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Grammaticalisation and the internal logic of the indefinite article
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Michael Herslund
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October 31, 2012
The West-European languages all develop an indefinite article by a grammaticalisation process of the numeral ‘one’. The article describes the different outcomes of this process by distinguishing different patterns resulting from the interpretation of the numeral as a quantifier, a classifier or both. The different patterns are examined in their connection and interaction with both the lexical make-up of nouns (homogenous vs. heterogenous nouns) and the category of number (singular, plural and collective) in Germanic and Romance languages. Three different systems are identified: a quantifier system in Germanic, a qualifier system in Modern French and a mixed system in Old French and Spanish.
Keywords:: article; indefinite article; plural; collective; classifier; quantifier; homogeneous and heterogeneous nouns.
Published Online: 2012-10-31
Published in Print: 2012-10
© 2012 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: The pace of grammaticalization in a typological perspective
- The pace of grammaticalization and the evolution of prepositional systems: Data from Romance
- Grammaticalisation and the internal logic of the indefinite article
- Grammaticalization and innovation in the encoding of motion events
- Word order in French, Spanish and Italian:A grammaticalization account
- Degrees of grammaticalization in three Romance languages: A comparative analysis of existential constructions
- The evolution of negation in French and Italian: Similarities and differences
- Gradualness and pace in grammaticalization: The case of adversative connectives
- Stages of grammaticalization of causative verbs and constructions in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian
- A comparative study of word order in Old Romance
- Possessives and grammaticalization in Romance
- Acknowledgements
- Conference report
- Index to volume 46
Keywords for this article
article;
indefinite article;
plural;
collective;
classifier;
quantifier;
homogeneous and heterogeneous nouns.
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: The pace of grammaticalization in a typological perspective
- The pace of grammaticalization and the evolution of prepositional systems: Data from Romance
- Grammaticalisation and the internal logic of the indefinite article
- Grammaticalization and innovation in the encoding of motion events
- Word order in French, Spanish and Italian:A grammaticalization account
- Degrees of grammaticalization in three Romance languages: A comparative analysis of existential constructions
- The evolution of negation in French and Italian: Similarities and differences
- Gradualness and pace in grammaticalization: The case of adversative connectives
- Stages of grammaticalization of causative verbs and constructions in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian
- A comparative study of word order in Old Romance
- Possessives and grammaticalization in Romance
- Acknowledgements
- Conference report
- Index to volume 46
