The paper examines all the occurrences of Head Noun + Genitive Noun in the Würzburg Glosses, in order to trace the distribution of definiteness markers (basically articles) and the relationship between attested configurational patterns and (possibly) ruled out patterns in Old Irish. It is argued that the single article pattern (as in Wb. 1a3 ardlathi in betho ‘the high princes of the world’), which is the current one in Old as in Modern Irish, could not be employed when an adjective or a demonstrative clitic occurred between the two nouns, and that two definite articles in a single Noun Phrase were only allowed under specific restrictions, particularly just when something intervened between the two nouns, when the Noun Phrase was followed by a restrictive relative clause having the whole Noun Phrase in its semantic scope, and under coordination and parallelism/contrast between NPs.
How many definiteness markers per NP in Old Irish? Evidence from the Würzburg Glosses
ROMA, ELISA
2009-01-01
Abstract
The paper examines all the occurrences of Head Noun + Genitive Noun in the Würzburg Glosses, in order to trace the distribution of definiteness markers (basically articles) and the relationship between attested configurational patterns and (possibly) ruled out patterns in Old Irish. It is argued that the single article pattern (as in Wb. 1a3 ardlathi in betho ‘the high princes of the world’), which is the current one in Old as in Modern Irish, could not be employed when an adjective or a demonstrative clitic occurred between the two nouns, and that two definite articles in a single Noun Phrase were only allowed under specific restrictions, particularly just when something intervened between the two nouns, when the Noun Phrase was followed by a restrictive relative clause having the whole Noun Phrase in its semantic scope, and under coordination and parallelism/contrast between NPs.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
