| Grammatical features |
|---|
Syntax relationships |
Inlinguistics,definiteness is asemantic feature ofnoun phrases that distinguishes betweenreferents orsenses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those that are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical definite noun phrase picks out a unique, familiar,specific referent such asthe sun orAustralia, as opposed to indefinite examples likean idea orsome fish.
There is considerable variation in the expression of definiteness across languages, and some languages such asJapanese do not generally mark it, so the same expression can be definite in some contexts and indefinite in others. In other languages, such asEnglish, it is usually marked by the selection ofdeterminer (e.g.,the vs.a). Still other languages, such asDanish, mark definitenessmorphologically by changing the noun itself (e.g. Danishenmand (a man),manden (the man)).
There are times when a grammatically marked definite noun phrase 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 aform-meaning mismatch. "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."[1][p. 84][a]
InEnglish, definiteness is usually marked by the selection ofdeterminer. Certain determiners, such asa,an,many, andsome, along with numbers (e.g.,four items), typically mark a noun phrase as indefinite. Others, includingthe,that, andgenitive noun phrases (e.g.,my brother) typically mark the noun phrase as definite.[2]
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."[3]
emakume woman emakume woman "woman" |
om human om human "human" | or |
djalë djalë "boy" | ||||
vajzë vajzë "girl" |
| versus |
Germanic,Romance,Celtic,Semitic, andauxiliary languages generally have a definite article, often preposed but in some cases postposed. Many other languages do not. Some examples areChinese,Japanese,Finnish, and modernSlavic languages exceptBulgarian andMacedonian. When necessary, languages of this kind may indicate definiteness by other means such asdemonstratives.[5][page needed]
It is common for definiteness to interact with the marking ofcase in certain syntactic contexts. In many languages, adirect object receives distinctive marking only if it is definite. For example, inTurkish, the direct object in the sentenceadamı gördüm (meaning "I saw the man") is marked with the suffix-ı (indicating definiteness).[5]: 204 The absence of the suffix on a direct object in Turkish means that it is indefinite and, in the absence of the indefinite articlebir, no longer explicitly singular:adam gördüm ("I saw a man/I saw men").
InSerbo-Croatian, in theBaltic languagesLatvian andLithuanian, and, to a lesser extent inSlovene, definiteness can be expressed morphologically on prenominal adjectives.[8] The short form of the adjective is interpreted as indefinite, while the long form is definite orspecific:
In some languages, the definiteness of the object affects thetransitivity of theverb. In the absence of peculiar specificity marking, it also tends to affect thetelicity of mono-occasionalpredications.
In some Scandinavian languages, such asSwedish, definite nouns inflect with a dedicated set of suffixes. This is known in Swedish as the grammatical category ofspecies.[citation needed]
