Definite Article of Quenya

The goal of this chapter is to explain the various asymmetries with regard to the (non-)use of definite articles in Quenya as compared to English. For that we will exploit the distinction of semantic and pragmatic uniqueness as originally introduced by Löbner1 and some generalizations made by Ortmann2 and Schwarz3 over weak-strong article splits encountered in many languages.

Nominal Concept Types

In his theory Löbner proposes a lexical distinction of noun types in how they classify the universe:

  • [-R] nouns point to a member of a class: rock, architect, chair;
  • [+R] nouns require a [-R] noun to bound them to the scene: wheel, sister, head;
  • [-U] nouns might have several instances within the same scene: tree, brother, minister;
  • [+U] nouns pick out a unique memeber within the scene: Peter, weather, father.

Lexical units have their default combination [±U][±R], but virtually each of them can undergo a type shift into any other combination:

  • [-U] → [+U]: a rock → the rock;
  • [+U] → [-U]: the mother of a child → a late mother;
  • [-R] → [+R]: a book → my book;
  • [+R] → [-R]: the king of Spain → a king.

Nouns which interpretation coincides with their lexical combination are then called nouns of this type, and which interpretation diverges from that combination are then called concepts of this type. The four possible types are then called:

[-U] [+U]
[-R] sortal individual
[+R] relational functional

Note

The terminology distinguishes the noun's underlying type (eg. functional noun, FN) from its actual use (eg. functional concept, FC).

Semantic vs Pragmatic Uniqueness

It is crucial then to distinguish between individual and functional nouns on one hand which are lexically unique, and concepts which uniqueness results from the context (linguistic or extra-linguistic). In his work Ortmann claims that this distinction results in the fundamental split of the article use: concepts are marked in a more explicit way. It's especially easy to obseve such tendency in languages which show two types of definite articles — weak and strong — like German.

The matter is not only complicated by the fact that articles tend to invade into other categories5, but also by fuzzy cases which could be analyzed either as semantic or pragmatic. The latter especially results in the article variation in closely related languages.

Strong Article in Quenya

The first major difference we can point between Quenya and English is the (non-)use of the article with unique nouns, where it is logically redundant:

type Quenya English
SN antanen hatal I cast a spear
RN — —
IN anar caluva the sun shall shine
FN lambe Eldaiva the language of the Eldar

However, it occurs with unique concepts to mark the incongruence:

type Quenya English
IC á sac' i fendë close the door
FC i yávë mónalyo the fruit of thy womb

Note

Many languages diverge here from the Ortmann's statement where Quenya adheres to it: they use the weak (semantic) article in the immediate use IC like in the sentence above. Schwarz shows that the weak article is used without anaphoricity. The immediate use IC is pragmatic but non-anaphoric. Löbner's and Ortmann's uniqueness scale avoids to include immediate use IC altogether.

The Threshold of Semantic and Pragmatic Uniqueness

Some corner cases which don't clearly belong either to semantic or pragmatic uniqueness are:

  • Bridging: "John bought a book today. The author is French".
  • Autophoric nouns: "He bought the car that was shown on TV".
  • Non-lexical FC: "The highest mountain".

Non-Lexical Functional Concepts

Non-lexical FC is a concept where semantic uniqueness comes about by syntactic structure and semantic composition rather than by the lexical meaning of the head noun. In particular, these are nouns combined with ordinal numbers, and with superlative forms of attributive adjectives. In these cases uniqueness is achieved by the lexical meaning of the modifier.

Complex FC in Quenya

Quenya superlative adjectives do not take the article6, and neither do the determining adjectives like last, next, only, same:

  • métima hrestallo círa [MC/221] leave the last shore

While no canonical example of ordinal number with a noun exists, they belong to the same category, and it is expected to observe a lack of the article with them too.

Bridging

Bridging or 'definite associative anaphora' (DAA) describes a noun, typically a functional noun, which is uniquely defined by its relation to a previously mentioned noun:

  • I looked into the room. The ceiling was very high
  • My new car needed repairing, the motor was broken
  • I've just been to a wedding. The bride wore blue.

Based on the world knowledge, the hearer knows that at a wedding, there should be one and only one bride, a room has only one ceiling and a car needs a motor. DAAs combine properties of pragmatic uniqueness (by virtue of anaphoricity) and semantic uniqueness (by virtue of involving a FN). It is therefore natural for there to be considerable variation in the use of articles.

DAA in Quenya

There's no canonical example of DAA in the current corpus of Quenya, but two sentences are close approximations to such:

  • alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun ar mi cemen rainë i hínin [VT44/32]. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men. 'The children' is definite in the reference to Eru.
  • an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, i hyarma tentanë Melcorello [VT49/6-8]. For if one turned the face westward, the left hand pointed away from Melkor. 'The left hand' is definite in the reference to one.

Note

The first example Eru → the children is a 'relational anaphora', and the second example one → the left hand is 'part-whole' DAA. Even though Schwarz and Ortmann discuss how part-whole and maker-product DAAs differ in their semantic-pragmatic dichotomy in some languages, the examples above show that in Quenya any DAA is marked by the article.

Autophoric Nouns

Autophoric nouns establish their unique reference by a restrictive relative clause. Context-dependency affects the weak-strong article choice, but it seems Quenya in general requires an article uniformly (even when the relative clause is reduced) unless superceded by another determiner:

  • Átaremma i ea han Ea [VT43/12] our Father who art in Heaven
  • manar i·ennor i me·kenner [MQ: PE22/124] who are the persons that we saw?
  • caita mornie i falmalinnar imbe met [RGEO/58] darkness lies on the foaming waves between us

Quenya as a Split I System

The simplified scale of uniqueness suggested by Löbner and Ortmann:

deictic SN < anaphoric SN < autophoric SN < DAA < non-lexical IC, FC < IN, FN < proper names

where the cut-off position for the article use varies from language to language:

  • English: deictic SN < [anaphoric SN < autophoric SN < DAA < non-lexical IC, FC < IN, FN] < proper names
  • Quenya: deictic SN < [anaphoric SN < autophoric SN < DAA] < non-lexical IC, FC < IN, FN < proper names

Data

sentence gloss type prediction
lassi lantar súrinen the leaves fall in the wind IN ✓
utúlie'n aure the day has come SN → IC (IU) ✓
a laita tárienna praise to the height FN → IC (DR) ✓
alcar Oromeo the splendour of Oromë FN ✓
anar caluva the sun shall shine IN ✓
Andúne pella beyond the West IN ✓
i yáve mónalyo Yésus the fruit of thy womb Jesus RN → FN (CA) ✓
súle Manweo etsurinye the spirit of Manwe went out FN ✓
á sac' i fende close the door RN → IC (IU) ✓
auta i lóme the night is passing SN → IC (IU) ✓
caitas lá i sír it is beyond the river SN → IC (IU) ✓
cále fifírula the light fading IN ✓
TBD TBD TBD

  1. Journal of Semantics 4: 279–326, 1985 ↩

  2. Frames and Concept Types: 293-321, 2014 ↩

  3. Two Types of Definites in Natural Language, Florian Schwarz, 2009 ↩

  4. Journal of Semantics 28: 279–333, 2011 ↩

  5. as in Greek, where the article is used even with names ↩

  6. PE17/91 ↩