Determiner Phrases

A determiner phrase consists of a determiner, an optional pronoun to bind, and a verb phrase complement. The phrase signifies some entity such that the complement holds true with that entity as the subject. Najan has just four determiners:

The indefinite determiner zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner introduces a new specific instance of the complement. It corresponds to existential quantification in logic.

The definite determiner gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner refers to a known instance of the complement. The referent should be unique (e.g. a proper noun) or otherwise obvious from context. There is only one entity that is the sun:

We can express a demonstrative (this or that) by intersecting the complement of a definite determiner with tlɪ (here) or dwə (there).

The distributive determiner sʊ expresses that the clauses containing the determiner phrase (and its pronoun, if any) hold true for each instance of the complement. It corresponds to universal quantification in logic.

The generic determiner ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense refers to the complement in a general, nonspecific sense. It’s often used with the gnomic aspect. This determiner doesn’t map cleanly to any one determiner in English; for instance, a man’s gotta eat, cats are cute, and the giraffe is an African species all have a generic subject.

In English, the indefinite articles a and an do not encode specificity. For instance, I’m looking for a book may or may not mean I have a specific book in mind. In Najan, the indefinite determiner is always specific:

The generic determiner is always nonspecific.

Pronoun Binding

Binding a pronoun in a determiner phrase allows referring back to it in a concise and unambiguous way.

Plural and Uncountable Determiner Phrases

The complement in a determiner phrase may be uncountable or plural, in which case the entity identified by the determiner phrase is a set or quantity.

In fact, Najan does not distinguish between countable and uncountable determiner phrases since determiner phrases always identify discrete entities. In English, rock is countable in a small rock but uncountable in a hunk of rock. In Najan, the word for rock, kut, means to be made of stone. Thus zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner​kut, literally a thing that is made of stone, could be translated into English either as a rock (countable) or as some rock (uncountable).

Ordering Determiner Phrases

We have to be careful about the order of arguments when distributive determiners and indefinite determiners are both present since they are not commutative with each other.

It’s true that every human has a human mother:

It is however not true that all humans share a single universal mother: