Volume 4, Issue 4 (2013)                   LRR 2013, 4(4): 55-68 | Back to browse issues page

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1- Assistant Professor, Department of Enghlish Language and Litearature, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
2- Ph.D. Student, Department of Linguistics, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Abstract:   (6858 Views)
Specificity usually refers to one of the properties of noun phrases. In this study, drawing upon the definition of specificity by Enç (1999) and Karimi (1999 and 2003), the Kurdish morpheme “ægæ” is investigated as the morphological marker of specificity in noun phrases in different syntactic positions. Using a  wide range of  evidence and data such as the obligatory presence of “ægæ” at the end of definite and some  of the indefinite noun phrases, it is argued that unlike what Edmonds (1995), MacKenzie (1961), Yarmoradi (1384) and Bahador (1390) point out, in Kermanshahi Kurdish this  morpheme indicates specificity  and not definiteness. Finally, based on Lyons’ classification of languages (1999), Kermanshahi Kurdish is placed among the languages, which only mark indefiniteness. Regarding the fundamental principle in Generative Grammar that the linguistic knowledge in the mind of speakers of a language is similar, the data were collected from the authors’ speech using the argumentative methodology. The theoretical framework was based on the viewpoints of Enç (1991) and Karimi (1999) on specificity.  
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Article Type: Research Paper | Subject: Linguistics
Published: 2013/12/22

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