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Annual Review of Linguistics

Volume 6, 2020

Determiners and Bare Nouns

Abstract

Determiners and bare nouns raise questions about the interface between morphosyntax and semantics. On the syntactic side, the primary issue is whether bare nouns have a null determiner making all noun phrases structurally uniform. On the semantic side, the primary issue involves determining and deriving the range of permissible readings. Of primary significance are the availability of definite and indefinite readings for bare nouns and how such readings relate to the presence or absence of lexical exponents of (in)definiteness in a language. Further refinements include the special scope properties of kind terms versus regular indefinites, differences between singular and plural kind terms, number distinctions within the noun phrase, and the role of incorporation. We present the theoretical and typological advances that have been made in addressing these issues and identify which considerations are purely syntactic or purely semantic in nature and which considerations have implications for the interface.

Keyword(s): (in)definiteness, genericity, kind terms, null determiners, pseudoincorporation, type shifts
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2020-01-14
2025-04-24
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Determiners and Bare Nouns
Annual Review of Linguistics 6, 173 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011718-011958
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011718-011958
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011718-011958
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