Cross-categorial Definiteness/Familiarity
Dissertation Abstract
This dissertation examines definiteness in Akan, focusing specifically on the so-called definite determiner, which occurs in both the nominal and clausal domains. I argue that "nó" encodes the presupposition of familiarity across categories — it requires the existence of a discourse referent with the descriptive content of its complement in the discourse. The complement of "nó" as a cross-categorial determiner includes NP and TP (as well as additional propositional nodes, including NegP). This dissertation contributes to the growing body of research about cross-categorial definite determiners, particularly in languages such as Ewe, Fongbe, and Haitian Creole.
In the nominal domain, "nó" imposes two conditions on its complement: it must be familiar in the discourse and have a non-unique denotation in the larger discourse. These requirements, encoded as presuppositions, capture essential components of the determiner. The familiarity presupposition corresponds to the notion of “weak familiarity,” while the non-uniqueness presupposition accounts for the incompatibility of "nó" with inherently unique nouns such as "president" and superlatives.
In the clausal domain, "nó" can be combined with declarative sentences where it takes a propositional argument. I argue that "nó"-clauses are definite propositions with two semantic contributions: a presupposition of familiarity and an assertion. Despite their status as definite propositions, "nó"-clauses in embedded contexts lack several characteristics associated with definite CPs in Hebrew and Greek. For example, under non-factive predicates, "nó"-clauses do not elicit factive presuppositions. While clausal "nó" encodes familiarity, it cannot be used to reintroduce a proposition already present in the Common Ground. To account for this property, I adopt the idea that information is updated at two distinct levels during a conversation: the Common Propositional Space (CPS) and the Common Ground (CG). Each proposition uttered is stored in the CPS, while only asserted propositions are stored in the CG. Thus, prior to the utterance of a "nó"-clause, the information it encodes is contained only in the CPS. The "nó"-clause passes the information to the CG. This study not only articulates the intriguing distributional properties of a clausal determiner but also provides empirical evidence for a textured perspective of discourse structure.
Additionally, the dissertation examines the semantics of the Akan indefinite determiner "bí," presenting a comprehensive view of the nominal space. "Bí" licenses exceptional wide-scope readings outside scope islands, transparent readings within the scope of intensional verbs, and referential uses similar to specific indefinites while also permitting narrow-scope readings within islands and opaque readings within the scope of intensional verbs. Based on these properties, I propose that "bí" is an unambiguous choice function with an implicit Skolem-world/situation variable. This analysis builds on Arkoh’s (2011) analysis of "bí" in Akan.
Remarkably, the definite and indefinite determiners may occur in two distinct orders in a DP: NP "bí" "nó" (understood as definite) and NP "nó" "bí" (interpreted as partitive).