The definiteness of subjects and objects in Malagasy

Domaine:

natural language processing

Type de record:

paper

Créateur:

Edw

Éditeur:

Joh

Hôte:

We evaluate, for Malagasy (W. Austronesian; Madagascar), a standard observation regarding the distribution and marking of (in)definites in subject and in object position. Bare nouns naturally constitute direct objects (DOs) with an indefinite interpretation. But definite DOs are also natural, and some are marked with a preposition which also has a locative function (cf Roumanian, Spanish). Bare Ns do not occur as subjects, whereas inherently definite DPs – proper nouns, personal pronouns, demonstratives, Ns with a definite or previous mention article do. However three classes of Quantified DPs – cardinal, universal, and proportionality ones, also naturally occur as subjects. They are constructed with an apparent definite article, but their meanings in English would be called indefinite.

Derived Objects in Malagasy

The interplay of style, information structure and definiteness: Double indirect objects in Figuig Berber narratives

In Figuig Berber, like in many other Berber languages, it is possible to express the indirect object

The encoding of subjects and objects in Jumjum, a Nilotic OV language

Upward-oriented complementizer agreement with subjects and objects in Kipsigis

In Kipsigis (Nilotic, Kenya), declarative-embedding complementizers can agree with both main-clause subjects (Subj-CA) and main-clause objects (Obj-CA). Subj-CA agrees with the closest super-ordinate subject (even in the context of intervening objects), cannot agre

Missing Complement Clause Subjects in Malagasy

This paper presents and analyzes a biclausal construction in the Austronesian language Malagasy in w

Demonstratives and definiteness in Babanki

International audience