Експонентите на категоријата определеност во македонскиот јазик

Abstract

The concept of relating the reality with language and creating language reality has been a subject of interest of the language scholars since the beginning of the research in this field. The standpoints of Saussure or Bloomfield about the manner of communication, taking into consideration the fact that relating the action with the language is happening within the human, contributed to intensifying the research of this type. Usually, the central point in these contexts is anthropocentricity, but we consider both culturecentricity and so-called egocentricity of the language. Theories related to the reference are key in the orientation of the relation of reality – language, extending this complementation with a third member: reality – human – language. Exponents of the category of definiteness in Macedonian focuses on the exponents and their primary function – as grammaticalized exponents of semantic category – as well as on their secondary function – their usage beyond the category they represent. First chapter elaborates on the general postulates and standpoints of the language reality (reality – man – notion – language – reference), as well as egocentricity of the language and previous research on this topic in both Macedonian context and general linguistic context. Different theoretical approaches cast different light on the understanding, perception and definition of the category of definiteness. Second chapter provides list and synthesis of the definitions of the subject of interest. In addition to the distributional description, it is important to give insight to all semantical and syntactical, but also logical varieties: definiteness implies familiarity (for the speaker, but also for the interlocutor); a possibility for identification with the referent; abstraction; familiarity for the interlocutor; theme – from the aspect of communicational distribution of the sentence; formal (syntax) occurrence of the exponent of definiteness; exponent of totality etc., but, above all, it is an actualization of the notion, of the denotation. Definiteness is a subset of the reference (indication), and in some contexts they are even synonymous. Reference is an implication of the language entity to the element in reality. Category of person, personal pronouns, and demonstrative pronouns within the pronouns, have key relation with the reference, hence with the category of definiteness. In Macedonian, this category is grammaticalized. If grammaticalization is fixing, i.e. regular representation through an exponent (morphological or syntactical) of a given semantic category – “x is grammaticalized in the language L” only if x is a semantic category represented with a grammatical category L, i.e. regular (common, permanent, most frequent) way of expressing a meaning with morphological or syntactic means, then the definiteness is a grammaticalized category through the article morpheme in Macedonian. Still, apart from that, definiteness has the ability of lexicalization and stylisation (definite and contextual). Starting point in the third chapter are the occurrence of the article and the first sources. Historical insight, from the ancient times until today, as well as diachronic perspective of the development of the article, show that many things in the contemporary, current, situation, are products of the development path of the exponents of this category. The boundary set around 19th century, probably in the late 18th and early 19th century, is an indicator for the tendency of increasing grammaticalization of the article in expressing a unique categorial meaning, with serious expansion of the semantic field towards generic and specific reference use. In addition, contemporary situation is presented in a separate subchapter within this chapter. If the history implies diachronic perspective by chronology, the current insight is provided by thematical subjects – notional or distributional. Such an insight illustrates that the exponents of definiteness, apart from their primary function –abstract, define, identify (unique) referent in reality – are starting to be used in other functions, purely grammatical, i.e. syntactical: they occur as a marker for the theme in the sentence; they occur with the subject almost without exception if the subject occur in initial position in indicative non-negated sentences; they are used as intensifying particles for so-called double definite noun phrases (or are lexicalized, in some cases or in some languages); they occur as a correlation in the relative sentence (again with high-degree of de-semantization); they occur as a marker for the (co)relation part – whole (partitiveness); they are also linked to invariable adjectives. The article occurs in all types of reference: generic, specific (definite), onomasiological (in titles, names of institutions etc.); In regards to the age of the speakers and their dialect background, the true system of triple article occurs inly in Macedonian west, as apposed to the north and the east. Moreover, the expansion of the semantic field of the v- and n- stem is a tendency of the Macedonian west periphery, but it also moves towards the center in the standard language (for example, increasing use of the formant -v for situationally determined noun phrases). Fourth chapter elaborates on indefiniteness, which occurs as a counterpart of definiteness with negative charge, according to one point of view, or as a marker for other, individual meanings, according to other point of view, and not as a minus point of /+definiteness/. Definiteness in Macedonian is expressed by a simple absence of marker, with еден or некој or with the pronouns with the component било, годе, (и) да е. Еден has a tendency towards development as an indefinite article, but the process of grammaticalization in Macedonian is not finished, so the doubling of the object with еден, as well as the lesser frequency in indefinite unspecific (unreferenced) contexts. The absence of indicator of definiteness can indicate non-reference, and not necessarily indefiniteness. From the aspect of syntactic functions, the occurrence of the predicate is common in indefinite form, as well as adjunct of manner, related to the preposition како and/or for equativeness in both cases. Classification would be down to: a) syntactic function; b) knowledge of addressee or recipient about the referent (use of еден or некој for subjective/objective indefiniteness); c) non-reference (both in reality and in the text), i.e. denotation and/or generic. Conclusive observations and synthesis of the abovementioned standpoints are given in the chapter five which also brings the final conclusion, related to the concepts of reference and indefiniteness, showing that, due to its linking nature – of the thought and of the product of the thought, of the idea and the product of the idea, of the notion and the concrete objects as carriers of notion’s features – develops the notion how a civilization, a community with shared system of characters conceptualizes the world. Conceptualizations of the world contribute to creating ideas for its development and improvement, for common advancement of the human’s future, building on the knowledge from the past and the efforts in the present.