In this dissertation, I explore the formal mechanisms underlying restrictive modification by nominals (RMN). The central claim is that RMN is dependent on how definiteness is encoded in a given language. In Greek, RMN is exemplified by extra definite determiners followed by bare adjectives, as shown in (1) below. These may precede or follow the matrix nominal. Syntactically, I argue that the determiner and the adjective may form either a restrictive or non-restrictive nominal depending on their structural position. Focusing on restrictive nominals, I argue that they are adjuncts to nP, which raise to FocP when focused. These adjuncts are small nominals, consisting of acategorial roots and n. A look at the structure of the matrix noun reveals that adjectives adjoin to NumP, as they are always prenominal. A look at genitives also suggests that Greek nouns move as high as NumP. Central to this thesis is the question of what licenses RMN. Previous analyses have correlated it with rich morphology (Lekakou and Szendrői, 2007, 2008, 2010). For them, the determiner is the spell-out of inflection, but is otherwise a semantic expletive. To these claims, I counter-argue that RMN is best viewed as being dependent on how definiteness is encoded and that the definite determiner is simply underspecified for definiteness. Assuming that definiteness consists of two components, familiarity and uniqueness, and based on data from Standard English and Scottish English, I propose that definite determiners spelling out one component, familiarity, are predicted to exhibit RMN. Familiarity and uniqueness can thus be mapped into two syntactic projections, FamP and ιP, respectively. I then propose a syntactico-semantic mechanism that derives these constructions. Hence, this research offers a modern cross-linguistic account of RMN, while it also provides us with new insights about how definiteness can be encoded cross-linguistically.

In this dissertation, I explore the formal mechanisms underlying restrictive modification by nominals (RMN). The central claim is that RMN is dependent on how definiteness is encoded in a given language. In Greek, RMN is exemplified by extra definite determiners followed by bare adjectives, as shown in (1) below. These may precede or follow the matrix nominal. Syntactically, I argue that the determiner and the adjective may form either a restrictive or non-restrictive nominal depending on their structural position. Focusing on restrictive nominals, I argue that they are adjuncts to nP, which raise to FocP when focused. These adjuncts are small nominals, consisting of acategorial roots and n. A look at the structure of the matrix noun reveals that adjectives adjoin to NumP, as they are always prenominal. A look at genitives also suggests that Greek nouns move as high as NumP. Central to this thesis is the question of what licenses RMN. Previous analyses have correlated it with rich morphology (Lekakou and Szendrői, 2007, 2008, 2010). For them, the determiner is the spell-out of inflection, but is otherwise a semantic expletive. To these claims, I counter-argue that RMN is best viewed as being dependent on how definiteness is encoded and that the definite determiner is simply underspecified for definiteness. Assuming that definiteness consists of two components, familiarity and uniqueness, and based on data from Standard English and Scottish English, I propose that definite determiners spelling out one component, familiarity, are predicted to exhibit RMN. Familiarity and uniqueness can thus be mapped into two syntactic projections, FamP and ιP, respectively. I then propose a syntactico-semantic mechanism that derives these constructions. Hence, this research offers a modern cross-linguistic account of RMN, while it also provides us with new insights about how definiteness can be encoded cross-linguistically.

Articles continue to be one of the most puzzling aspects of English grammar. This thesis investigates article use variation in two groups of English varieties: Inner Circle and Outer Circle. The first group, comprising British English, American English, Australian English and New Zealand English, represents English varieties in their traditional contexts. The second group, consisting of Singapore English, Indian English, Philippine English and Kenyan English, represents varieties which are deeply entrenched in their communities due to colonial roots. The study is premised on the naturalness of corpus data. Three corpus-based analyses were conducted to investigate articles and their frequency, collocation and usage types. The frequency analysis revealed that articles are idiosyncratically used by the varieties with no clear divide between the two groups. Text types, on the other hand, emerged as a more powerful determinant of the observed frequencies. It was found that fewer articles were used in spoken language. In the collocational analysis, the varieties were found to favour different complementation patterns for two-word and multiple-world clusters. The Inner Circle varieties, however, shared more complementation patterns among them, demonstrating greater stability in terms of variation. Finally the analysis of usage types discovered ‘marked’ or untypical patterns of use in the Outer Circle group’s structural and situational definites. A number of untypical usages of first-mention/quantitative 'a/an' were also found in this group. In the same analysis, a case study of ‘house’ uncovered a few marked uses of ??, which signalled the null form but not the zero article. Although the collective findings in this study indicate that article use in both groups of varieties has more similarities than differences, the latter leave more impression on observers. These differences can be attributed to such diverse factors as text types, socio-cultural content of collocates, specificity, recategorisation of countness, indiscriminate rule application and ungrammaticality. Theoretically, however, the variation can be captured by the application of Chesterman’s three composite meanings of definiteness – locatability, inclusiveness and extensivity – and their permutations. As an instance of nativisation, article use in the Outer Circle is limited in its diffusion. The observed innovations rarely creep into more formal registers.

