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Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages
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Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2023) | Viewed by 16193

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Giuliana Giusti

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Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Dorsoduro 1075, 30123 Venice, Italy
Interests: formal syntax; determiner systems; nominal expressions; multiple agreement; Italoromance; Balkan languages; Latin
Prof. Dr. Anna Cardinaletti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dorsoduro 1075, 30123 Venice, Italy
Interests: syntax; (a)typical language acquisition; determiner systems; Italian; Italian dialects; Romance languages; Germanic languages

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Variation across time and space is one of the characterizing features of language that ground language change and dialectal differentiation. In current syntactic theories, this type of variation is viewed as different ways in the form to express the same meaning and function at different times or places. Variation can be viewed as a sum of separate jumps or as a continuum, or even as coexisting variants available to a speaker. This gives rise to optionality.

In the minimalist framework, in which Full Interpretation and Last Resort are the grounding principles, true optionality, that is two or more possible outputs with the same interpretation is problematic. The solutions offered to date are diverse: the assumption of coexisting grammars (Kroch 1989, Roeper 2000), the hypothesis of equally costly derivations (Biberauer and Richards 2006), the proposal of homophonous lexical items with a (minimally) different bundle of features (Adger 2015). The latter approach interfaces with sociolinguistic insights that treat different outputs as probabilistic variants (Labov 1972, Cedegren and Sankoff 1974, Berruto 2010).

Most of the above literature focuses on optionality in phonology, feature sharing (agreement or concord), and word order (optional movement), less so on optional insertion and position of determiners. This is rather surprising, since variation in the distribution of determiners is a crucial feature of language change, initial stages of acquisition, and diatopic / diastratic / diamesic variation.

This special issue will focus on how determiner systems may provide new perspectives on the two sides of variation, as fine-grained diversification of meanings vs true optionality. The empirical focus can be on any language, including but not limited to local vs. regional vs. national varieties; heritage languages; typical and atypical first and second language acquisition. Theoretical, applied and experimental approaches are welcome including but not limited to formal syntax, functional grammar, construction grammar, optimality theory, dialectometrics, quantitative and qualitative variationist linguistics, experimental linguistics, and computational linguistics. The ultimate purpose is to bring scholars of different areas and persuasions to collaborate in the search of the relevance of variation and optionality in determiner systems to the understanding of the complex interaction of the biological and social nature of language (Cornips and Corrigan 2005; Delbeque, van der Auwera and Geeraerts 2005).

The volume will usefully supplement the vast literature on determiner systems with the novel perspective of distinguishing true optionality from fine-grained variation in the spirit of recent work on indefinite determiners by Cardinaletti and Giusti (2018; 2020).

We request that prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors Giuliana Giusti ([email protected]) and Anna Cardinaletti ([email protected]) or to /Languages/ editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

The tentative completion schedule is as follows:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 5 May 2023
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 May 2023
  • Full manuscript deadline: 30 October 2023

References

Adger, D. 2016. Language variability in syntactic theory. In Eguren, L., Fernandez-Soriano, =. & Mendikoetxea, A. (eds.) Rethinking Parameters. Oxford, OUP. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190461737.003.0002

Berruto, G. 2010. Identifying dimensions of linguistic variation in a language space. In Peter Auer & Jürgen Schmidt (eds.), Language and space; an international handbook of linguisti variation vol. 1, 226-241. Berlin, De Gruyter.

Biberauer, T & Richards, M. 2006. True optionality: when the grammar doesn‘t mind. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.) Minimalist Essays, 35-67. Amsterdam: Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.91.08bib

Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2018. Indefinite determiners: Variation and Optionality in Italo-Romance, in D’Alessandro, R. & Pescarini, D. Advances in Italian Dialectology, 135-161. Amsterdam, Brill.

Cardinaletti, A & Giusti, G. 2020. Indefinite determiners in informal Italian. A preliminary analysis. Linguistics 58(3), 679-712. https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/ling/58/3/article-p679.xml   

Cedegren, H & Sankoff, D. 1974. Variable rules: performance as a statistical reflection of competence. Language 50:333-355. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.265

Cornips, L. & Corrigan, K.P. 2005. Syntax and variation: reconciling the biological and the social. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins.

