Definiteness across languages

Contents
Definiteness across languages: An overview Ana Aguilar-Guevara, Julia Pozas Loyo & Violeta Vázquez-Rojas Maldonado
	1 The meaning and expression of definiteness
	2 Overview of the volume
	3 Acknowledgements
1 Weak vs. strong definite articles: Meaning and form across languages Florian Schwarz
	1 Introduction
	2 Two types of definite articles
		2.1 Two semantic perspectives on definite descriptions
		2.2 Distinctions between definite articles in lan]GermanGerman and lan]Germanic dialectsGermanic dialects
		2.3 The contrast in meaning between weak and strong articles
		2.4 Sketch of the analysis in Schwarz2009
		2.5 Some additional theoretical issues
	3 The weak vs. strong contrast across languages
		3.1 Key empirical and theoretical questions
		3.2 Illustrations of weak and strong article definites across languages
	4 Variation in form and meaning
		4.1 Variation in form
		4.2 Variation in meaning
	5 Beyond weak vs. strong
		5.1 Different semantic contrasts
		5.2 Semantic vs. pragmatic uniqueness
	6 Conclusion
2 Definiteness in Cuevas Mixtec Carlos Cisneros
	1 Introduction
	2 Definiteness background
		2.1 Uniqueness and familiarity
		2.2 Weak and strong articles of German
		2.3 Bridging
		2.4 Cross-linguistic variation
	3 Background on Cuevas Mixtec
		3.1 Mixtec language family and Cuevas Mixtec
		3.2 Orthography of Cuevas Mixtec
		3.3 Word order patterns of lan]Mixtec!Cuevas MixtecCuevas Mixtec
			3.3.1 Basic sentence structure
			3.3.2 Basic noun phrase structure
			3.3.3 Noun classifiers and their functions
	4 Regular nominals and definiteness encoding
		4.1 Uniqueness with regular nominals
		4.2 Familiarity with regular nominals
		4.3 Bridging
	5 Internal variation in definiteness marking
		5.1 Irregular nominals and definiteness encoding
		5.2 Complex nominals and definiteness encoding
	6 Conclusion
3 Strong vs. weak definites: Evidence from Lithuanian adjectives Milena Šereikaitė
	1 Introduction
	2 Typological background
	3 Two types of definites
	4 Strong vs. weak distinction in Lithuanian
		4.1 Definite vs. indefinite noun phrases with adjectives
		4.2 Familiarity
		4.3 Uniqueness
			4.3.1 Larger situation environments
			4.3.2 Bridging context
		4.4 Section summary and implications
	5 Conclusion
4 On (in)definite expressions in American Sign Language Ava Irani
	1 Introduction
	2 Background
		2.1 Loci
		2.2 Previous work
	3 Two types of definites in ASLlan]American Sign Language
		3.1 Two types of definites cross-linguistically
		3.2 ix as a strong definite article
		3.3 ix versus demonstratives
		3.4 Bare NPs as weak article definites
	4 Reanalyzing ix
		4.1 ASL indefinites
		4.2 The basic proposal
		4.3 Loci as featural variables
			4.3.1 Arguments for loci as features
			4.3.2 Arguments for loci as variables
			4.3.3 Featural variables
		4.4 Final points
		4.5 Summary
	5 Discussion
	6 Conclusion
5 A nascent definiteness marker in Yokot\'an Maya Maurice Pico
	1 Introduction
	2 Which sort of definiteness for ni?
	3 Centering Theory and the discourse-management use of ni
		3.1 Framework
		3.2 Centers of an utterance
		3.3 Transitions between utterances
		3.4 The overlap of ni and ba as NP marking devices
	4 Ni from demonstrative to article
		4.1 Telling apart articles from demonstratives
			4.1.1 Frequency criteria
			4.1.2 Qualitative criteria: Anti-demonstrative contexts
		4.2 Grammaticalization path and stages
		4.3 From topicality to specific referentiality marker: Special contexts
	5 Concluding remarks
6 Definiteness across languages and in L2 acquisition Bert Le Bruyn
	1 Introduction
	2 From an article-less L1 to an article L2
	3 Evidence against the Fluctuation Hypothesis?
		3.1 Snape et al. (2006)
		3.2 Assessing data and analyses
	4 Mandarin learners and the Fluctuation Hypothesis
		4.1 Replicating Ting\'s null result
		4.2 Changing paradigms
	5 Establishing L1 influence: A research program
		5.1 Iterated Translation Mining
			5.1.1 Data
			5.1.2 Analysis
		5.2 LOG-IT
			5.2.1 Data
			5.2.2 Analysis
	6 Conclusion
7 Licensing D in classifier languages and ``numeral blocking\'\' David Hall
	1 Introduction
