Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

Pablo Flores wrote:
>Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...> writes:
>
> > Pablo Flores wrote:
> > >SYV doesn't have articles, but marks definiteness on nouns
> > >and adjectives using suffixes. .....
> >
> > That sounds awfully like enclitic'd articles. Why not call 'em that?
>
>I may as well do that... I presume that's the origin
>of the suffixes anyway. But they're not like particles
>that attach to anything unchanged. Their form depends
>on the root and the root interacts with them in a way
>that suggests they're more like inflections. Consider
>
>     ak 'woman', aka 'a woman', eki 'the woman'
>     ka 'man', ka 'a man' (zero mark), kach 'the man'
>     bibi 'new', bibiya 'a new one', bibiyi 'the new one'
I don't think there's any rules forbidding clitics to engage in assimilation
stuff with whatever they attach to. According to your earlier post, they
don't necessarily attach to the noun they (in-)definitify, but to the last
word of the relevant noun phrase, which's why I think they should be called
enclitics.

                                                     Andreas

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