Leiden University Student Repository

Bloom, Barthe (2016)

Accessibility Theory and the issue of two definite constructions in Swedish: A Competition Hypothesis

Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)

The present thesis is concerned with the difference between two definite marking strategies in Swedish: the double definite construction and the suffixed definite article construction. By means of a distributional analysis of adjectivally modified definite noun phrases, it will be shown that the two constructions do not differ from each other in overall degree of Accessibility (Ariel 1988, 1991). The distributional analysis of the factor of Competition brings to light a clear distinction between the two definite constructions. The double definite construction is strongly preferred over the suffixed definite article construction in contexts where the noun is modified by more than one information piece. Based on this, a Competition Hypothesis is formulated. The basic formulation of this hypothesis is that the double definite construction in Swedish signals that there is competition on the role of antecedent, while the suffixed definite article construction lacks this function.

Accessibility Theory

Definite noun phrase

Swedish

Author

Bloom, Barthe

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Verhagen, Arie

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en