Re: Unmarked definiteness
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, August 25, 2004, 1:21 |
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In a message dated 8/24/2004 6:44:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, andjo@FREE.FR
writes:
>That's true, but I was thinking from a more typological angle; my impression
is
>that the definite is usually at least as marked as the indefinite. Is this
>true?
In _Definiteness_, Lyons appears to say* that having a marked definite and an
unmarked indefinite is more common than vice versa. I cannot just now find
any reference about whether, in languages where both are marked, there is any
tendency for one to be more marked than the other.
*This is not quite clear to me just now, because he is inclined to think that
most (or all?)"indefinite articles" do not, strictly speaking, indicate
indefiniteness. Rather, they're markers of cardinality that only imply
indefiniteness. In that case, it may be that indefiniteness is never marked, strictly
speaking.
Doug
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