SOUTH SLAVIC AND BALKAN LINGUISTICS || ON DISTINGUISHING ARTICLES IN ALBANIAN

ON DISTINGUISHING ARTICLES IN ALBANIANAuthor(s): PETER HENDRIKSSource: Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics, Vol. 2, SOUTH SLAVIC AND BALKANLINGUISTICS (1982), pp. 95-108Published by: Editions Rodopi B.V.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40996884 .

Accessed: 08/11/2014 17:50

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Editions Rodopi B.V. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in Slavicand General Linguistics.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 67.133.165.11 on Sat, 8 Nov 2014 17:50:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rodopi

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40996884?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


ON DISTINGUISHING ARTICLES IN ALBANIAN

PETER HENDRIKS

In this paper I should like to discuss a number of problems concerning the article system of present-day standard Albanian. The problem on which we will mainly con- centrate is that of the class-membership of the article system.

The article status of the indefinite form n¿e is one of the questions we will be dealing with. This is a question which cannot be decided by linguistic reasoning alone, but requires a detailed study of the relevant data. The corpus I have investigated is relatively small. So far I have studied mainly written material. For prac- tical reasons as well as for more intrinsic linguistic reasons I have studied article usage in Albanian translations published in Yugoslavia. Translations from other Balkan languages are of course particularly useful for comparative purposes. However, I will restrict myself to the analysis of Albanian data. I have also made use of various textbooks and readers used in schools.

I will not discuss historical matters such as the development of the definite article. The historical point of view, which is still quite common in discussions of the articles in Albanian and other Balkan languages, makes it difficult to study the article system as a system with its own specific properties that distinguish it from similar subsystems of the language. One



96

consequence of the historical viewpoint is that attention is paid only to the various forms that are considered to be expressions of the category of (in) definiteness. The question of the existence of an indefinite article and the conditions under which the zero form of the article is used, are not studied at all. In other words, the articles are not studied as a system whose e- lements are functionally related to one another. Thus there are a number of semantic distinctions that are

generally grouped together under the category of definiteness. There usually exist quite distinct formal means of expressing these meanings, the articles of course be-

ing the most typical of these. For example, genericness, for which articles are commonly used, can often be ex-

pressed by each of the articles. This is but one example of why it is preferable to study the interrelationships between the article system as a whole and the corre-

sponding meaning complex. In this paper we will not take into account the expression of definiteness by other means than the articles.

In view of the existence of different standard

languages in the past and in view of the somewhat arti- ficial situation which now exists in Yugoslavia after the adoption of the so-called gjuha unifikuar ("the uni- fied language"), I should like to make the following comment. The usage of articles not only in Albanian but also in other languages having such forms is so deeply integrated in the functioning of the language, it is

grammaticalized to such an extent, that the use or non- use of particular forms can hardly be affected by norma- tive regulation. In any case, a change in the usage of articles presupposes a thorough knowledge and an expli- cit formulation of rules governing that usage. So far such rules have not been formulated for modern Albanian



97

with any degree of precision or completeness. In the study of article systems we are faced with

two major problems: the first is to determine which forms, if any, are to be viewed as articles in the language in question. In order to be able to handle this problem adequately we shall have to put forward criteria by which the article-status of forms that are intuitively considered to be articles is to be judged. However, we should be prepared to get answers that are not as clear-cut as we nad hoped. One needs only think of the discussions on the existence or non-existence of an indefinite article in, e.g., Bulgarian. It is quite common for forms to perform several disparate functions. It is therefore possible that certain forms can be said to belong to more than one (sub) class at the same time. The answer one gets in matters of class-membership will depend of course on one's criteria for article-status. These criteria in turn imply a specific linguistic point of view.

The second and arguably more important problem con- cerns the functions and meanings of the articles. For an adequate analysis of the semantics of articles the question of which forms have article status must be decided. In this paper we will restrict our attention primarily to the formal side of the Albanian article system. Se- mantic questions will only be considered insofar as this is required for the discussion of article status.

We can arrive at satisfactory solutions as regards the article status of potential articles only by taking into account all potential article forms and by studying each one of them in relation to the others. Basing our- selves on a number of fundamental distinctions and as- sumptions about language we analyze the forms that we would intuitively regard as articles. In this way we can



98

discover whether and to what extent the forms in question possess semantic distinctions characteristic of the

category of definiteness. The question as to which forms are to be regarded as articles is directly dependent on one's views on what the specific properties of articles are. Differences of opinion in these matters will lead to different solutions. Let us consider the forms that are commonly treated as articles in Albanian.

