Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

Doug Dee wrote:
> > Andreas Johansson scripsit:
> >
> > > How probable is it for a language that has a definite article to
> replace
> > it
> > > with a form derived from a demonstrative? Are any such examples
> known
> > from
> > > real-world languages?
> >
> > What little I know of the subject says that languages sometimes
> acquire
> > definite articles, but don't discard or replace them.
> >
>
> The book _Definiteness_ by Christopher Lyons notes that langauges can
> lose
> definite articles as well as gain them.  Sometimes, the article expands
> in
> use until it's used with essentially all nouns in essentially all
> environments, so that it no longer carries any meaning of definiteness,
> and
> instead serves merely as a marker of nounness (or as a gender marker if
> the
> definite article distingished gender).
>
> A new definite article can emerge after the old one is lost, or _before_
> the
> old one is lost, leading to competing/coexisting definite articles in
> the
> language.  The author says "The Scandinavian languages, in which a
> free-form
> article was introduced at some stage to complement or double an
> existing
> affixal article, illustrate this well."
>
> Has anyone ever claimed that definite articles _can't_ be lost?
No, only that they've not been aware of any case where an definite article has
indeed been lost.

In my lang, what happens (I'm pretty much decided on this now), what happens is
that the old definite article expands to pretty much everywhere (except on noun
phrases immediately after a possessive), and that a demonstrative gets demoted a
new definite article where it's felt to be necessary to mark definiteness.

This lands us in a perhaps interesting situation where _ez_ milast_ is "a war"
or "War", and _ha milast_ is "the war".

                                                           Andreas