”De statliga vägar med många olyckor” – en ny(gammal) determinativstruktur i svenskan?

• In present-day Swedish, definiteness is signalled by a suffix if the noun is unmodified. If the noun is premodified, both a suffix and a definite determiner are used. If the noun is postmodified by a restrictive relative clause, a cataphoric determiner on its own signals definiteness and the suffix is not used, at least in formal style. The present article exemplifies and discusses a contemporary non-standard form where the classic determinative structure, without a suffix on the antecedent, is used in spite of the fact that the postmodifier is not a relative clause but a prepositional phrase. In a brief historical survey, it is demonstrated that this (now) unorthodox form is not a novelty but has been in use for at least 500 years.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

definiteness

determiner

postmodification

relative

Swedish

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)