There does not seem to be any disagreement about the existence of a definite article in Albanian. The lan-

guage clearly distinguishes definite from non-definite noun forms. The bound morphemes, whose most important function is to express definiteness, are most appropri- ately classified as articles. The notion of definiteness is best regarded as an over-all notion. It is used in a wide variety of senses. Discussions of definiteness in connection with articles are often vitiated by the fact that this notion is not explicated sufficiently. A number of distinctions that are intended to specify the notion of definiteness are found in the literature. The most commonly used distinctions are: deixis, anaphora, description (i.e. identification by means of description) , situational uniqueness, thematicness, generaliza- tion, and emphasis (cf. Revzin 1977: 233). Each of these distinctions has been put forward as the criterion for

distinguishing a definite article in a language. Appar- ently there is no agreement on which semantic (or prag- matic) distinction constitutes the necessary and suffi- cient condition for definite article status. It is possible, however, that there does not exist one particular distinction that is universal as regards the category of definiteness. It is more realistic to assume that each

language with articles is characterized by a subset from a list of empirically determined features.



99

The definite forms of the noun are inflected for num-

ber, gender, and case. The nouns take the following definite endings (represented in the official spelling) :

m.sg. f.sg. n.sg. plur. nom. -i/-u -a -t(ë) -t(ë) gen. /dat. -it/-ut -s(ë) -it -t(ë) accus. -in/-un -n(ë) -t(ë)/-it -t(ë)

In other words definiteness combines in various ways with other grammatical categories. We will not go into the question of the exact interrelationships between the grammatical categories and the suffixes expressing them.

The definite forms of the noun are usually referred to as the postpositive article forms. This term suggests that the article is a property of the noun it follows.

Adjectives and nouns that modify a head-noun usually follow that noun in Albanian. This does not affect the

postpositive article. However, when a modifying adjective precedes the head-noun, it is generally the adjective that is inflected whereas the head-noun remains un- inflected. Adjective plus noun constructions are mostly in the definite form. In this case the definite article follows the adjective. The definite article forms we have just discussed can be described as bound morphemes in view of such properties as inseparability and non-

permutabili ty. However, when we observe the placement of the article forms in adjective plus noun and noun plus adjective phrases, we see that the article nearly always occurs in postinitial position, more precisely, it follows the first nominal of the phrase. Cf. for example: shkrïmtari më i v jeter vs. më i vjetrï shkrïmtar , both

meaning "the oldest writer". A similar placement-rule



100

can also be formulated for Bulgarian and Macedonian and thus points to a common surface-syntactic feature of these languages. From a semantic point of view articles can be said to operate on the meaning of the whole noun

phrase in which they occur. Thus we may say that the

placement of the article in postinitial position is in- dicative of this characteristic of the article.

By comparing noun phrases containing postpositive forms with phrases without these forms in similar contexts, the definite meaning of the postpositive article becomes evident. Semantic analysis has to show the further specification and explication of the notion of definiteness. Let us now look at the other forms which are

usually presented together with the postpositive forms we have just discussed.

There are several reasons for not calling the so- called prepositive article forms articles. Let us take a brief look at the 'facts1. We observe that a prepositive form obligatorily accompanies the ordinal numerals (e.g. i parë/e pare, i dytë/e dytë "first, second" etc.), substantivized adjectives (e.g. e kaluara "the past"), the pronouns gjithë and tërë "all, whole", the relative pronoun i oili "which", certain forms of the possessive pronouns (e.g. i tij/e tij "his"), a few kinship terms

(e.g. i atë "father"), the names of the days of the week

(e.g. e hënë "Monday") and a very large number of adjectives. Further, a genitive noun modifying another noun is always preceded by a prepositive form. The particular shape of the prepositive form depends on the various configurations of grammatical meanings expressed by the suffixes of the head-noun and also, in case the head- noun has the definite form, on whether the modifying word immediately follows the head or not. For example: librat e vlefshëm të bibliotekës "the valuable books of



101

the library" vs. librat e bibliotekës "the books of the library" .

The fact that a large number of adjectives and pronouns are not preceded by a prepositive form whereas another group has this form obligatorily is by itself an indication that we are not dealing with an article in the sense of a form directly connected with the category of definiteness. Moreover, the words having the prepositive form may or may not have definite endings. It seems clear that in all these cases except the noun + noun construction the prepositive form must be described as

being a property of the lexical item it accompanies. The term adjectival particle as used by Newmark (1980: 67) is much more appropriate here. The adjectives in question can be called particle-adjectives.

The combination of cardinal numeral + noun can have a definite or an indefinite form. In this case the noun takes the definite ending and the group is preceded by the form të. E.g. dy vajza "two girls" vs. të dy vajzat "the two girls". When the numeral is used alone to deno- te a definite set of entities the form të is also used: të dyja/të dy "the two of them". Because of the opposi- tion dy vs. të dy ("two" vs. "the two") we are inclined to say that të does function here as a definite article.