Written broadly within a Lexical Functional Grammar Framework, this thesis provides a descriptive and theoretical account of definiteness in Insular Scandinavian from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Providing evidence from Ancient Germanic to Old Norse to Modern Faroese, it is argued that the weak feature on the adjective has an important part to play in the historical narrative of definiteness marking in Faroese, alongside more traditional elements like the bound and free definite articles and demonstratives. Each of the features is read within the context of its nominal syntax and it is observed that there are recurrent pathways of change which each time result in the growth of syntactic structure and the redistribution of features. One of my principal findings for the Old Norse period was that the noun phrase had developed a FOC slot to the left edge of phrase. It is this focus domain which helps to explain the distribution of definiteness markers and which provides an account for the grammaticalization of the free and bound marker hinn. It is also this focus domain which eventually leads to the development of dedicated definite slots in the prenominal space and eventually to functional DP projection in Modern Faroese. This thesis provides new and detailed descriptive data on the definite noun phrase in Modern Faroese, a lesser studied Insular Scandinavian language. Since Faroese is widely reported to have ‘lost’ the genitive case in recent times, the above changes are read against a background of morphosyntactic change. A key finding of the thesis for the Modern language is that Faroese is becoming increasingly reliant on analytic marking, despite the fact that is is still a highly inflected language. It is this reliance on syntax which has rendered the genitive redundant, not, as has been suggested, the ‘loss’ of case which has led to the development of periphrastic alternatives.

Important to understanding bilingualism and second language (L2) learning are L2 morphological processing and acquisition of tense and aspect. This study used narrative elicitation to examine the expression of boundedness and definiteness in Finnish and English by first language (L1) Finnish speakers who speak English as an L2 and L1 English speakers who speak Finnish as an L2. In Finnish, boundedness and definiteness were largely portrayed by using partitive and accusative cases, though tense and aspect conjugation also played a role. In English, boundedness was largely conveyed through tense and aspect conjugation and definiteness through article usage. Both L1 speaker groups appeared to demonstrate first language transfer as well as form following meaning in acquisition, meaning that a given form will be acquired first in contexts where the meaning of the form is inherent. There was also evidence pointing to avoidance by L2 speakers. Notably, varying interpretations of what the images used portrayed also seemed to play a role in some of the differences in responses across groups. The narrative elicitation methodology was useful in producing meaningful and easily comparable results.

This study deals with the Definiteness Effect (DE) in Chinese you existential sentences from pragmatic perspectives and the scope is confined to the formal written style with discourse environments. The data used for analysis is the United Daily News Corpus and the data selection is restricted to the definite NPs which are considered unacceptable in you existential sentences: proper names, pronouns, demonstratives, universal quantifications, most-NPs, and superlative. The data for analysis in this study consist of 119 natural occurrences and the results reveal that definite NPs can occur in you existential sentences and the contexts where they appear consist of adjunct clauses and complement clauses embedded under the matrix verb. It is also observed that you existential sentences can assert the existence of entities or events and definite NPs can represent given information. I suggest that the Definiteness Effect is a misnomer and the restriction imposed on you existential sentences is derived from the non-application of ¡§identification¡¨ in existential sentences. Definite NPs are only allowed in you existential sentences when they are used to identify the entities. If the postverbal NPs are to introduce or present the entities into the discourse, definite NPs are ruled out. In addition, it is argued that if the definite NPs are anaphoric and thus given information, they are used to draw the addressee¡¦s attention to the presence of entities or events; namely, they serve as focusing topics. It seems odd to view them only as topic-introducing constructions.

