Definiteness and indefiniteness in Kĩembu: A morphosyntactic approach

Abstract

This study is an attempt to find out how definiteness and indefiniteness are expressed in Kĩembu. It is important to note that the language does not have articles but still expresses definiteness and indefiniteness. The study therefore seeks to establish how these notions are expressed. A conceptual framework adopted from Lyons (1999) has been used to analyze the data for the study. Having done that, it is established that proper nouns are aligned to definiteness by being uniquely referring. The demonstratives signal familiarity and identifiability of the referent. Possessives are aligned to definiteness by identifiability and uniqueness of the referent(s) while those quantifiers that encode inclusiveness of the referent express definiteness. For indefiniteness, grammatical categories that fail to pass at least one of the definiteness tests express indefiniteness. Bare indefiniteness which is the unmarked form of the noun (unmarked for definiteness) signals indefiniteness in Kĩembu. The existential constructions allow indefinite noun phrases always and in Kĩembu narratives, the adjective certain indicated by the morpheme (-mwe) is also followed by an indefinite noun phrase. Moreover, the indefinite quantifiers such as some indicated by the morpheme -mwe, a little both of which are indicated by the morpheme -tũ, a few, much and many (expressed by the morpheme -ngĩ), express indefiniteness. Communication takes place in context and therefore, linguistic and extra linguistic contexts enhance the interpretation of a noun phrase as definite or indefinite. Therefore, pragmatics is relevant