The subject matter of the diploma thesis is the bare noun phrase and its referential properties with focus to (in)definiteness. The aim is to present an empirical evaluation of factors that influence the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases in Czech. The first part of the thesis recounts on existing theories of reference and definiteness, both in general and with focus to Czech as a language without obligatory determination. Our basic assumption is that the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases is based on their position within a syntactic and semantic sentence structure, topic-focus articulation and word- or situational context. We focus on the relation between definiteness and an absolute position within a sentence, a verb-relative position and modification of the NP. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Esta dissertação investiga nomes nus e classificadores numerais do chinês mandarim, assim como a distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos do chinês. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar e avaliar as possíveis denotações dos nominais do chinês mandarim. O texto é divido em três partes. Na primeira, investigam-se nomes nus do chinês mandarim, que manifestam número geral. Defende-se que o número geral não ocorre em sintagmas nominais em que existe numeral. No Chinês mandarim, nomes nus podem ser interpretados como indefinidos, definidos e genéricos de acordo com suas posições sintáticas e contextos em que ocorrem. A hipótese defendida na segunda parte da dissertação é a de que, no chinês mandarim, há distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos. Um fator importante na distinção contável-massivo do chinês mandarim é a presença de classificadores e suas relações com os nomes. Defende-se que a combinação entre os nomes e os classificadores é seletiva e, com base nisso, os nomes comuns do chinês podem ser divididos em nomes contáveis, nomes massivos, nomes coletivos, nomes abstratos e nomes próprios. Além de classificador, mais uma evidência para a contabilidade dos nomes do chinês é o morfema men. A terceira parte da dissertação avalia a presença de classificador nos sintagmas nominais com numerais. Defende-se que diferentes grupos de classificadores possuem diferentes funções: classificadores individuais são marcadores gramaticais de contabilidade e não têm a função individualizadora e, os outros grupos têm suas restrições na combinação com os nomes. A combinação entre numeral e classificador pode ser tratada como um núcleo complexo que ocorre morfologicamente como um item lexical, mas o numeral pode-se omitir dentro deste complexo e classificador não. Sendo assim, Os classificadores devem ser tratados como um sufixo na sua ocorrência dentro do complexo [Num-CL], mas como um clítico em outras ocorrências. / This dissertation investigates bare nouns and numeral classifiers in Mandarin Chinese, as well as the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns of Chinese. The goal of this work is to study and assess the possible denotations of nominals in Mandarin Chinese. The dissertation is divided in three parts. In the first part, the bare nominals in Mandarin Chinese will be investigated and they have general number. We argue that the general number can not happen in noun phrases when they contain numerals. In Mandarin Chinese, the bare nouns can be interpreted as indefinites, definites and generics, according to their syntactic positions and contexts in that they happen. The hypothesis presented in the second part of this dissertation is that in Mandarin Chinese, there is the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns. One important factor in this count-mass distinction of Mandarin Chinese is the presence of classifiers and their relationships with the nouns. We argue that, based on the selective combination between names and classifiers, the common nouns of Chinese can be divided in count nouns, mass nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns and proper nouns. Besides the classifier, one more evidence for the accounting of Chinese\'s names is the morpheme men. The third part of the dissertation assesses the classifiers presence in the noun phrases with numerals. We argue that, different groups of classifiers have different functions: the individual classifiers are grammatical markers of accounting and they do not have the individualizing function, while the other groups have their restrictions in the combination with the nouns. The combination between the numeral and the classifier can be treated as a complex head that happens morphologically as a lexical item, but the numeral in which can be omitted in some contexts and the classifier can not. Thus, the classifiers should be treated as a suffix in his occurrence with the complex [Num-CL], but as a clitic in other occurrences.

Esta dissertação investiga nomes nus e classificadores numerais do chinês mandarim, assim como a distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos do chinês. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar e avaliar as possíveis denotações dos nominais do chinês mandarim. O texto é divido em três partes. Na primeira, investigam-se nomes nus do chinês mandarim, que manifestam número geral. Defende-se que o número geral não ocorre em sintagmas nominais em que existe numeral. No Chinês mandarim, nomes nus podem ser interpretados como indefinidos, definidos e genéricos de acordo com suas posições sintáticas e contextos em que ocorrem. A hipótese defendida na segunda parte da dissertação é a de que, no chinês mandarim, há distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos. Um fator importante na distinção contável-massivo do chinês mandarim é a presença de classificadores e suas relações com os nomes. Defende-se que a combinação entre os nomes e os classificadores é seletiva e, com base nisso, os nomes comuns do chinês podem ser divididos em nomes contáveis, nomes massivos, nomes coletivos, nomes abstratos e nomes próprios. Além de classificador, mais uma evidência para a contabilidade dos nomes do chinês é o morfema men. A terceira parte da dissertação avalia a presença de classificador nos sintagmas nominais com numerais. Defende-se que diferentes grupos de classificadores possuem diferentes funções: classificadores individuais são marcadores gramaticais de contabilidade e não têm a função individualizadora e, os outros grupos têm suas restrições na combinação com os nomes. A combinação entre numeral e classificador pode ser tratada como um núcleo complexo que ocorre morfologicamente como um item lexical, mas o numeral pode-se omitir dentro deste complexo e classificador não. Sendo assim, Os classificadores devem ser tratados como um sufixo na sua ocorrência dentro do complexo [Num-CL], mas como um clítico em outras ocorrências. / This dissertation investigates bare nouns and numeral classifiers in Mandarin Chinese, as well as the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns of Chinese. The goal of this work is to study and assess the possible denotations of nominals in Mandarin Chinese. The dissertation is divided in three parts. In the first part, the bare nominals in Mandarin Chinese will be investigated and they have general number. We argue that the general number can not happen in noun phrases when they contain numerals. In Mandarin Chinese, the bare nouns can be interpreted as indefinites, definites and generics, according to their syntactic positions and contexts in that they happen. The hypothesis presented in the second part of this dissertation is that in Mandarin Chinese, there is the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns. One important factor in this count-mass distinction of Mandarin Chinese is the presence of classifiers and their relationships with the nouns. We argue that, based on the selective combination between names and classifiers, the common nouns of Chinese can be divided in count nouns, mass nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns and proper nouns. Besides the classifier, one more evidence for the accounting of Chinese\'s names is the morpheme men. The third part of the dissertation assesses the classifiers presence in the noun phrases with numerals. We argue that, different groups of classifiers have different functions: the individual classifiers are grammatical markers of accounting and they do not have the individualizing function, while the other groups have their restrictions in the combination with the nouns. The combination between the numeral and the classifier can be treated as a complex head that happens morphologically as a lexical item, but the numeral in which can be omitted in some contexts and the classifier can not. Thus, the classifiers should be treated as a suffix in his occurrence with the complex [Num-CL], but as a clitic in other occurrences.

Cette thèse s'attache à décrire et à analyser les différents emplois de mono (chose, objet) en japonais contemporain. Comme le mot français chose, ce terme d’usage très courant a la particularité de ne pas avoir de signifié en propre mais de pouvoir tout aussi bien désigner un objet concret qu’un concept abstrait ou encore une classe d’individus partageant les mêmes traits. Nom « caméléon » aux propriétés référentielles singulières, mono est aussi fréquemment employé à des fins fonctionnelles, voire purement énonciatives.À travers des observations en discours, ce travail précise les contours de ces deux emplois référentiel et fonctionnel et explore la nature de la contribution sémantique de mono à la réalisation de tournures expressives plus ou moins figées.Sur le plan de la méthodologie, nous avons adopté une approche basée sur l’observation de données authentiques que nous avons analysées sous différents angles syntaxiques, sémantiques et énonciatifs. Pour cela nous avons constitué un corpus de travail réunissant des exemples extraits d’articles de journaux, de romans populaires, d’échanges sur internet ou de conversations informelles.Dans la première partie, nous avons cherché à identifier et à décrire les emplois « référentiels » au regard d’autres emplois essentiellement fonctionnels et, pour cela, nous avons exploré la notion de nom formel dont mono est considéré comme un des principaux représentants. Dans la deuxième partie, la tournure en « A-wa C MONO da » a plus particulièrement retenu notre attention pour sa fréquence et ses effets énonciatifs. Nous l’avons d’abord envisagée dans le cadre général de la phrase à prédicat nominal caractéristique du jugement catégorique. Une seconde approche a consisté à envisager « MONO DA » comme un opérateur modal venant surdéterminer une occurrence prédicative. Pour cette analyse, nous nous sommes appuyé sur les travaux de Nishiyama (1985), Kudo (1995, 2002), Teramura (1984, 1999) et Morita (1989).Dans une troisième partie, le point de vue de la