Narrow your search

Library

KBR (1)

KU Leuven (1)

LUCA School of Arts (1)

Odisee (1)

Thomas More Kempen (1)

Thomas More Mechelen (1)

UCLouvain (1)

UCLL (1)

UGent (1)

ULiège (1)

More...

Resource type

book (1)


Language

English (1)


Year
From To Submit

1999 (1)

Listing 1 - 1 of 1
Sort by
Definiteness
Author:
ISBN: 1107111552 0511009984 1280416556 0511172362 0511150881 0511310374 0511605781 051105243X 9780511009983 051103721X 9780511037214 9780511150883 9780521362825 0521362822 9780511605789 9786610416554 6610416559 0521368359 9780521368353 9781107111554 9781280416552 9780511172366 9780511310379 Year: 1999 Publisher: Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press,

Loading...
Export citation

Choose an application

Bookmark

Abstract

This 1999 textbook investigates definiteness both from a comparative and a theoretical point of view, showing how languages express definiteness and what definiteness is. It surveys a large number of languages to discover the range of variation in relation to definiteness and related grammatical phenomena, such as demonstratives, possessives and personal pronouns. It outlines work done on the nature of definiteness in semantics, pragmatics and syntax, and develops an account on which definiteness is a grammatical category represented in syntax as a functional head (the widely discussed D). Consideration is also given to the origins and evolution of definite articles in the light of the comparative and theoretical findings. Among the claims advanced are that definiteness does not occur in all languages, though the pragmatic concept which it grammaticalizes probably does.

Listing 1 - 1 of 1
Sort by