Volume 78, Issue 3 - Special Issue: Determination and the expression of definiteness in indigenous languages of the Americas; Guest Editor: Alejandra Vidal

This volume examines specific features of noun phrase structure and the role of demonstratives in the individuation and definiteness of nominal referents. These phenomena are particularly significant and underexplored in the genetically unrelated South American languages represented in this volume. The analysis focuses on the distribution and function of determiners, the presence or absence of overt markers, and the influence of semantic, pragmatic and discourse-contextual factors. The conceptual framework emphasizes determination, individuation, and definiteness. Determination modifies noun phrases through elements such as articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers, linking referents to discourse. Individuation describes how entities acquire referential status, from generic to specific, shaped by both structural and contextual factors. Definiteness concerns the identifiability of referents for speaker and hearer, distinguishing unique or familiar entities from indefinite ones. While articles often encode definiteness, several languages examined here rely primarily on demonstratives, which can also convey features such as proximity, animacy, temporality, and other semantic distinctions. Drawing on text corpora, these analyses provide new insights into the expression of definiteness and referentiality in natural discourse, contributing to the typological understanding of determination in article-less languages.

This study presents a detailed overview of the so-called intangible demonstrative yu- in Hup (Naduhup, Brazil). Analyzing its distribution in spontaneous speech data from narratives and conversation, we show that the demonstrative has a variety of discourse-managing functions, which have traditionally received less attention in the typological literature on demonstratives. We first present anaphoric and different discourse-deictic uses of yu- , and then analyze a number of conventionalized constructions based on the intangible demonstrative. We show how these constructions signal relations between different discourse segments and how they are used for opening and closing discourse topics. Finally, we discuss several functions of the intangible demonstrative yu- in Hup that are reminiscent of predicative demonstratives in other languages. Besides describing the particular distribution and functions of a demonstrative in a lesser described South American indigenous language, our study aims at contributing to a better understanding of what additional discourse-managing functions demonstratives can have.

From the perspective of a study of reference in discourse, this article focuses on the domain of demonstratives in Mapuzungun. After initially recognizing the basic opposition between the demonstrative formatives fa - and fe - (anchored/not anchored in the speech situation), our analysis focuses on the neutral demonstrative pronoun fey , which we define as deriving from fe -. Currently, fey indicates a third person not marked for proximity/distance. We explore its grammaticalization trajectories and synchronic functions in discourse, alone, in coalescence with the postposition mew  −  feymew ‘then, therefore’ − and in compounding with the demonstrative pronoun tüfa ‘this’ –  fey-tüfa ‘this here’. In the stages following the loss of the deictic content in fey , we distinguish between its anaphoric and discourse-deictic uses. While in the former case, fey refers to a previously mentioned participant, in the latter, fey (also feymew  ∼  feymu ) either refer to precedent discourse chunks or function as connectors creating discursive cohesion. Compounded with the proximal demonstrative tüfa , a recovery of its deictic content is identified. The corpus includes texts of different genres transcribed in ELAN. The analysis considers fragments of a narrative ( epew ‘story’) and a procedural text, incorporating examples from other discourses.

Referential expressions in a language may vary depending on the degree of individuation assigned to each referent mention by the speaker and/or the assumed identifiability of the referent in discourse – that is, definiteness. This study examines how individuation and definiteness are expressed in Santiago del Estero Quichua (Quechua, Argentina) and their impact on noun phrase structure. Through empirical analysis using a text corpus, it was found that the morphology of the noun phrase, including determiners, quantifiers, adjectives, possessive suffixes, and case marking interact to signal different degrees of individuation and definiteness. In this language, the outermost positions (initial and final) of the noun phrase are typically reserved for discourse-referential modifiers, which play a key role in specifying and grounding referents. This conforms to the typological expectation that discourse-referential modifiers are semantically located in the outer layer of the noun phrase – an organization reflected iconically in the syntax. The study offers new insights into the noun phrase structure of Santiago del Estero Quichua, highlighting features such as differential object marking and flexible noun–adjective word order, which remain understudied. Moreover, they contribute to the understanding of how individuation and definiteness are expressed across world languages and the typology of noun phrase structures.

Tapiete is a Southern Tupi-Guarani language spoken by about 2,800 people in the region of the Western Gran Chaco, in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, South America. Like other languages in this linguistic family, Tapiete does not show definite or indefinite articles. Speakers express different degrees of definiteness using other grammar resources such as bare nouns, demonstratives, numerals, and an alienable/inalienable possession system. The aim of this article is to provide an initial study of definiteness in Tapiete based on the analysis of semantic and pragmatic functions of demonstratives in contrast with other definiteness strategies available in the language. The research is based on representative oral textual data collected from long-term field work. In Tapiete, bare nouns and nouns from the inalienably possessed group express mostly unique or weak definite values while adnominal demonstratives signal strong definite referents by way of anaphoric and exophoric referential relations. Demonstratives are very productive for marking discourse topics and indexing speech event facts (spatial and time deixis, speech participants, discourse genre), as well as identifying and reintroducing a referent within discourse.

This study explores the structural strategies to express participant individuation in Wichi (Mataguayan). Individuation is understood as the discursive operation that transforms a generic or non-referential concept into a contextually anchored referent, making it trackable within discourse. Drawing on a referential framework that views reference as a mental and communicative operation between interlocutors, the study focuses on how Wichi introduces new referents using bare common nouns devoid of explicit individuation markers within the noun phrase. The analysis reveals that individuation strategies in Wichi may extend beyond the noun phrase into relative clauses, juxtaposed clauses, and even across sentence boundaries. It also explores the role of anaphoric and inter-referent relations in individuation strategies. Methodologically, the study employs qualitative-quantitative analysis of a textual corpus source from primary fieldwork data.