The Indefinite Article and the Restrictive Relative Clause in Italian

Simonetta Vietri

doi:10.1075/li.11.2.02vie

The Indefinite Article and the Restrictive Relative Clause in Italian

Lingvisticae Investigationes ◽

10.1075/li.11.2.02vie ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 253-281

Author(s):

Simonetta Vietri

Keyword(s):

Relative Clause ◽

Indefinite Article ◽

Premiere Partie

Cet article traite des phrases relatives restrictives attachées a un syn-tagme nominal avec déterminant indéfini en italien. Dans une première partie l'on montre que les valeurs "spécifique" et "non-spécifique" de l'article UN dépendent du temps-mode de la relative et ensuite des valeurs tempo-aspectuels du verbe de la phrase principale. L'analyse détaillée des entrées lexicales met en lumière l'existence d'au moins deux classes de verbes qui déterminent, en combinaison avec la relative et le temps-mode, des interprétations différentes de l'article UN.

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The influence of referentiality, definiteness, and “preposition+determiner” contraction on relative clause processing

Diacrítica ◽

10.21814/diacritica.419 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 116-140

Author(s):

Gitanna Brito Bezerra

Keyword(s):

Relative Clause ◽

Brazilian Portuguese ◽

Indefinite Article ◽

Contraction Effect

In this paper, we present two experiments (questionnaires) that we conducted to investigate the influence of referentiality, definiteness, and preposition+determiner contraction (P+D contraction) on relative clause processing. The first experiment was conducted in Brazilian Portuguese, and the results revealed an influence of referentiality and definiteness on relative clause interpretation: N2 modification (low attachment) was more probable when N2 was referential and when it was introduced by an indefinite article. The results did not reveal, however, an effect of P+D contraction. The second experiment was conducted in Spanish and it focused on referentiality and P+D contraction. The results revealed a significant effect of both factors: N2 modification was more probable when N2 was referential and when the article preceding it was not contracted with the preposition. Based on these results, we emphasize the influence of the three factors investigated on relative clause interpretation, highlighting the novelty of the P+D contraction effect.

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