However, the construction is clearly elliptic and it is therefore doubtful whether it should be allowed to influence the over-all view.

Now consider the noun + genitive noun construction. For example: shtëpia e fshatarit "the farmer's house". This type of noun phrase in which the noun in the genitive modifies another noun has to be analyzed different-

ly from the noun + particle-adjective (cf. e.g.: shtëpia e madhe "the big house"). A phrase containing a particle-adjective consists of two constituents syntactical-



102

ly. In the noun + noun construction the intermediate form cannot be said to belong to the noun in the genitive. Neither can it be regarded as belonging to the head-noun in the same way as an adjectival particle is a characteristic of an adjective. We therefore have three constituents in this case. There is no agreement in Al- banian linguistics as to the most suitable description of this form. One source of confusion is the failure to

distinguish between the syntactic and the morphologi- cal points of view. For example, Demiraj (1971: 58) states that the main function of this article is to dis-

tinguish the genitive from the dative case. Morphologi- cally, however, there is no formal distinction at all. There are only different syntactic functions of a particular form. Another cause of confusion might be the

grammatical agreement of the intermediate element with the preceding noun as to number, gender, and case. I should like to suggest the following characterization of

phrases consisting of a noun + intermediate element + a

genitive noun. The intermediate element syntactically connects two nouns one of which is dependent on the other. We may therefore call it a connective. Since this connective has two argument places to be filled by nouns, it can be defined more precisely as a two-place connective. I will not go into the problem of the depen- dency relations between the forms involved.

In a recent article on the system of the Albanian articles Voronina (1976: 137) gives a very similar account of the forms just discussed. However, she comes to the somewhat puzzling conclusion that we should distin-

guish three types of articles in modern Albanian: 1) the

postpositive article forms, i.e. the definite article forms? 2) the prepositive articles, i.e. the indefinite article një and the adjectival particles? 3) the inter-



103

positive articles, i.e. what we have called connectives. In our opinion this view, which is based on posi-

tional properties of the forms involved, is incorrect. There is no sense, for example, in including an indefinite article in the same class as the adjectival particle which is part of a word. It may be noted at this

point that the Greek word arthron from which our word article is derived meant "joint". So in fact terms like the German "Gelenkartikel", the Russian "svjazujusci j artikl' " are pleonasms from an etymological point of view. From what has just been said it should be clear that only confusion can arise from calling the forms in

question articles. Their functioning is not directly connected with the category of def initeness.

The non-definiteness of a noun phrase is indicated

by the absence of a definite suffix, provided no other determiners are present. There is one exception though: the plural suffix sh. This suffix, traditionally called the ablative, can be regarded as expressing non-definiteness. This can be seen from its typical use in noun + noun constructions such as e.g.: zogj pulash "chicks"

(lit. "chicken birds"), dru pyjesh "lumber" (lit . "wood from forests"). The modifying noun in -sh never refers to specific objects.

When neither a definite nor an indefinite article is present it is appropriate to speak of the zero article. The zero form is not explicitly recognized by all writers on the subject of articles. In our opinion the conditions under which the zero form can and sometimes must be used, should be stated explicitly in a description of article usage.

There seems to be general agreement in Albanian

linguistics that the language has an indefinite article, namely the form një. The words ca, sa, di s a "some" are



104

also regarded as articles by some linguists. Now just as we must find out in what way the definite article is an expression of the category of def initeness, we must in- vestigate how and to what extent the form një is connected with def initeness (in the broad sense of the term) . As we remarked before, the answers to these questions depend on our explication of the notions involved. The inclusion of forms like ca, sa, and disa in the article system is another question to which we must give a well-reasoned answer. Many discussions of articles are vitiated by the lack of explicitness about the concepts involved. We find insufficient commitment and lack of criteria. A typical example in this connection are the views on the existence of an indefinite article in Bul- garian (cf. e.g. Friedman 1973). We will now briefly examine some typical examples involving një.

On the whole the form një seems to occur less fre-

quently than the corresponding forms in West-european languages. Let us consider a few characteristic uses of the form një. We realize, of course, that in order to obtain a fairly complete picture of the functions of një much more study remains to be done.