Delbeque, N., van der Auwera, J. & D. Geeraerts (eds.) 2005. Perspectives on Variation. Sociolinguistic, Historical, Comparative. Berlin - New York, Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110909579

Kroch, A. 1989. Reflexes of Grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1:199-244. doi:10.1017/S0954394500000168

Labov, W. 1972. Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Roeper, T. 2000. Universal bilingualism. Language and Cognition 2:169-186. doi:10.1017/S1366728999000310


Prof. Dr. Giuliana Giusti
Prof. Dr. Anna Cardinaletti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • variation
  • optionality
  • determiners
  • articles
  • definiteness
  • demonstratives
  • indefiniteness

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 482 KiB  
Article
Strategies of Indefiniteness Marking in Central Sicilian—Evidence from the Dialect of Delia
by Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro
Languages 2023, 8(4), 227; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040227 - 22 Sep 2023
Viewed by 2242
Abstract
This paper is meant as a contribution to the research project on variation and optionality in the determiner system in Italo-Romance, with novel data from the Sicilian dialect of Delia. The study is based on fieldwork interviews and the construction of a small [...] Read more.
This paper is meant as a contribution to the research project on variation and optionality in the determiner system in Italo-Romance, with novel data from the Sicilian dialect of Delia. The study is based on fieldwork interviews and the construction of a small corpus of 850 observations by 24 native speakers of Deliano (mean age: 36.37; age range: 19–72). The participants were asked to (i) describe in Deliano a 3 min videotape of an Italian speaking woman during her shopping session at a supermarket and (ii) talk about their own shopping routines in Deliano. These activities were designed mainly to detect the following strategies to express indefiniteness: (i) ART, i.e., a definite article with an indefinite interpretation; (ii) ZERO, a zero determiner for bare nouns; (iii) DI+ART, the so-called “partitive article”; (iv) pseudo-partitives such as ‘a bit of’; (v) the grammaticalised cardinal ‘two’; and (vi) the grammaticalised cardinal ‘four’. The data confirm (i) the preference for ZERO in negative episodic sentences in the past; (ii) the general lack of bare DI and DI+ART, and of certo ‘certain’ used as an indefinite; (iii) the use of different specialised forms of pseudo-partitive ‘a bit of’ in older speakers of Deliano; (iv) the neutralisation of this pseudo-partitive specialisation and the consequent emergence of some true optionality in younger speakers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
13 pages, 495 KiB  
Article
Variation in the Occurrence and Interpretation of Articles in Malagasy: A Comparison with Italian
by Ileana Paul, Giuliana Giusti and Gianluca E. Lebani
Languages 2022, 7(3), 202; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030202 - 2 Aug 2022
Viewed by 2057
Abstract
In languages that have a definite article but no indefinite article, the definite article typically maps to definites, and the bare noun maps to indefinites. We investigate this mapping in Malagasy, which imposes an additional restriction: bare nouns cannot be subjects. We ask [...] Read more.
In languages that have a definite article but no indefinite article, the definite article typically maps to definites, and the bare noun maps to indefinites. We investigate this mapping in Malagasy, which imposes an additional restriction: bare nouns cannot be subjects. We ask whether the subject can be interpreted as indefinite, given the obligatory nature of the article. We also look at DPs in other positions (direct object, clefted subjects) to determine whether the mapping between form and meaning is one-to-one. To answer these questions, we administered an on-line questionnaire that presented participants with the choice of the article or the bare noun in the different positions (subject, object, cleft) in contexts that favoured an indefinite/novel interpretation. As predicted, the article was obligatory in subject position, but disfavoured in the object and cleft position. These results confirm current descriptions in the literature. We compare these results with a similar case of definite article in indefinite nominals found in Italian and propose that the article does not carry definiteness features (at least in these cases) but overtly marks (abstract) Case assignment on subjects, while it can remain silent on objects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
23 pages, 1847 KiB  
Article
The Acquisition of French Determiners by Bilingual Children: A Prosodic Account
by Johanna Stahnke
Languages 2022, 7(3), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030200 - 31 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2047
Abstract
The present longitudinal study investigates the acquisition of determiners (articles) in two simultaneously bilingual French-Italian children aged 1;6,12 until 3;5,17, one of them being French-dominant and the other one being Italian-dominant. Although French and Italian determiners and determiner phrases share some syntactic aspects, [...] Read more.
The present longitudinal study investigates the acquisition of determiners (articles) in two simultaneously bilingual French-Italian children aged 1;6,12 until 3;5,17, one of them being French-dominant and the other one being Italian-dominant. Although French and Italian determiners and determiner phrases share some syntactic aspects, they largely differ with respect to noun length and lexical stress in the nominal domain. Prosody is expected to be a decisive factor in the early prosodification of determiners by French-Italian bilinguals. The analysis of more than 4500 noun phrases yields different acquisition paths and cross-linguistic transfer, which can neither be explained by linguistic structure nor by language balance alone. The results are analyzed within the generative framework. The proposed account integrates language-internal and external factors for determiner acquisition in French by bilingual children. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
