rarissimum 122: a definite article formally distinct from (one form or another of) any kind of pronoun – demonstrative, personal (free, clitic, or bound), possessive, relative, interrogative
Where found
Modern English (Germanic, IE)
Domain
syntax
Subdomain
pronouns, articles
Keywords
definite article
Type
rarissimum
Universals violated
none
Source
Hewson, John (1991). Determiners as heads. Cognitive Linguistics 2: 317-337; p. 322. Plank, Frans & The Extended Noun Phrase Group (1994). A panel on the lawfulness of the double life of the definite article. In Conversations on Noun Phrases (EUROTYP Working Papers VII/20), 49-79, 113.
Even in Modern English the definite article is partially si milar to demonstrative pronouns, though also to many further grammatical words with initial /D/. The only word the Modern English definite article is formally fully identical to is the correlative conjunction the as in the sooner the better – or whatever kind of word we are dealing with here: it is unlikely to be a pronoun, or the definite article itself.
Even in Modern English the definite article is partially si milar to demonstrative pronouns, though also to many further grammatical words with initial /D/. The only word the Modern English definite article is formally fully identical to is the correlative conjunction the as in the sooner the better – or whatever kind of word we are dealing with here: it is unlikely to be a pronoun, or the definite article itself.