Anaphoric Potential of Incorporated Nominals and Weak Definites (ANAPIN)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Manfred Krifka
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2016 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319494951

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

“Weak definites” refer to expressions such as “go to the hospital” or “read the newspaper”, which do not need to refer to a specific hospital or newspaper, but which differ in meaning from the expressions “go to a hospital” and “read a newspaper”. In Persian, which has no definite articles, simple “incorporated” objects such as ruznameh khand ‘read the newspaper’ occur alongside indefinite objects such as yek ruznameh khand ‘read a newspaper’ and marked objects such as ruzzameh ra khand ‘read the newspaper’. The project was based on a suspected connection between the grammatical role of incorporated objects in Persian and weak definites in German. In particular, we investigated whether and, if so, how such objects can be taken up again later. We were able to show, contrary to previous assumptions, that this is indeed possible (e.g. in Eva went to the hospital, but it was closed, in its weak definite interpretation). However, this works somewhat better with indefinite expressions (a hospital). We were able to find a very similar asymmetry for Persian. We have also investigated such differences in accessibility for other types of expression in German. These differences are informative about how these expressions are understood, how they should be represented in the grammar, and what meanings they have. From our experimental observations we have derived consequences for the representation of such expressions within the framework of a well-known theory, Discourse Representation Theory (DRT). From this one could draw conclusions, for example that from Anna went to the hospital and Betty too it does not follow that both went to the same hospital. For Persian, we were able to show that, contrary to previous assumptions, incorporated objects can also be taken up again; this was possible because we carried out rigorous experiments with Persian native speakers and did not rely on the intuitions of linguists. The theory we propose initially seems paradoxical and goes against previous doctrines. We assume that object nouns such as ruznameh ‘newspaper’ are always definite, but that they are dependent on a situation (“the newspaper in the situation”). If the object marker occurs (ruznameh ra), there must be a newspaper in the general situation to which the noun then refers. If the object marker does not occur, then it refers to a newly introduced situation (“There is a situation, and the newspaper of this situation is read in that situation”) - this justifies the appearance of an indefinite interpretation of the newspaper. This theory has been shown to make fewer assumptions than the assumption of indefinite vs. definite basic meanings, and makes good predictions in other respects. The project has also dealt with other topics related to definiteness and indefiniteness. For example, we were able to explain why the expression a center of a circle is strange (as a circle only has one center), but the expression a point exactly in the middle of the circle is fine.

Publications

• "Experiment: Anaphoric Potential of Incorporated Nominals", LACUS Conference, 31.07.2017 - 04.08.2017, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Iranian Languages", 12.06.2017, University of Wroclaw.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Lexical Access: The Interaction of Phonological and Semantic Features", Psycholinguistics Experiment, 5th International Winter School: Speech Perception and Production - Learning and Memory, 09.01.2017 - 13.01.2017, Kloster Chorin, Germany.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Pseudo-incorporated Nominals, Weak Definites and Their Uptake", Masaryk University Brno.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Lecture on Iranian Language Family", University of Wroclaw.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Bare Nouns as Weak Definites in Persian." Second North American Conferencein Iranian Linguistics (NACIL2), 19–21 Apr 2019, The University of Arizona.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Bare Nouns in Persian." Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) 42, 07–11 May 2019, University of Oslo.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoricity of Weak Definites and Bare Nouns." Generative Grammar in the South 45 (GGS), 19–21 Juli 2019, Goethe- Universität, Frankfurt.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Experiment: Weak Definites vs. Implicit Entities vs. Indefinites in German." Workshop, Annual Meeting of DGfS 2019, Sorting Out The Concept Behind Definiteness, Universität Bremen.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh, Fortmann, Jette & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Experimental Investigation: Bare Noun vs. Indefinite Objects in Persian and Their Anaphoric Uptake." Workshop Annual Meeting of DGfS 2019, Sorting Out The Concept Behind Definiteness, Universität Bremen.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "The Anaphoric Potential of Bare Nouns and Weak Definites", University of Göttingen.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "World Knowledge and the Anaphoric Uptake", University of Bucharest.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• Persian ezafe and proportional quantifiers. Snippets(37), 56-58.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Various Nominal Objects in German." Linguistic Evidence 2020, 13–15 Feb 2020, Universität Tübingen.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Bare Noun (Pseudo-Incorporated) Antecedents and Anaphora: Preference for SingularInterpretation." ELM: Experiments in Linguistic Meaning (virtual), 16–18 Sep 2020, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Pseudo-Incorporation and Anaphora: Arguments for Abstraction and Summation." GLOW 43: Generative Linguistics in the Old World (virtual), 08–20 Apr 2020, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoric Reference to Incorporated Objects and Weak Definites: Does it Exist? How Does it Work?" Reference: (Co-)construction and Use (virtual), 25–26 Mar 2021, Université de Grenoble.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• Pseudo Incorporation and Anaphoricity: Evidence from Persian. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 36(1).
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• Pseudo-Incorporated Antecedents and Anaphora in Persian: The Influence of Stereotypical Knowledge. Experiments in Linguistic Meaning, 1, 224.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Pseudo-Incorporated Nominals in Comparison with Compounds and Implicit Objects." Proceedings of Linguistic Evidence 2020: Linguistic Theory Enriched by Experimental Data, 585-605.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Weak Definites vs. Implicit Entities and Indefinites in German." Linguistic Evidence 2022, 89-92.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Weak Definites vs. Implicit Entities and Indefinites in German." LinguisticEvidence, 06–08 Oct 2022, Université Paris Cité.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Presupposition Maximization in Indefinites with Internal and External Modifiers." Sinn & Bedeutung 27, 14–16 Sep 2022, Karls- Universität Prag.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Weak Definites and Indefinites in German: Anaphoric Potential." Sinn & Bedeutung 27, 14–16 Sep 2022, Karls-Universität Prag.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "A Man Who is Married to Ann: Blocking of Indefinites with Internal and External Modifiers." Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 27
  Krifka, Manfred & Fereshteh Modarresi
  
