Definiteness in a Language without Articles – A Study on Polish

Adrian Czardybon

book: Definiteness in a Language without Articles – A Study on Polish

Open Access Published by düsseldorf university press 2021

Definiteness in a Language without Articles – A Study on Polish

Adrian Czardybon

In the series Dissertations in Language and Cognition

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110720426

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Adrian Czardybon, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	i
Contents Open Access Download PDF	vii
List of Figures Open Access Download PDF	xi
List of Tables Open Access Download PDF	xiii
List of Abbreviations Open Access Download PDF	xv
1 Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
2 Theoretical basis Open Access Download PDF	9
3 Demonstratives Open Access Download PDF	43
4 Aspect Open Access Download PDF	97
5 Differential object marking and case alternation Open Access Download PDF	129
6 Information structure Open Access Download PDF	159
7 Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	191
Appendix: The distribution of the Slavic determiners under investigation Open Access Download PDF	207
References Open Access Download PDF	223

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