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32 pages, 555 KiB  
Article
DOM and Nominal Structure—Some Notes on DOM with Bare Nouns
by Monica Alexandrina Irimia
Languages 2022, 7(3), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030175 - 7 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1987
Abstract
Differential object marking (DOM) interacts with nominal structure in complex ways across Romance languages. For example, in Spanish, it has been claimed to ban bare nominals. For Romanian, in turn, two main restrictions have been discussed: (i) ban on overt definiteness on unmodified [...] Read more.
Differential object marking (DOM) interacts with nominal structure in complex ways across Romance languages. For example, in Spanish, it has been claimed to ban bare nominals. For Romanian, in turn, two main restrictions have been discussed: (i) ban on overt definiteness on unmodified nominals; and (ii) ban on bare nominals, if the structure contains an overt modification. This paper has two main goals. First, it examines some contexts where these types of restrictions can be lifted for some speakers; such contexts allow us to grasp a better understanding of the limits of variation permitted by DOM in its interaction with nominal structure and determiner systems. Secondly, it proposes that a theory under which DOM signals a licensing strategy beyond Case can derive the variation patterns observed in the data. Subsequently, various parameters are examined, which encode (i) how specifications responsible for DOM interact with other features in the composition of nominals; and (ii) how the resulting complex containing DOM as well as other features is resolved at PF. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
27 pages, 846 KiB  
Article
A Plural Indefinite Article in Heritage Greek: The Role of Register
by Artemis Alexiadou, Vasiliki Rizou and Foteini Karkaletsou
Languages 2022, 7(2), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020115 - 9 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2450
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of kati “some” by Greek Heritage Speakers (HSs) in comparison to monolinguals. While all Greek determiners are marked for gender, case, and number, and agree with their nominal complement, kati is an exception, as it lacks agreement and [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the use of kati “some” by Greek Heritage Speakers (HSs) in comparison to monolinguals. While all Greek determiners are marked for gender, case, and number, and agree with their nominal complement, kati is an exception, as it lacks agreement and combines only with plural nouns. Building on the existing literature, we show that its function is to remain vague about the number of individuals/entities denoted. Our hypothesis is that vague language (VL) is a feature of informal conversations and of the spoken language. To this end, we conducted a study in which Heritage Speakers of Greek and monolingual speakers of Greek participated in a production task held in two distinct settings and modalities. In addition, we performed corpus searches to see how both monolingual and Heritage Speakers use kati. The results show that monolingual speakers do indeed prefer kati in the informal register, while Heritage Speakers overgeneralize its use across registers. Our findings confirm the use of vague language in informal registers and oral modality and support claims in the literature on register levelling by Heritage Speakers. Focusing on monolinguals’ repertoire, a judgment task with different levels of formality was additionally performed. These results in principle align with our hypothesis and signal that neither frequency nor other informality contexts trigger a higher rate for kati. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
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30 pages, 3565 KiB  
Article
Optionality in the Expression of Indefiniteness: A Pilot Study on Piacentine
by Luca Molinari
Languages 2022, 7(2), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020099 - 18 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2574
Abstract
Optionality is an issue within the minimalist theory of language, in which the principle of the “last resort” does not admit competing options to express the same meaning. What is needed is a solid empirical base showing that apparently competing forms do specialize [...] Read more.
Optionality is an issue within the minimalist theory of language, in which the principle of the “last resort” does not admit competing options to express the same meaning. What is needed is a solid empirical base showing that apparently competing forms do specialize for some syntactic/semantic traits. Hence, the aim of this pilot study is to investigate optionality in the choice of competing indefinite determiners in Piacentine, an Italo-Romance variety spoken in north-western Italy. Sixteen native Piacentine speakers were presented with a questionnaire to collect linguistic data. Statistical analyses of the data were performed to seek correlations between the choice of the indefinite determiners and some syntactic/semantic traits that were controlled for. The results indicate that Piacentine displays four main determiners, labeled ART, di+art, bare di, and ZERO. ART and di+art are the most widespread determiners allowing both narrow and wide scope and occurring in all the investigated contexts. Bare di is instead the unmarked form for expressing non-existential indefiniteness in negative contexts and only has narrow scope. ZERO co-varies with bare di, and its use was strengthened by contact with Italian, preventing its loss, differently from French, which lost ZERO instead. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages)
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