• "Assertion Modifiers and Trustworthiness: Experimental Research from German." Societas Linguisticae Europaea (SLE) Annual Meeting 56, 29 Aug–01 Sep 2023, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Bare Nouns in Persian: Kinds of Situation-Dependent Definites?" Logic ∧ Grammar ∧ Meaning: ThePipe (Line) Connecting 50 Years of Semantics, 07–08 Jun 2023, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.
  Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Generic Sentences in a Differential Object Marking Language: The Case of Persian (online)." SALT 33, 12–14 May 2023, Yale University, New Haven.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Generic Sentences in a Language with Differential Object Marking: The Case of Persian." North American Conference on Iranian Languages (NACIL 3), 21–23 Apr 2023, University of California at Los Angeles.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Incorporation and Weak Definites in Persian and German and Their Interpretation and Anaphoric Potential." Invited Speaker. Meeting of DFG-Network "Definiteness Across Domains", 09–10 Sep 2023, Ruhr- Universität Bochum.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Persian Durative Marker mi- in Episodic and Generic Sentences." The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Other Languages and Other Grammatical Domains, 06–08 Nov 2023, Universität Leipzig.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Similative and Coordinative Compound Plurals in Persian: Alternatives, Homogeneity or Strongest Meanings?" HNM2 — Gaps and Imprecision in Natural Language Semantics: Homogeneity Effects and Beyond, 19–20 Jul 2023, Universität Wien
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Similative Plurals in Persian: Alternatives, Homogeneity, or Strongest Meanings?" North American Conference on Iranian Languages (NACIL 3), 21–23 Apr 2023, University of California at Los Angeles.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Similative Plurals in Persian: Alternatives, Homogeneity, or Strongest Meanings?" West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 41), 05–07 May 2023, University of California at Santa Cruz.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Manfred Krifka
  
• "Syntax-Prosody Mapping in Persian." ChicagoLinguistics Society (CLS 59), 28–30 Apr 2023, University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Weak Definites and Indefinites in German: Anaphoric Potential." Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung 27
  Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• Anaphoric potential of bare nominals, incorporated objects and weak definites in German. Reference, 27–51.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• Anaphoric potential of pseudo-incorporated bare objects in Persian. Advances in Iranian Linguistics II, 12–43.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Discourse Representation Theory: Anaphora Within and Across Sentences." SSOIL 2024: SummerSchool on Iranian Linguistics, University of Arizona.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Krifka, Manfred
  
• "Number Agreement of Coordinated Subjects: Competing Syntactic and Semantic Rules." Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 34), 28–30 May 2024, University of Rochester.
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Number agreement of coordinated subjects: Competing syntactic and semantic rules“. Workshop Puzzles of Agreement: Syntactic, Semantic, and Psycholinguistic Perspectives." ZAS Berlin, Oxtober 24-25..
  Krifka, Manfred & Modarresi, Fereshteh
  
• "Anaphoric Potential of Weak Definites contrasted with Implicit Entities and Indefinites in German". RED (Research Network Referential Expressions in Discourse) 2025 Conference: Mismatches in Anaphoric Relations, University of Graz, May 29-30.
  Modarresi, Fereshteh & Manfred Krifka.
  
• Number Agreement of Coordinated Subjects: Competing Syntactic and Semantic Rules. Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 646-665.
  Krifka, Manfred & Fereshteh, Modarresi