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Universal 1160:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1160:

Original
Any noun that is pronominalizable may take a definite article, but of these, only those that are numerable may take an indefinite article.
Standardized
Any noun that is pronominalizable may take a definite article, but of these, only those that are numerable may take an indefinite article.
Keywords
indefinite article
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
106 languages surveyed in Moravcsik 1969
Source
Moravcsik 1969: 87
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Indefinite articles tend to be confined to determining the singular of count nouns. Nevertheless, there may be exceptions where the article has been extended to nonsingular referents. Thus, Classical Arabic (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Baka (Adamawa-Ubangian, Niger-Congo), Bulgarian (S. Slavic, Indo-Hittite), Ewe (Kwa, Niger-Congo), French, Spanish (both Italic, Indo-European), and Uzbek (Turkic, Altaic) distinguish indefinite markers in the plural of the nouns. Classical Arabic, Baka, and French distinguish definite markers on mass nouns as well. (See Heine et al. 1995)

    1. May 2020

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