Definiteness with Arabic learners has been explored by many researchers such as Jaensch and Sarko (2009) and Sarko (2009). The majority of previous studies have used an offline task and focused on identifying the types of errors which learners were committing. Conversely, the present study will use an online reaction time task to investigate the learners’ accuracy in judging [±definite and ±specific] in a series of sentences. The aim of the study is to ascertain the accuracy of participants in judging grammatical and ungrammatical sentences in terms of definiteness and specificity in English, and also to identify which factors have the greatest effect on this accuracy. The study will examine the process of article acquisition from the perspective of universal grammar using the following hypotheses: The Representational Deficit hypothesis (RDH) by Hawkins and Chan (1997), the Feature Reassembly hypothesis by Lardiere (2009) and the bottleneck hypothesis by Slabakova (2008, 2009, 2015). Thirty-two Saudi learners have completed a grammatical judgment task that was designed using OpenSesame to incorporate a reaction time test along with two vocabulary tests (Yes/No and Lex30) and a proficiency test. The results showed no effect on definiteness and specificity with the Saudi-Arabic learners. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that there is no difference in reaction time which could be attributed to [±definite and ±specific]. Receptive vocabulary knowledge and proficiency affected the learners’ accuracy in judging article use in English, but no such effect was found for the learners’ productive vocabulary knowledge. Additionally, L1 negative transfer has been observed in Saudi-Arabic learners of English particularly with low-level learners.

explicit specificity markings in nouns despite not having grammatical cases. Specificity and definiteness, while closely linked, are distinct semantic In linguistics, specificity is a semantic feature of noun phrases (NPs) that distinguishes between entities/nouns/referents that are unique in a given context and those that are not. Several distinct known factors determine an entity/noun/referent's relative specificity, including: Singular terms (e.g. proper names) Habituality Actual/Nonactual moods Factivity Negation Specificity does not rely o In linguistics, specificity is a semantic feature of noun phrases (NPs) that distinguishes between entities/nouns/referents that are unique in a given context and those that are not. Several distinct known factors determine an entity/noun/referent's relative specificity, including: Every woman talked to a student. This has two interpretations. Under one reading, every woman talked to the same student (the class president, for example), and here the noun phrase a student is specific. Under the second reading, various students were talked to. In this case, a student is non-specific. "In contrast, in some languages, NPs in certain positions are always unambiguous with respect to specificity. The ambiguity is resolved through case marking: NPs with overt case morphology are specific, NPs without case morphology are nonspecific." Some analytic and isolating languages like Samoan also use explicit specificity markings in nouns despite not having grammatical cases.

... distinct determiners for definiteness and for specificity ; in 12.10.1 we offer evidence that the definiteness and specificity determiners can be combined in sequence . Noun phrases which are both definite and specific must be adjoined ... This grammar provides one of the most detailed accounts available of the syntax of a Nilo-Saharan language. It fully describes some of the unusual characteristics of Ma'di, including the different word orders associated with different tenses, the particle-based modal and focus systems, the full range of adverbials, and the structure and meaning of the noun phrase. The grammar also describes the phonetics, phonology, morphology, and aspects of the lexicon of the language.

AbstractThis research examines the passivization of sentences with ditransitive verbs in Persian, based on the notion of symmetric move. The two objects of these sentences can move to the specifier of the tense head in the passive sentence. However, according to the Shortest Move principle in the Minimalism Programme, only the nearest constituent to the probe head should be allowed to move. The study results, based on Persian language samples, indicate that the direct and indirect object can move to the specifier of the tense head in passive sentences with ditransitive verbs but moving the indirect object to this position produces semantically marked sentence. Furthermore, making the passive voice of these sentences is free from the specificity and definiteness feature of the direct object, which is determined by the presence or absence of the accusative case form ra. This study also found that the linear order of objects and the semantic roles of the indirect object in the active sentence do not affect the feasibility of transforming sentences with ditransitive verbs into the passive form in Persian language.IntroductionBased on the traditional notion of ditransitive verbs, also known as three-placed predicates, these verbs have one direct and one indirect object. In Persian, the direct object, when definite, is marked by the preposition ra, while the indirect object, regardless of its definiteness, is introduced by a preposition and can carry various thematic roles such as