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Part of
Italian Dialectology at the Interfaces
Edited by Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 251] 2019
► pp. 295–318

Indefinite articles and licensing of nominals in two Slavic varieties

| University of Banja Luka
I address the status of an indefinite article in two understudied Slavic varieties spoken in Italy, Resian and Molise Croatian. By applying standard diagnostics, I show that both varieties have grammaticalized an indefinite article. I further compare the distribution of nouns in these two varieties, which allow bare nominals in argument position, on a par with other Slavic articleless languages, and conclude that Resian, but not Molise Croatian, has also developed a definite article. Considering that the distribution of the definite article in Resian is restricted to nouns with prenominal modifiers, I argue that the rise of the definite article is related to adjectival syntax – if adjectives are placed prenominally, which is the case in Resian but not in Molise Croatian, they prevent the noun from being in a local relation with a definite D(eterminer). I also claim that the development of an indefinite article is completely independent of the emergence of a definite article, which explains the similarities between the two varieties.
Keywords: indefinite articles, grammaticalization, bare nouns, Resian, Molise Croatian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The status of the indefinite determiner in Resian and Molise Croatian
    • 2.1From the numeral one to the indefinite article
    • 2.2The numeral one in Resian and Molise Croatian
      • Specific indefinites
      • Non-specific indefinites
        • Predicative context
        • Generic sentences
      • Narrow-scope reading
        • Intensional context
        • Non-scalar reading with universal quantifiers
        • Specific indefinites
        • Non-specific indefinites
        • Narrow scope reading
  • 3.The asymmetry between modified and unmodified nominals
    • Bare nouns
    • Non-bare nouns
  • 4.Resian vs. Molise Croatian: Licensing of bare nominals
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowldgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.251.13run
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