	2 Definiteness in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese
		2.1 Mandarin Chinese – a Type A classifier language
		2.2 Cantonese – a Type B classifier language
		2.3 Summary
	3 Previous accounts
		3.1 Cheng & Sybesma (1999)
		3.2 The DP account
	4 Numerals block definiteness: Cross-linguistic considerations
		4.1 Wenzhou Wu
		4.2 Weining Ahmao
	5 Revising the HMC account
		5.1 A new approach
		5.2 Summary
	6 Classifier and numeral constituency
		6.1 Close relationship between classifier and noun
			6.1.1 Classifiers in Mi\'gmaq and Chol
		6.2 Typology
		6.3 Deriving word order variation
			6.3.1 Cinque (2005): Universal 20
			6.3.2 Abels & Neeleman (2012)
			6.3.3 Predictions
	7 Conclusion
8 On kinds and anaphoricity in languages without definite articles Miloje Despić
	1 Introduction
	2 The puzzle: Anaphoricity and kinds
	3 Solution: Dayal (2004)
	4 Predictions and consequences
	5 Summary and further questions
9 Definiteness in Russian bare nominal kinds Olga Borik & M.-Teresa Espinal
	1 Introduction
	2 Theoretical background
		2.1 Theoretical postulate 1: Root common nouns denote properties of kinds
		2.2 Theoretical postulate 2: The definite article corresponds to ι and expresses maximality
	3 Definite kinds in Russian
		3.1 Semantic definiteness of kind referring expressions
		3.2 Syntactic arguments for a DP structure
			3.2.1 Control of PRO
			3.2.2 Antecedents of reflexive pronouns
			3.2.3 Pronominal substitution
			3.2.4 Distribution of relative clauses
		3.3 Modified definite kinds
	4 Conclusions
10 A morpho-semantic account of weak definites and bare institutional singulars in English Adina Williams
	1 Introduction
	2 Weak definite singulars and bare institutional singulars share semantic properties
		2.1 Multiple entities satisfying descriptive content
		2.2 Sloppy readings under VP ellipsis
		2.3 Sluicing
		2.4 Limited capacity to establish discourse referents
		2.5 Summary
	3 Lexical idiosyncrasy
		3.1 Root semantic type ambiguity is not homophony
		3.2 Root denotations for weak definites, BISs, and strong definites
	4 Syntactic consequences of root semantic ambiguity
		4.1 Enrichment of weak nominals
		4.2 Bleeding weakness
			4.2.1 Plural marking bleeds weak interpretations
			4.2.2 High adjectival modification bleeds weak interpretations
		4.3 Summary
	5 Analysis
	6 Conclusion
11 Is the weak definite a generic? An experimental investigation Thaís Maíra Machado de Sá, Greg N. Carlson, Maria Luiza Cunha Lima & Michael K. Tanenhaus
	1 Introduction
	2 Weak definites
	3 Corpus analysis
		3.1 Aktionsarten analysis
			3.1.1 Results
		3.2 Corpus summary
	4 Experiments
		4.1 Materials
		4.2 Experiment 1: Judgment
			4.2.1 Participants
			4.2.2 Results
		4.3 Experiment 2: Forced choice
			4.3.1 Participants
			4.3.2 Results
		4.4 Experiment 3: Free completion
			4.4.1 Participants
			4.4.2 Results
		4.5 Experiment 4: Forced completion
			4.5.1 Participants
			4.5.2 Results
		4.6 Summary of experimental findings
	5 Conclusions
12 `Most\' vs. `the most\' in languages where `the more\' means `most\' Elizabeth Coppock & Linnea Strand
	1 Introduction
	2 lan]GreekGreek
		2.1 Quality superlatives
		2.2 Quantity superlatives
	3 Romanian
		3.1 Quality superlatives
		3.2 Quantity superlatives
	4 Ibero-Romance
		4.1 Quality superlatives
		4.2 Quantity superlatives
	5 Summary
	6 Formal analyses
		6.1 Quality superlatives
			6.1.1 Prenominal quality superlatives
			6.1.2 Postnominal quality superlatives
		6.2 Quantity superlatives
		6.3 Adverbial superlatives
		6.4 Proportional readings
	7 Conclusion and outlook
13 Definiteness, partitivity, and domain restriction: A fresh look at definite reduplication Urtzi Etxeberria & Anastasia Giannakidou
	1 Quantifiers, domain restriction, and D
	2 D as a domain restrictor
		2.1 D on Q and property anaphora
		2.2 DDR does not produce a syntactic DP
	3 DDR on the NP: Partitive meaning
	4 Definite reduplication as involving DDR
		4.1 Multiple Ds with single reference
		4.2 Multi-D structures, partitives, and DDR
		4.3 Comparison with other approaches
	5 Conclusions
Indexes
	Name index
	Language index
	Subject index