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Universal 522:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 522:

Original
In more than one language, but not in all, the demonstrative and the definite article co-occur.
Standardized
In more than one language, but not in all, the demonstrative and the definite article co-occur.
Keywords
demonstrative, definite article
Domain
syntax
Type
unconditional
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
50 languages sample in Moravcsik 1997: 318
Source
Moravcsik 1997: 318
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. Greenberg 1978: 65 proposes that this pattern is in fact predominant across languages. Greenberg, Joseph H. (1978). How does a language acquire gender markers? In Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.). Universals of human language. Volume 3: Word Structure. 47-82. Stanford: Stanford University Press.2. See #967 for an implicational generalization from which the co-occurrence of article and demonstrative is predictable in some languages.

    1. May 2020

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