Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

ADJECTIVAL DETERMINERS IN ALBANIAN AND GREEK 163The language distinguishes three grammatical genders and five Cases: nominative,accusative, genitive, dative, and ablative. In an Albanian DP, like that in(9), all constituents are marked and agree in gender and number. Postnominal attributiveadjectives are not marked for Case. Thus, in (9), only the demonstrative,the noun, and the adjectival determiner are marked for Case:(9) kythisdjale'this good boy'ldj allboy-INDEF/boy-DEFiDETmiregoodIn this language, the so-called articulated adjectives are always preceded by amorpheme, denoted here by the term adjectival determiner ("DET" in the glosses),regardless of whether they are used attributively, as in (l0a):(10) a. mesuesi iteacher-DEF DET'the happy teacher'or predicatively, as in (lOb):lutmurhappyb. Mesuesi ishte i lutmur.teacher-DEF was DET happyThe teacher was happy.'or of whether they modify a definite (cf. (10a)) or an indefinite noun (cf. (11)):(11) nje baba i zia father DET-MASC.NOM.SG black-MASC.SG'a poor father'Adjectival determiners agree in gender and number (and Case, when the adjectiveis marked for Case) with their corresponding adjective. They also agree in gender,number, and definiteness (and Case, when the noun is marked for Case) withthe noun modified by the adjective. In Albanian DPs, attributive adjectives arecanonically postnominal. In this situation, they are not marked for Case, thisfeature being marked only on the modified noun, as noted with respect to (9):(12) a.b.c.nje djaleimirea boy-MASC.NOM.SG DET-MASC.NOM. SG good-MASC. .SG'a good boy (MOM)'nje vajze ea girl-FEM.NOM.SG DET-FEM.NOM.SG'a good girl (NOM)'djernboy-MASC.NOM.PL'good boys (NOM)'teDET-MASC.NOM. PLmiregood-FEM.SGmiregood-MASC. PL