Definiteness / Christopher Lyons.
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 phe...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via Cambridge) |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge [England] ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
1999.
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| Series: | Cambridge textbooks in linguistics.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xx, 380 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-358) and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 0511009984 9780511009983 051103721X 9780511037214 0511150881 9780511150883 9780521362825 0521362822 9780511605789 0511605781 9786610416554 6610416559 1107111552 9781107111554 1280416556 9781280416552 0511172362 9780511172366 0511310374 9780511310379 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/CBO9780511605789 |
| Language: | English. |
| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Source of description: Print version record. |