The form një is used very regularly for singular indefinite reference. This type of reference has two subvarieties, viz. specific and non-specific indef initeness. Një is used for both of these cases. Examples of specific indefinite reference are:

te një breg kishin qëndruar tre partizanë ("three partisans were standing near a river-bank")

do të verni të shikojmë një njëri ("we are going to see someone")

Examples of non-specific indefinite reference are:



105

kam një shpirto ("I have a match")

fjalët e një gjuhe ("the words of a language")

In existential sentences there may be ambiguity as to the specificity or non-specificity:

ka një kiosk afër furrës ("there is a stand near the bakery" )

Certain quantities of substances are usually denoted by special quantifying words like shishe "bottle" , kuti "box" etc.. With abstract nouns quantifying words like

tog "group", sasi "quantity", bashkim "group" are used. The word këpujë is used with count and mass nouns to de- note a single unit of something. Noun phrases containing these quantifying words generally include një for indefinite reference. When such quantifying words are omit-

ted, the form një is also used regularly. For example:

një kuti me oigave ("a packet of cigarettes") një gotë ujë ("a glass of water") një këpujë ujë ("a drop of water") një këpujë molle Can apple") një sasi librash ("a number of books") një ka fe ("a cup of coffee")

The generic use of një is found regularly. For example:

ne një fjali shprehet edhe qëndrimi i folësit ndaj asaj që thotë ("in a sentence the speaker also ex-

presses his attitude towards what he is saying")

This sentence expresses a proposition about the class of sentences as such. This type of statement is contingent-



106

ly generic: it states what is generally the case. The sentence function in which noun phrases do not

refer is the predicate. In this function they predicate, as the term already indicates, a certain property of

something that is usually referred to by the subject. Një is very frequently used in the predicate noun phrase in various types of sentences. For example in defini- tion-like sentences:

kryefjalë është zakonisht një emëv a një përemër ("a subject is usually a noun or an adjective")

It occurs in the same type of sentence in conjunction with a quantifying word:

féala është një tog fjalësh ("the sentence is a

group of words") ishte një mëngjes i bukur dimri ("it was a beau-

tiful winter-morning" )

However, in the purely predicative function we generally find the zero article:

babaj i tij është avokat ("his father is a lawyer")

The possessive pronoun always requires the definite article. In predicate function the definite feature is not

operative. For example:

ky djalë eshtë nipi im ("this boy is my nephew")

Një can, rather surprisingly, be used in such cases to

disambiguate: ky është një fshatari im ("this is one of

my fellow villagers")



107

Një is used obligatorily in various types of phraseological expressions. The phraseological part of these ex-

pressions consist of a verb and the noun phrase comple- ment containing një. The noun phrase functions as the direct object.

Semantically the expressions in question are either of the purely idiomatic type or they belong to the cate-

gory of the so-called fixed collocations. The latter ca-

tegory is distinguished from the first by the fact that the meaning of the verb + noun phrase construction is determined by and inferable from the meaning of the head of the noun phrase. The head-noun in this type of fixed collocation typically denotes an extralinguistic situation involving one or more participants. Examples are:

i hoqa një hekur ("I ironed it") i hoqi një shqelm ("he kicked him") i futa një g rus ht ("I punched him") bëva një shetitje ("I went for a walk")

There are many more specific contexts in which një occurs regularly. These typical functions must eventu-

ally be described in detail in order to obtain an ade-

quate understanding of the article system. The question of the article status of një cannot be decided conclu-

sively on the basis of the material we have studied. It is clear that një is used for indefinite reference and

many linguists would agree that this is an indication of article-hood. However, there is a marked difference in the frequency of occurrence of një in different texts. In translations from languages with articles the fre-

quency of një is relatively high. Apparently the rules for the use of një are optional in many instances. Nev- ertheless one gets the impression that një is becoming



103

more common in the written language. This is most likely to be attributed to the influence of foreign literatures. A similar tendency can be observed in other Balkan lan-

guages. The question for Balkan linguistics is to what extent this development is a matter of Balkan linguistic convergence.

University of Leiden

REFERENCES

Buchholz, O., e. a. 1977 Wörterbuch Albanisch-Deutsch, Leipzig.

Demira j, Sh. 1971 Morfologjia e gjuhës shqipe, Prishtinë.

Friedman , V . 1973 "The question of a Bulgarian indefinite article",

Bulgaria, past and present, pp. 334-39, Th. Butler (ed.), Madison.

Newmark , L . , e . a . 1980 Spoken Albanian, Ithaca.

Revzin, I.I. 1977 "Ankete po kategorii opredelennosti-neopredelennosti" ,

Balkanski j lingvisticeskij sbornik, pp. 220-43, Moskva. Vor onina , I.I.

1976 "K voprosu o sisteme artiklej v albanskom jazyke", Gramma- ticeskij stroj balkanskich jazykov, pp. 125-61, Leningrad.



Documents

SOUTH SLAVIC AND BALKAN LINGUISTICS || ON DISTINGUISHING ARTICLES IN ALBANIAN