No description available.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.

This thesis examines ungrammatical article omission, and overuse of the definite article 'the' in indefinite specific context by Japanese learners of English. This is an area of English grammar that has been considered a major problem for L2 learners (e.g. Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004; R. Hawkins et al., 2005, 2006; Trenkic, 2007). The thesis extends the analysis of Japanese learners' interlanguage to the overuse of 'a' in indefinite specific mass contexts by these learners. A detailed analysis of DP structures in Japanese and English leads to the conclusion that Japanese learners, through their L1, are equipped with the linguistic features which map onto articles in English, even though Japanese lacks articles. The thesis examines the syntactic role of articles in rendering predicative nouns argumental (e.g. Chierchia, 1998; Longobardi, 1994) and explores the definiteness contrast marked by 'the' as opposed to 'a/ø' with singular count nouns and mass nouns (e.g. J. Hawkins, 1978) at the semantic level. Count/mass distinctions are also examined in detail (e.g. Doetjes, 1997; Jackendoff, 1992) because the 'a' versus 'Ø' contrast clearly relates this distinction. This thesis argues that, despite its lack of articles, the Japanese grammar expresses definiteness and count/mass distinctions through its classifier system. For example, different orderings of the constituents in a classifier phrase induce different interpretations as to definiteness (e.g. Kakegawa, 2004). Further, the thesis shows that some classifiers are incompatible with mass nouns, thus argue that in Japanese, as in English, nouns are associated with the features which underlie the count/mass distinction. Thus, the difficulty that Japanese learners display in mastering the grammar of articles in English is attributed to difficulties in the mapping between their syntactic and semantic underlying knowledge and the surface forms (e.g. Lardiere, 1998) rather than to the need to acquire new features or categories of syntactic or semantic knowledge as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (R. Hawkins, 2005) claims. This proposal differs from the previous studies that assume that the relevant syntactic category is not present in the learners’ L1 thus not acquirable in the L2 (R. Hawkins et al., 2005; Trenkic, 2007). It also differs from those that suggest that, even when the learners’ L1 does not overtly realize these features (Ionin et al., 2004), the semantic features are available through universal grammar (UG). In order to examine how Japanese learners map syntactic and semantic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles in their English, data were collected via an oral production task and two types of grammaticality judgment tasks. An online judgment task was used to gather evidence for an intuitive type of knowledge of the constraints on article use, while an offline judgment task examined conscious metalinguistic knowledge of articles. Because L2 learners tend to construct and apply various metalinguistic rules as to the use of articles (Goto-Butler, 2002), the examination of both intuitive and conscious knowledge is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the development of the article system in interlanguage grammar. For the mapping of the syntactic knowledge of articles, the omission of articles by Japanese participants is investigated. The investigation focused on singular count nouns because the omission of articles with these nouns is ungrammatical in any context. It was observed that several of the Japanese participants indeed disallowed article omission for these nouns, suggesting that they had acquired the English system of mapping relevant syntactic knowledge onto the surface forms of articles. The thesis also explores the mapping of the semantic knowledge of articles by focusing on the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Previous studies have claimed that the overuse of 'the' is governed by the Article Choice Parameter (Ionin et al., 2004). The findings reported here confirm the tendency to overuse 'the' in indefinite specific (i.e. noteworthy (Ionin et al., 2004)) contexts. However, it was also observed that 'a' was judged acceptable in the same context. The offline grammaticality judgment task revealed that the choice of 'the' in this context may have been affected by metalinguistic knowledge. Thus, the findings are not in agreement with the hypothesis that a parameter governs the overuse of 'the' in indefinite specific contexts. Additionally, the thesis examines the overuse of 'a' in mass contexts. Though small in number, the participants who make inconsistent judgments for the same noun showed a tendency to accept the use of 'a' in specific contexts (i.e. de re specific) and reject it in non-specific contexts. It is argued that the feature [+specific] may be mapped onto 'a' in mass contexts in these learners’ grammar. Based on these findings, the thesis explores how the syntactic module and the semantic module interact with each other in L2 grammar when mapping linguistic knowledge onto surface forms. The thesis also explores the effect of metalinguistic knowledge on L2 learners’ grammaticality judgments in order to demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of article systems in interlanguage grammar.