draft of November 2011

He was examined by someone like Kassandra.
The above examples indicate that even with proper names the use of the definite article is not
expletive. If the article is not expletive, it is hard to see how it can be a head in polydefinite
structures. Note also that the additional article in polydefinites is not expletive. As discussed
in detail by Kolliakou (2003), the ”second” definite in a polydefinite restricts the range of
the first one, even when proper names are involved. Thus, (49a) presupposes more than one
Christinas and the polydefinite in (49b) picks the one with the surname Sevdali.
(49) a. Pia
Christina tha erthi;
who-fem.nom Christina will come-3sg?
Which Christina will come?
b. i Christina i Sevdali
the-nom Christina the-nom Sevdali
Christina Sevdali.
When such restrictive modification is not possible for pragmatic reasons, the polydefinites are
infelicitous as shown by (50).
(50) a. Taksidhepse ston plati Iriniko
travelled-3sg in-the wide Pacific
She travelled in the wide Pacific.
b. =Taksidhepse
travelled-3sg
ston Iriniko ton plati
in-the Pacific the wide
(From Kolliakou 2003, ex.14)
Research from a different vein indicates that Greek definite phrases behave like noun phrases in
articless languages rather than DPs in languages with articles. In particular, Bo˘sković (2008)
proposes that nominals in languages without articles show properties that systematically
distinguish them from nominals in languages with articles. The contrast can only be explained
if the former instantiate Noun Phrases rather than DPs with null Ds. Interestingly, Greek
nominals exhibit some of the properties of noun phrases in articless languages. 16 The first
16 Boscovic is aware of the fact that Greek is a potential exception to his generalisations,ibid, fn.3.
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