AMERINDIA 44: 109-133, 2023
Vitória Maria JASPER ERN
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
Beatriz MARTINS RACHADEL
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
Bianca MARIA DE SOUZA
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
Léia DE JESUS SILVA
Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brasil – Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
Roberta PIRES DE OLIVEIRA
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil – Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil,
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brasil
Érica MILANI DELLAI
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
João TSAPUTAI RIKBAKTSA
Escola Estadual Indígena Myhyinymykytee Skiripi – Município de Brasnorte, Brasil
Vanildo BIBIU RIKBAKTSA
Secretaria Estadual de Educação de Mato Grosso, Brasil
DOI : https://doi.org/10.56551/HVHN7718
Abstract: The paper investigates the expression of definiteness and genericity in Rikbaktsa (Macro-Jê). The data was selected from the literature (SIL, 2007; Silva, 2011, Dellai et al., 2021) and collected through interviews with two native speakers, following Dayal’s questionnaire (in press). The analysis shows: (i) Rikbaktsa has no articles; the demonstrative carries an anti-uniqueness presupposition, thus, it is not a definite article, and ʃtuba ‘one’ is the cardinal 1, (ii) the bare phrases, with and without plural morphology, allow definite and indefinite readings; (iii) the bare singular is mandatory in a situation where there is only one individual, but can convey plurality and genericity; (iv) the bare plural conveys plurality and genericity; it is mandatory with the predicate of extinction. The bare plural denotes a set of pluralities which can be shifted to the kind, whereas the bare singular does not carry information about number; singularity is an implicature.