24.2382, Qs: Search for Article on Adjectives that Disambiguate Indefiniteness in English

[linguist at linguistlist.org]

LINGUIST List: Vol-24-2382. Tue Jun 11 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.2382, Qs: Search for Article on Adjectives that Disambiguate Indefiniteness in English

Moderator: Damir Cavar, Eastern Michigan U <damir at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Veronika Drake, U of Wisconsin Madison
Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin Madison
Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
       <reviews at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Brent Miller <brent at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  


Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:44:45
From: John Winward [winward at tu.ac.th]
Subject: Search for Article on Adjectives that Disambiguate Indefiniteness in English

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=24-2382.html&submissionid=15118636&topicid=8&msgnumber=1
 
I'm working on L2 acquisition of English articles by Thai L1 learners. 
In particular, I'm interested in the (possible) confusion between 
determiners and adjectives.

Background: in a range of 'opaque' contexts - for example the 
scope of intensional verbs - English indefinites allow both a specific 
and non-specific reading: (1a) +Specific, (1b) -Specific.

1a. Mary wants to marry a millionaire; his name is John.
1b. Mary wants to marry a millionaire, but doesn't know any.

English has a couple of adjectives that can force a specific reading. 
'A certain X' is the most widely quoted example in the literature.

Thai has no article system, but there is an adjective(?) that seems 
to play the opposite role - forcing an indefinite reading, even in 
environments that would normally be specific.

I remember reading a journal article a few years back in which the 
author claims - in passing - that English has an adjective of this 
sort. I can't for the life of me remember the article, the author or - 
most importantly - the adjective in question. I can think of a few 
candidates - 'An unspecified X', for example, but none of them 
sound natural, and none of them clearly disambiguate the specificity 
/ non-specificity across a wide range of tokens. I've tried using a 
thesaurus, but to no avail.

Can anyone suggest a likely candidate, or remember the article I'm 
thinking of?

Thanks
 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition

Subject Language(s): English (eng)






----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-24-2382	
----------------------------------------------------------