On definite kinds1

Abstract

In this paper we defend three hypotheses. First, all languages that have Determiners (null or overt) have deinite kinds, a possibility which does not prevent languages from using other means to refer to kinds. Second, kinds are referred to by deinite DPs with no Number involved. Third, the subkind interpretation is built on Number. We will provide empirical support for these hypotheses based on a contrastive analysis of two languages that show opposite strategies for marking deiniteness: Spanish, a Romance language with articles, and Russian, a Slavic language with no article. We predict that deinite kinds cannot combine with predicates that encode plurality, cannot trigger a generic interpretation with s-level predicates, and have an interpretation that differs from the one associated to deinite plurals.

On the Syntax of Number in Romance

“…Definite kinds (e.g., Spanish El colibrí está en todas partes lit. the hummingbird is in every parts ‘The hummingbird is everywhere’) illustrate the former (Borik & Espinal , ), for which it has been postulated that the D combines directly with the N with no intervening Number, the output meaning being that the iota operator turns properties of kinds into kind expressions. Bare nominals in object position of have‐ predicates (e.g., Spanish llevar bolso lit.…”

Hacia una caracterización sintáctica del género del sustantivo en español

“…iii) La construcción de un nombre genérico, que alude a toda la clase de entidades, con estos sustantivos implica siempre la eliminación del femenino. Como es bien sabido, en (44a) es posible interpretar el sustantivo como denotador de la clase total a la que se refiere el nombre léxico (Borik y Espinal, 2012, 2015, mientras que en (44b) solo se alude a las entidades hembra dentro de la clase de entidades. iv) La combinación de estos sustantivos con el diminutivo -it-no implica cambio en el morfema final del sustantivo.…”

Numberless kinds: Evidence from Russian

“…We assume that in languages like English, definite kinds of the type exemplified in (8) express D-genericity (cf. Krifka et al 1995) and are composed by applying the iota operator i to the denotation of a common noun, which denotes properties of kinds (see Borik & Espinal 2012 of definite kinds in Spanish). This proposal might be conceived as a universal principle, no matter whether the languages considered have overt articles (such as English or Spanish) or not (such as Russian).…”