Re: R: Re: Greenberg's universals

At 11:48 AM 9/14/2000 -0700, J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>...[snip]...
>It is.  For what it's worth, I don't know of any VSO languages with
>*indefinite* articles, just definite ones.  I don't know what, if anything,
>this means.  (Of course, indefinite articles--distinct from the word for
>"one"--seem to be rather rare.)
>
>Matt.
This brings up a point that I've wondered about for some time.  Are there
any natlangs that have indefinite articles but no definite ones?  In other
words, where an unmarked NP is interpreted as definite, and has to be
marked in some way to make it indefinite?  I've never heard of this, but
intuitively it seems to make sense, since indefinite NPs are generally ones
that are being introduced into the discourse for the first time, so you'd
think that they might require some device to call attention to them.

- Tim

------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith

"To live outside the law you must be honest."
        -- Bob Dylan