liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Marking Definiteness in Farsi and English by Farsi Speaking EFL Learners
Linköping University, Department of Culture and Communication. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
2012 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Differences in marking definiteness among various languages have been considered one of the most confusing areas for speakers of different languages. As a teacher of EFL to Farsi speakers, I have frequently noticed that the students face problems when it comes to marking a definite or indefinite noun in English. One of the main objectives of the present study is to shed light on the trouble sources in practice of the use of articles in English among the subjects of my study. Farsi as a language which has two distinct registers of spoken and written forms with 9 various forms of definite/indefinite markers is different from English with 4 definite/indefinite markers. Students who speak some languages that lack these articles (such as Japanese), or probably do not have the one-to-one correspondence with definite marking system in English (such as Farsi), tend to face problems while using them in English.

It is believed that Farsi marks noun phrases for specificity/non-specificity rather than definiteness/indefiniteness, while English marks nouns for definiteness/indefiniteness. The present study shows interesting instances of the choices of article that Farsi native speakers make when it comes to marking definiteness in English. Definiteness is mostly marked by a bare noun, indefiniteness is marked by the numeral 'yek' (pre-positioned) or ye (pre-positioned) or suffix '-i' (i.e. one —post-positioned) and specificity can apply to both definite and indefinite NPs.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. , p. 34
National Category
Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-79180ISRN: LIU-IKK/MPLCE-A--12/06--SEOAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-79180DiVA, id: diva2:538905
Subject / course
Master's Programme in Language and Culture in Europe
Presentation
2012-04-27, 10:00 (English)
Uppsok
Humanities, Theology
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2012-08-24 Created: 2012-07-02 Last updated: 2012-08-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(516 kB)3746 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 516 kBChecksum SHA-512
51b195b5dff2c0082e133132b71265ac09f3da16e63f3c1c6eb41d14a2e00ef68c9d370d9d2a89e2c043d85acd3daa5f1cf380f16353b741c1fae91b964245da
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
Department of Culture and CommunicationFaculty of Arts and Sciences
Humanities

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 3890 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 904 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf