О речима које исказују људски створ у најнеодређенијем смислу

Abstract

The author gives a principled account of various phenomena concerning the use of words which denote humans in a totally indefinite way, i.e. without giving any information even about their sex or age (cf. in English somebody, people, person, indivudual). Utilizing data from Serbocroatian, she highlights some problems of general theoretical interest (such as questions of whether a given lexical item of this semantic type (1) is capable of both specific and non-specific references, (2) requires the presence of a (non-omissible) modifier, (3) admits modifications concerning inherent human properties without any restriction, (4) allows, under particular semantic conditions, transparence of its meaning content in respect of sex). One of the basic conclusions of the author's analysis of common nouns belonging to this class of indefinite terms is that both their referential possibilities of precluding/expressing information concerning sex vary depending on their occurence in the singular/the plural (among others, it is only in the plural that such a noun may be used referentially to denote the “mixed” situation, i.e. to point to humans consisting, without discrimination, of males and females).