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Re: Definiteness

From:Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>
Date:Sunday, March 2, 2008, 20:11
On Mar 2, 2008, at 1:49 PM, Paul Bennett wrote:

> On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:51:05 -0500, Mr Veoler <veoler@...> > wrote: > >> One thing I have had in mind to ask: What about definiteness? >> >> The definite article, and a generic demonstrative - what's the >> difference? > > Semantically, very little, if any. > > I suspect you could replace every demonstrative "that" and every > "the" in English both with "bleen" and be just as expressive and > concise (once the listener knew what "bleen" meant). > >> Generally, my conlang have the unmarked noun to be "indefinite" in >> the broader >> sense, and might be used for what in English is definite, if the >> context is >> enough. And then I have two marked articles: one for definiteness, >> used when >> you want to make it explicitly definite, as a generic >> demonstrative, and the >> second article for genericness (as in Latejami). > > In Terzemian, as IIRC in Spanish, I distinguish three articles: > > Type 0: Not definite to the speaker > Type 1: Definite to the speaker, but the speaker does not know (or > care?) whether it's definite to the listener > Type 2: Definite to the speaker, and the speaker expects / wants it > to be definite to the listener
I was just about to bring up the same distinction. How is it done in Spanish?
> > English can express these, but not with absolute concision: > > Type 0: I'm looking for a house > Type 1: I'm looking for a specific house > Type 2: I'm looking for the house
In my Dhaqran, at least as I envision it right now, the distinction is marked by the mood of the word "house" -- it doesn't distinguish verbs, nouns, and adjectives, and most words that would conventionally be put into those classes show typically verbal distinctions such as aspect, mood, and voice. Type 0 would use the irrealis mood: "there could/would/might/may be a house; I'm looking for it". Type 1 would use the realis mood: "there is a house; I'm looking for it". Type 3 would use the realis mood and probably some sort of demonstrative or article "there is a house; it is that one; I'm looking for it". (The word for "house" might also have a definite subject instead of being impersonal, in which case it would gloss as something like "it is a house; [it is that one (optional);] I'm looking for it" (depending on the preceding context).)