inalienable possession contexts. Implications of this finding for the field of heritage language research and for theories of article semantics are discussed.

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Talavira, Nataliia. "English orientating constructions denoting location: classification and article use." Lingua Posnaniensis 59, no. 2 (December 1, 2017): 101–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/linpo-2017-0015.

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Abstract The paper singles out English orientating constructions which refer to constant coordinates meant to position situational changeable entities, e.g. at eye level, on hand, in part, in detail. The analysis of constructions denoting location reveals their entrenchment in mind in the basic – articleless – form representing situation coordinates on the superordinate categorization level. Orientating constructions have two discursive variants depending upon the article in their structure: definite and indefinite. The definite article refers to the reference points imposed by a particular situation which is signalled by the combination of orientating and extending constructions while the indefinite article points to the establishment of new coordinates.

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Bombi, Carla. "Definiteness in Akan: Familiarity and uniqueness revisited." Semantics and Linguistic Theory 28 (October 15, 2018): 141. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/salt.v28i0.4406.

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In the recent semantic literature, Akan is viewed as a language that distinguishes between uniqueness definites and familiarity definites (Schwarz 2009, 2013), following a proposal by Arkoh & Matthewson (2013). Based on a re-examination of previous evidence and on novel fieldwork data, this paper argues that this distinction is not supported in Akan. A novel analysis is put forward, in which the overt determiners in this language have a similar distribution to that of English the and that. Differences between English the and the Akan article nó are attributed to the availability of a definite bare noun, which is a competitor to the overt definite in Akan. The paper shows that definiteness distinctions cannot always be reduced to a uniqueness–familiarity dichotomy, and points to a more articulated view of definites cross-linguistically.

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FILIPOVIĆ, LUNA, and JOHN A. HAWKINS. "English article usage as a window on the meanings ofsame,identicalandsimilar." English Language and Linguistics 20, no. 2 (May 11, 2016): 295–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1360674316000083.

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We propose an explanation for a traditional puzzle in English linguistics involving the use of articles with the nominal modifierssame,identicalandsimilar.Samecan only take the definite articlethe, whereasidenticalandsimilartake eithertheora. We argue that there is a fundamental difference in the manner in which a comparison is made with these modifiers.Identicalandsimilarinvolve direct comparisons between at least two entities and an assertion of either full property matching (identical), or partial property matching (similar). The comparison withsameproceeds differently: what is compared is not linguistic entities directly, but definite descriptions of these entities that can be derived through logical entailments.John and Mary live in the same houseentailsthe house that John lives in is the (same) house that Mary lives in. There must be a pragmatic equivalence between these entailed definite descriptions, ranging from full referential equivalence to a possibly quite minimal overlap in semantic and real-world properties shared by distinct referents. These differences in meaning and article co-occurrence reveal the sensitivity of syntax to semantic and pragmatic properties, without which all and only the grammatical sentences of a language cannot be predicted.

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Jones, Mark J. "The origin of Definite Article Reduction in northern English dialects: evidence from dialect allomorphy." English Language and Linguistics 6, no. 2 (October 10, 2002): 325–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1360674302000266.

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The phenomenon of Definite Article Reduction (DAR) is the realization of the definite article in northern British English dialects in a range of vowel-less forms, usually written t' in literature. The origin of DAR is assumed to be the assimilation of the initial fricative of the Middle English definite article þe to produce a te form, a sound change recorded for many dialects of Middle English. This article examines the validity of this hypothesis by analysing the distribution of fricative allomorphs in the modern dialects in comparison with the details of the Middle English change. The predicted distribution of fricative forms is not found at most localities, indicating that the development hypothesis is incorrect, but the available data are too scanty to suggest an alternative model.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Definite Article'

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