modalité a permis de préciser la nature appréciative ou épistémique du jugement. Nous avons également analysé le fonctionnement de la modalité explicative propre aux écrits journalistiques et précisé l’emploi de mono du point de vue de sa contribution à la réalisation d’opérations argumentatives. L’approche pragmatique a enfin éclairé le processus conduisant à l’émergence de valeurs spécifiques dérivées de la valeur axiologique de l’expression d’une tendance générale.Ce travail se termine par une mise en perspective du point de vue de la grammaticalisation des différents emplois observés. / In this dissertation, we focus on the various uses of mono (thing, object) in contemporary Japanese. From a methodological point of view, we have adopted an approach based on the observation of authentic data which we have analyzed under several syntactical, semantic and enunciative criteria. Samples consist of various aspects of modern language (newspaper articles, contemporary novels, internet-based communication, informal conversation) collected from existing data sources, mainly from the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ) and the Nagoya University Japanese Conversation Corpus.We have first attempted to identify and describe referential readings compared to other more functionnal uses. For this purpose, we have investigated the concept of ‘formal noun’ (keishiki meishi) of which mono is seen as a prototype.The second part is dedicated to the form 'A-wa C-MONO da' that particularly caught our attention because of its frequency and its enunciative effects. A first approach concentrates on nominal uses realized within the framework of a nominal sentence (meishi jutsugo bun). In this part, we propose a brief summary of research on nominal predication and present the different meanings of the sentences built around the bare noun mono. In a second approach, we consider it from the point of view of nominalization, where mono da can be seen as a purely enunciative operator. For this analysis, we have developped a theorical model based on Nishiyama (1985), Kudo (1995, 2002), Teramura (1984, 1999) and Morita (1989).In the third part, reference to the notion of modality has allowed us to specify the appreciative or epistemic nature of the judgment. We have also analyzed the function of mono as a discourse connector in journalist papers and shown its contribution to argumentative operations. The pragmatic approach highlights the process that drives the emergence of specific values derived from its underlying meaning of 'general tendency.' This work ends with an attempt to put the various uses of mono in perspective from the point of view of grammaticalization.

Notre travail est consacré à l’élément LA (< fr. là) en guyanais, langue créole française pour laquelle il n’existe que peu de données linguistiques accessibles. Nous fournissons un nouveau corpus du guyanais qui inclut une vaste gamme de textes anciens de 1799 à 1893 et des données du guyanais parlé. En nous basant sur notre corpus, nous proposons une analyse diachronique et synchronique de LA, élément extrêmement polyfonctionnel en guyanais. Nous commençons notre étude par distinguer ses différentes fonctions : adverbe/marqueur de discours, élément du pronom déictique-démonstratif, LA en fin de proposition subordonnée ou interrogative, ainsi que LA marqueur postnominal. Pour l’analyse du dernier, nous proposons une approche théorique de la référence nominale qui tient compte de l’usage de l’élément en question en discours, et donc aussi des fonctions interactionnelles et sociales du langage. Notre analyse de corpus nous permet de classer LA comme marqueur dont l’emploi est non seulement incomplètement généralisé dans les contextes définis, mais dont l’usage dépend d’une interaction complexe de différents facteurs d’ordre sémantico-pragmatique, ontologico-cognitif et informationnel-syntaxique. LA dénote en outre une certaine variation graduelle en fonction de la tradition discursive, ou bien des conditions/intentions communicatives respectives. LA est enfin un élément qui laisse toujours entrevoir à un certain degré son enracinement initial dans la deixis et l’oralité. De ce lien témoigne également le rôle joué par là/LA non seulement dans les autres créoles français, mais également dans les variétés orales du français en Afrique ou au Canada. / Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Element LA (< fr. là) im Guayanakreol, einer französischen Kreolsprache für die bisher kaum Untersuchungen vorliegen. Unsere Arbeit legt ein neues Korpus vor, das sich aus Texten von 1799-1893 sowie aus eigenen Sprachaufnahmen zusammensetzt. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung liegt auf einer detaillierten synchronen und diachronen Beschreibung der Verwendungskontexte des im Guayanakreol stark polyfunktionalen LAs. Hierfür nehmen wir zunächst eine Abgrenzung zwischen LA als Adverb/Diskursmarker, LA als Teil des Demonstrativpronomens, LA am Ende von Neben- oder Fragesätzen sowie dem postnominalen Marker LA vor. Für die Analyse des postnominalen LAs entwickeln wir anschließend einen umfangreichen theoretischen Unterbau zur Nominalreferenz, wobei ein semantisch-pragmatischer und kognitiver Ansatz verfolgt wird. Die Korpusanalyse zeigt schließlich, dass das postnominale LA allenfalls als definiter Marker auf einer niedrigen Grammatikalisierungsstufe eingeordnet werden kann, dessen Auftreten durch ein komplexes Zusammenspiel semantisch-pragmatischer, ontologisch-kognitiver sowie informationell-syntaktischer Faktoren bestimmt wird. Unsere diachrone Analyse zeigt zudem, dass in unserem Korpus der Gebrauch von LA weitgehend stabil bleibt, dass aber eine gewisse graduelle Variation je nach Diskurstradition und Kommunikationsintentionen vorliegt. Die Funktionalität von LA zeugt außerdem bis heute von einer gewissen Verankerung in der Deixis und in der Nähesprache, die auch in anderen Frankokreols sowie in gesprochenen Varietäten des Französischen, wie etwa in Afrika oder Kanada, zutage tritt.

