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In linguistics, definiteness is a
semantic feature A semantic feature is a component of the concept associated with a lexical item ('female' + 'performer' = 'actress'). More generally, it can also be a component of the concept associated with any grammatical unit, whether composed or not ('female' + ...
of noun phrases, distinguishing between
referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, ...
s or
senses A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...
that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical definite noun phrase picks out a unique, familiar, specific referent such as ''the sun'' or ''Australia'', as opposed to indefinite examples like ''an idea'' or ''some fish''. There is considerable variation in the expression of definiteness across languages, and some languages such as Japanese do not generally mark it so that the same expression could be definite in some contexts and indefinite in others. In other languages, such as English, it is usually marked by the selection of
determiner A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
(e.g., ''the'' vs ''a''). In still other languages, such as Danish, definiteness is marked morphologically.


Definiteness as a grammatical category

There are times when a grammatically marked definite NP is not in fact identifiable. For example, ''the polar bear's habitat is the arctic'' does not refer to a unique, familiar, specific bear, in an example of a
form-meaning mismatch In linguistics, a form-meaning mismatch is a natural mismatch between the grammatical form and its expected meaning. Such form-meaning mismatches happen everywhere in language. Nevertheless, there is often an expectation of a one-to-one relation ...
. "The theoretical distinction between grammatical definiteness and cognitive identifiability has the advantage of enabling us to distinguish between a discrete (grammatical) and a non-discrete (cognitive) category." . 84/sup>


Use in different languages


English

In English, definiteness is usually marked by the selection of
determiner A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
. Certain determiners, such as ''a'', ''an'', ''many'', and ''some'', along with numbers (e.g., ''four items''), typically mark a noun phrase as indefinite. Others, including ''the'', ''that'', and
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
noun phrases (e.g., ''my brother'') typically mark the noun phrase as definite. A number of tests have been proposed to distinguish definite from indefinite noun phrases. "Each has a foundation in intuition, as well as some degree of grammatical effect. However, it is not clear that any of them corresponds cleanly to formal categories." #If a noun phrase can be put into an existential clause such as ''there is'' noun phrase ''at the door'' (e.g., ''there are two wolves at the door''), it is likely indefinite. #"The concept of identifiability expressed by the definite article is best understood in terms of pre-empting a question with ''which''?"


Other languages

* In Basque, definiteness is marked by a phrasal clitic article. (p. 76) ("woman"), (woman-ART: "the woman"), (woman beautiful-ART: "the beautiful woman") * In Danish, definiteness is marked morphologically. * In
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
: ("man"), (man-ART: "the man"), (man-ART good: "the good man") or (good-ART man: "the good man") * In
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
definiteness is marked by a noun affix. (p. 121) ("boy"); (djal-ART: "the boy"); (djal-ART i madh: "the elder son"); ("girl"); (vajz-ART: "the girl"); (vajz-ART e bukur: "the pretty girl") * In Arabic, definiteness is marked by a prefix on both noun and adjective. (p. 91) (''al-kitāb al-kabīr'') with two instances of ''al-'' (DEF-book-DEF-big, literally, "the book the big") * in Hungarian, verbs show agreement with the definiteness of their object (p. 86): (read-1sg.pres.INDEF a book-ACC.sg: "I read a book") versus (read-1sg.pres.DEF the book-ACC.sg: "I read the book") *No marking. The Japanese 私は本を持っている (watashi wa hon o motteiru "I have a/the book") is ambiguous between definite and indefinite readings. Germanic, Romance,
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...
,
Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...
, and auxiliary languages generally have a definite article, often preposed but in some cases postposed. Many other languages do not. Some examples are
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, Japanese, Finnish, and modern Slavic languages except
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
and
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
. When necessary, languages of this kind may indicate definiteness by other means such as
demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s. It is common for definiteness to interact with the marking of
case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
in certain syntactic contexts. In many languages, a direct object receives distinctive marking only if it is definite. For example, in
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
, the direct object in the sentence (meaning "I saw the man") is marked with the suffix (indicating definiteness) (p. 204). The absence of the suffix on a direct object in Turkish means that it is indefinite and, in the absence of the indefinite article , no longer explicitly singular: ("I saw a man/I saw men"), . In Serbo-Croatian, in the
Baltic languages The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic lang ...
Latvian and
Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...
, and, to a lesser extent in Slovene, definiteness can be expressed morphologically on prenominal adjectives. The short form of the adjective is interpreted as indefinite, while the long form is definite or specific: * short (indefinite): Serbo-Croatian "a new city"; Lithuanian "a white book" ; Latvian "a white house" * long (definite): "the new city, a certain new city"; "the white book, a certain white book" ; "the white house" In some languages, the definiteness of the object affects the transitivity of the verb. In the absence of peculiar specificity marking, it also tends to affect the telicity of mono-occasional
predication Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: ** Predicate (mathematical logic) ** Propositional function ** Finitary relatio ...
s. In some Scandinavian languages, such as
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, definite nouns inflect with a dedicated set of suffixes. This is known in Swedish as the grammatical category of Species.


See also

* Construct state * Article (grammar) * Topic–comment * Specificity


References


Notes


Further reading

* Aguilar-Guevara A, Pozas Loyo J, Vázquez-Rojas Maldonado V (eds.). 2019. Definiteness across languages. Berlin: Language Science Press. . . Open Access. http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/227. *Hawkins, J.A. (1978) ''Definiteness and indefiniteness: a study in reference and grammaticality prediction''. London:Croom Helm. *
Definite
' article from Glottopedia


External links

*http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/features/morphosyntactic/definiteness/ do
10.15126/SMG.18/1.06
{{Authority control Grammatical categories Semantics Formal semantics (natural language)