REALIZATIONrlz.eng.definiteness
definiteness in English
English forces a singular count noun phrase to declare whether its referent is identifiable, and admits a third, unmarked option that carries a reading of its own.
A singular count noun in English cannot stand bare. It takes the definite article when the referent is presented as identifiable to the addressee, or the indefinite article when it is presented as a particular but new one, and a clause with neither is ungrammatical rather than vague. That is the core of the system and it is exceptionless within its domain.
The third option is what distinguishes this language from one whose article is required everywhere. A plural or a mass noun may appear with no article at all, and the resulting phrase is grammatical and means something specific: a generic or an unquantified indefinite reading, distinct from what either article would give. The zero option is therefore a term in the system rather than a hole in it, which is why the obligatoriness is recorded as obligatory rather than conditioned. The contrast applies wherever a noun phrase is built, and every noun phrase settles it, including the ones that settle it by taking nothing.
The article is invariant, which is the second divergence worth naming. It does not vary with number, and there is no agreement class for it to vary with, so English has one definite article for every noun in the language where a language with agreement classes has several. Definiteness is also carried by other determiners which occupy the same slot and exclude the article, so a demonstrative or a possessive already settles the question and no article may be added. The system is thus a single position with several fillers rather than a separate marking layered on top.
- status
status documentedasserted, and the sources agree- provenance
provenance authoredwritten for Logos, from first principles- derivation status
derivation_status unstatednobody has said whether it follows from anything- salience
salience - No salience. Where no frequency source applies the object carries none, rather than a default or a guess (03-schema.md §3.5).
- aliases
aliases - None recorded.
- sources
sources - An empty list, which is an assertion: this rests on nothing external, and somebody checked. It is not the same as nobody having looked.
What this language does about this category
realization.stateOne of five states, or the eleventh cell: nobody has recorded a state, which is not a claim that the language lacks the distinction.
- state
state - explicit
- obligatoriness
obligatoriness obligatorymarked wherever it applies
The realizers
realization.viaEvery via edge: this realizer, this way. An explicit or periphrastic state is a summary of this list, recomputed on every build and never authored.
absent or void state that is required rather than missing: those states have zero via edges by design (03-schema.md §6.1).Everything joined to this object
One group per typed edge, in both directions. A1b guarantees no object node is an orphan, so this is the whole navigation: an object with no edges would have failed the build rather than reached this page.
What this object is a kind of
Walking this object's own `is-a` edges: what it is a kind of. Several branches from one object are several classification axes, not competing supertypes.
- objects
- 1
- places drawn
- 1
- multi-parent
- None in this view. This subgraph happens to be a tree, which the explorer draws as one without assuming it is one.
English forces a singular count noun phrase to declare whether its referent is identifiable, and admits a third, unmarked option that carries a reading of its own.
Siblings are listed by name, then by id to break ties. That is a display choice made here and not an order the graph asserts.
Fan-out per dimension
A4One row per dimension, largest first. That is a display order, not a verdict: 03-schema.md declares no threshold above which fan-out is too much, so this reports the count and grades nothing.
- case13 values
- mood8 values
- voice8 values
- aspect7 values
- aktionsart6 values
- number6 values
- person6 values
- tense6 values
- comparison4 values
- evidentiality4 values
- gender4 values
- politeness4 values
- valency4 values
- animacy3 values
- definiteness3 values
- deixis3 values
- finiteness2 values
- information structure2 values
- interrogativity2 values
- polarity2 values
- switch-reference2 values
What kinds of this object there are
Walking the `is-a` edges that point at this object: what kinds of it there are. An object reachable two ways is drawn in both places and is still one object.
- objects
- 1
- places drawn
- 1
- multi-parent
- None in this view. This subgraph happens to be a tree, which the explorer draws as one without assuming it is one.
English forces a singular count noun phrase to declare whether its referent is identifiable, and admits a third, unmarked option that carries a reading of its own.
Siblings are listed by name, then by id to break ties. That is a display choice made here and not an order the graph asserts.
has-a
edges.has-athe parent carries this
this object carries
- CATEGORYdefiniteness
cat.definitenessdocumentedmodeinherent
derives
edges.derivesthe why-chain