Bien que les travaux existants aient montré que les noms sans déterminant étaient particulièrement fréquents dans les syntagmes prépositionnels, les mécanismes régissant leur emploi dans les SP demeurent assez mal connus. Cette thèse présente les résultats d’une étude de corpus synchronique portant sur certains SP spatio-temporels sans déterminant de l’anglais et du français. Nous montrons que ces SP sont extrêmement hétérogènes sur le plan syntaxique, lexical, sémantique et pragmatique ; ils s’inscrivent sur un gradient allant d’expressions pleinement figées et opaques à des séquences transparentes, modifiables et productives. Nos données n’étayent pas l’hypothèse d’un phénomène unifié et strictement grammatical. Cependant, ces SP ne peuvent être simplement considérés comme une collection d’anomalies sans rapport les unes avec les autres ; certains d’entre eux appartiennent à des groupements productifs dans lesquels la syntaxe marquée va de pair avec un sens marqué. Les différences entre les SP anglais et français peuvent tenir soit à la productivité des groupements, soit à leurs caractéristiques sémantiques et/ou pragmatiques, qui reflètent la place et la saillance des noms sans déterminant dans les deux langues. Ce travail montre que l’application de l’analyse constructionnelle à ces SP éclaire leur intégration dans le système linguistique tout en permettant une typologie fine ; il suggère que des interactions plus importantes entre phraséologie et grammaire des constructions seraient particulièrement intéressantes pour l’étude des « moules » phraséologiques et des expressions polylexicales syntaxiquement marquées. / Although previous research has shown that bare nouns are particularly frequent in prepositional phrases, the mechanisms underlying their use in PPs remain a relatively understudied topic. This thesis presents the results of a synchronic, corpus-based analysis of several groups of English and French spatio-temporal PPs. The case studies show that determinerless PPs are syntactically, lexically, semantically and pragmatically highly heterogeneous, ranging from fully fixed, opaque expressions to transparent, modifiable and productive sequences. The corpus data does not support the hypothesis of a unified, strictly grammatical phenomenon. However, these PPs cannot be explained away as a mere collection of unrelated anomalies; some of them cluster into productive sub-groupings in which marked syntax correlates with marked meaning. The differences between the French and English PPs can pertain either to the productivity of the groupings, or to their semantic and/or pragmatic properties. In the latter case, the contrasts reflect the place and salience of bare noun constructions in each language. The application of constructional analysis to the PPs is shown to be an illuminating way of accounting for their integration into the linguistic system whilst allowing for a fine-grained typology. This thesis argues that a greater interaction between phraseology and construction grammar would be of particular interest for the study of phraseological “patterns” and syntactically marked multi-word constructs.

