(Komi-Permyak)

Art=Aff

Art=Aff: Articles are affixes and cannot be inflected.

(1)nyvkamun-ögortö.
girlgoPRS.3SGhome
’A/The girl goes home.’ (L. P.)

(2)nyvka-ysmun-ögortö.
girlARTgoPRS.3SGhome
’The girl goes home.’ (L. P.)

(3)petraraďejt-önyvka-ös.
PeterlovePRS.3SGgirlACC
’Peter loves a/the girl.’ (L. P.)

(4)petraraďejt-önyvka-sö.
PeterlovePRS.3SGgirlACC.3SG
’Peter loves the girl/somebody’s daughter.’ (L. P.)

Komi-Permyak grammars do not refer to articles as independent categories in the language. However, it is often mentioned that the third (more rarely the second) person possessive suffixes (Px-es) are used as determiners (cf. Bartens 2000: 122–123, Batalova 2002: 71–72). Thus, the Px can be interpreted as an affixal article (2), (4). Nouns can have special forms with possessive suffixes on them (Batalova 2002: 75). However, in such cases it is the noun itself that the case ending is attached to, rather than the Px that plays the role of an affixal article here. Consequently, articles have no declension of their own in this language.

Author: Nikolett F. Gulyás


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