Determination and the expression of definiteness in indigenous languages of the Americas – an introduction

This volume examines specific features of noun phrase structure and the role of demonstratives in the individuation and definiteness of nominal referents. These phenomena are particularly significant and underexplored in the genetically unrelated South American languages represented in this volume. The analysis focuses on the distribution and function of determiners, the presence or absence of overt markers, and the influence of semantic, pragmatic and discourse-contextual factors. The conceptual framework emphasizes determination, individuation, and definiteness. Determination modifies noun phrases through elements such as articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers, linking referents to discourse. Individuation describes how entities acquire referential status, from generic to specific, shaped by both structural and contextual factors. Definiteness concerns the identifiability of referents for speaker and hearer, distinguishing unique or familiar entities from indefinite ones. While articles often encode definiteness, several languages examined here rely primarily on demonstratives, which can also convey features such as proximity, animacy, temporality, and other semantic distinctions. Drawing on text corpora, these analyses provide new insights into the expression of definiteness and referentiality in natural discourse, contributing to the typological understanding of determination in article-less languages

Categorization · Definiteness · Indigenous · Individuation · Lexicalization · Noun · Noun phrase · Syntax · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

• Demonstratives

  Holger Diessel•Demonstratives•1999

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• Demonstratives in Narrative Discourse

  Nikolaus P Himmelmann•Studies in Anaphora•1996

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• Topic Continuity in Discourse

  Talmy Givón•Topic continuity in discourse•1983

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• Artikelwörter im Deutschen

  Hansjörg Bisle-Müller•Artikelwörter Im Deutschen•1991

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• Deixis and anaphora in German dialects

  Dietrich Hartmann•Here and there•1982

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• The Pragmatics of Indefinite Reference

  Sue Ellen Wright, T Givón•Studies in Language•1987

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• Personal pronouns with determining functions in Australian languages

  Dana Louagie, Jean‐christophe Verstraete et al.•Studies in Language•2015

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• On the Development of the Numeral ‘One’ as an Indefinite Marker

  T Givón•Folia Linguistica Historica•1981

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• Differential Object Marking

  Open Access•Judith Aissen•Natural Language and Linguistic…•2003

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• Possessives and the distinction between determiners and modifiers (with special reference to German)

  Open Access•Frans Plank•Journal of Linguistics•1992

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• On (in)definite articles

  Open Access•John A Hawkins•Journal of Linguistics•1991

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• Descriptive and discourse-referential modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase

  Open Access•Jan Rijkhoff•Linguistics•2008

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• Explaining Article-Possessor Complementarity

  Martin Haspelmath•Language•1999

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• Cognitive Status and the Form of Referring Expressions in Discourse

  Jeanette K Gundel, Jeanette Κ Gundel et al.•Language•1993

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• Syntax

  Talmy Givón•Syntax•1984

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