This thesis explores the variable behavior of bare nouns in Persian. Bare singular nouns realize different grammatical functions, including subject, object and indirect object. They receive different interpretations, including generic, definite and existential readings. However, the task of understanding the reasons for, and limits on, this variation cannot be achieved without understanding a number of pivotal features of Persian sentential architecture, including Information Structure, prosody, word order, and the functions of various morphological markers in Persian. After a brief introduction, chapters 2-3 deal with bare noun objects, firstly comparing them with nominals marked with indefinite morpheme -i suffixed to the noun, and the determiner yek. A bare noun object differs from morphologically marked nominals as it shows properties associated with noun incorporation in the literature (chapter 2). Of particular interest are the discourse properties of these ‘quasi-incorporated’ nominals. With respect to the discourse transparency of Incorporated Nominals, Persian belongs to the class of discourse opaque languages within Mithun’s classification (1984). However, under certain circumstances, Persian bare nouns show discourse transparency. These circumstances are examined in chapter 3, and it is proposed that bare nouns do introduce a number neutral discourse referent. There are no overt anaphoric expressions that could match such number-neutral antecedents in Persian. But covert anaphora lack number features, and hence can serve as means to pick up a number-neutral discourse referent. Also, in case world knowledge tells us that the number-neutral discourse referent is anchored to an atomic entity or to a collection, then an overt singular pronoun or an overt plural pronoun might fit the combined linguistic and conceptual requirements, and may be used to pick up the number-neutral discourse referent. This proposal is phrased within Discourse Representation Theory. In the second half of the dissertation, the interpretation of bare nouns in different positions and with different grammatical functions are discussed. Under the independently supported hypothesis of position>interpretation mapping developed by Diesing (1992), we will see the role of the suffix -ra in indicating that an object has been moved out of VP. Following Diesing, I assume that VP-internal variables are subject to an operation of Existential Closure. In many cases, VP-external –ra-marked objects have a different interpretation to their VP-internal, non-ra-marked, counterparts, because of escaping Existential Closure. For subjects, there is no morphological marking corresponding to –ra on objects, and we have to rely on prosody and word order to determine how a VP is interpreted using theories of the interaction of accent and syntactic structure. We assume that VP-internal subjects exist, under two independent but converging assumptions. The first is prosodic in nature: Subjects can be accented without being narrowly focused; theories of Persian prosody predict then that there is a maximal constituent that contains both the subject and the verb as its head. The second is semantic in nature: Bare nouns require an external existential closure operation to be interpreted existentially, and we have to assume existential closure over the VP for our analysis of the interpretation of objects. So, this existential closure would provide the necessary quantificational force for bare noun subjects as well. It is proposed that both subject and object originate within the VP, and can move out to the VP-external domain. The motivation for these movements are informational-structural in nature, relating in particular to the distinctions between given and new information, and default and non-default information structure.

This thesis explores the variable behavior of bare nouns in Persian. Bare singular nouns realize different grammatical functions, including subject, object and indirect object. They receive different interpretations, including generic, definite and existential readings. However, the task of understanding the reasons for, and limits on, this variation cannot be achieved without understanding a number of pivotal features of Persian sentential architecture, including Information Structure, prosody, word order, and the functions of various morphological markers in Persian. After a brief introduction, chapters 2-3 deal with bare noun objects, firstly comparing them with nominals marked with indefinite morpheme -i suffixed to the noun, and the determiner yek. A bare noun object differs from morphologically marked nominals as it shows properties associated with noun incorporation in the literature (chapter 2). Of particular interest are the discourse properties of these ‘quasi-incorporated’ nominals. With respect to the discourse transparency of Incorporated Nominals, Persian belongs to the class of discourse opaque languages within Mithun’s classification (1984). However, under certain circumstances, Persian bare nouns show discourse transparency. These circumstances are examined in chapter 3, and it is proposed that bare nouns do introduce a number neutral discourse referent. There are no overt anaphoric expressions that could match such number-neutral antecedents in Persian. But covert anaphora lack number features, and hence can serve as means to pick up a number-neutral discourse referent. Also, in case world knowledge tells us that the number-neutral discourse referent is anchored to an atomic entity or to a collection, then an overt singular pronoun or an overt plural pronoun might fit the combined linguistic and conceptual requirements, and may be used to pick up the number-neutral discourse referent. This proposal is phrased within Discourse Representation Theory. In the second half of the dissertation, the interpretation of bare nouns in different positions and with different grammatical functions are discussed. Under the independently supported hypothesis of position>interpretation mapping developed by Diesing (1992), we will see the role of the suffix -ra in indicating that an object has been moved out of VP. Following Diesing, I assume that VP-internal variables are subject to an operation of Existential Closure. In many cases, VP-external –ra-marked objects have a different interpretation to their VP-internal, non-ra-marked, counterparts, because of escaping Existential Closure. For subjects, there is no morphological marking corresponding to –ra on objects, and we have to rely on prosody and word order to determine how a VP is interpreted using theories of the interaction of accent and syntactic structure. We assume that VP-internal subjects exist, under two independent but converging assumptions. The first is prosodic in nature: Subjects can be accented without being narrowly focused; theories of Persian prosody predict then that there is a maximal constituent that contains both the subject and the verb as its head. The second is semantic in nature: Bare nouns require an external existential closure operation to be interpreted existentially, and we have to assume existential closure over the VP for our analysis of the interpretation of objects. So, this existential closure would provide the necessary quantificational force for bare noun subjects as well. It is proposed that both subject and object originate within the VP, and can move out to the VP-external domain. The motivation for these movements are informational-structural in nature, relating in particular to the distinctions between given and new information, and default and non-default information structure.