Definite
Determiners
The following determiners are definite, which means that they refer to one concrete things and not multiple possible thingses, like with sá. In other words, they act like constants.
| hú | ‘the aforementioned’. Always resolves to one concrete thing, even if that thing might not be clear to the speaker |
|---|---|
| ké | ‘the not aforementioned’. Same as above |
| báq | Always resolves to the associated kind. báq kanı is always a singular ‘rabbit-kind’ |
| cúaq | (Unofficial:) ‘the concept of satisfying property’. Always refers to that one concept |
is definite when it refers to a phrase that appears in the same sentence and that phrase is definite. Otherwise, it does the same thing as ké does, which is definite, too.
Semantics jank
We say a noun phrase is definite if it’s a function of just one plural constant.
For a clause like P sá Q, where the quantifier is represented as ◻, if we’re able to rephrase the usual denotation
[◻𝑥 : 𝑄𝑥] 𝑃𝑥
as
𝑃(℩◻(𝑄))
where ℩◻ exists and is some ⟨⟨𝚎, 𝚝⟩, 𝚎⟩ – then we say that the quantifier ◻ (and its associated determiner sá) is definite. In other words, ℩◻(𝑄) resolves to a single plural constant, which can then directly be plugged into 𝑃 to judge the truth value of the entire clause.
Then, any free determiner phrase is definite if all indices inside it are
- bound inside the 𝑛P
- bound outside the 𝑛P, to a phrase that is itself transitively definite
So for example, the following examples are all definite:
- pó sá (sá is contained within po’s internal CPᵣₑₗ, hence does not escape)
- ké kune bï, cho jí réo hóbo (hóbo points to ké kune, which is itself definite)