Specifiskos

Specifiskos is a hypothetical grammatical feature in linguistic theory proposed to encode the specificity of noun phrases independently from definiteness. The term combines specifi- with -kos as a suffix to indicate a marker for specificity.

In proposed analyses, Specifiskos may appear as an affix on determiners or as an independent clitic attached to the noun, and it signals whether the speaker assumes the referent is uniquely identifiable within the discourse context. It coexists with other referential markers such as articles or demonstratives, and may interact with familiarity and discourse structure.

The status of Specifiskos is theoretical; there is no widely cited natural language reported to possess a genuine Specifiskos system. It has been used in typological discussions and experimental frameworks to test whether a distinct specificity feature can capture cross-language variation beyond definite/indefinite distinctions.

Applications include refining models of determiner systems in formal linguistics, guiding corpus annotation schemes for artificial languages, and informing computational parsers that aim to distinguish specific versus non-specific referents.

Illustrative example: In a hypothetical language, a Specifiskos suffix on the determiner marks a specific referent: "Specifiskos-dog" translates as "the (specific) dog I mentioned earlier." In the same language, a bare noun without Specifiskos would mean a non-specific, general reference: "dog" meaning "any dog." Demonstratives and pronouns can interact with Specifiskos to refine referential choice.

See also: definiteness, specificity, referentiality, determiner, language typology.

References: none provided; concept remains theoretical.