Double Definiteness in Scandinavian

Double Definiteness in Scandinavian
Type	Article
Author(s)	Marit Julien
Editor(s)	Anne Dahl, Kristine Bentzen and Peter Svenonius
Publication title	Proceedings of the 19th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, vol 31.1
Publisher	Nordlyd 31.1:230-244
Annotator	Espen Lønvik
Corpus Link	Double Definiteness in Scandinavian
Media type	web article [1]

By Espen Lønvik

General Information

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Key Terms:

Double Definiteness
Denotation of DPs
Syntactic Structure of DP
Indefinite/Definite NP
Kind/Proper Names

Summary:

In Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages, definiteness in NPs are shown in a suffixed article. When the NP contains an adjective or a quantifier, definiteness is also shown by a prenominal determiner. When they both occur, we have what is called double definiteness. Julien references Longobardi on the denotation of DPs, and demonstrates the different significance of a filled or empty D-position of an NP in Romance and Germanic languages. With double definiteness in Scnadinavian languages, Julien aims to further demonstrate Longobardis view that the referential properties of D is weak in Germanic. Julien explains the syntactic structure of the DP as proposed by other researchers and herself, and illustrates how double definiteness is realized syntactically. She demonstrates this syntactic structure indefinite NPs (singular and plural), and definite NPs in Norwegian, and how the D-position can be either filled or empty when referencing kind or proper names, and sometimes optional. She shows examples of fixed expressions in Scandinavian with different constructions. Julien mentions the earlier assumptions on head movement of double definiteness, and makes her own proposal on the issue. Finally, she raises the problem of the D-projection of NP without an adjective or a quantifier.

Glossed Examples:

de-n gul-e skjort-a DEF-SG yellow-W shirt-DEF.FEM.SG ‘the yellow shirt’	de-i gul-e skjort-e-ne DEF-PL yellow-W shirt-PL-DEF.PL ‘the yellow shirts’	de-i to (gul-e) skjort-e-ne DEF-PL two yellow-W shirt-PL-DEF.PL ‘the two (yellow) shirts’
de-n ny-e forstå-ing-a hennar av seg sjølv DEF-SG new-W understand-ing-DEF.FEM.SG her ofREFL self ‘her new understanding of herself’	Det var (*de-n) svart-e natt-a da ho kom. it was DEF-SG black-w night-DEF.FEM.SG when she came ‘It was dark night when she came.’	Ho løft-a (de-n ) venstre hand-a. she lift-PAST DEF-SG left hand-DEF.FEM.SG ‘She raised her left hand.’
de-i fem bil-a-ne DEF-PL five car-PL-DEF.PL ‘the five cars.’	De-n kvit-e mann-(en) har undertrykt andre kultur-ar. DEF-SG white-W man-DEF.SG has oppressed other culture-PL ‘The white man has oppressed other cultures.’	De-n kvit-e mann-*(en) åt ein is. DEF-SG white-W man-DEF.SG ate an ice(-cream) ‘The white man ate an ice-cream.’
[DP *(Det) gaml-e Roma] vartøydelagt av barbar-a-ne. the old-DEF Roma was destroyed by barbarian-PL-DEF ‘Ancient Rome was destroyed by the barbarians.’