The indefinite article UN and quantitative approximation. A comparative approach Cover Image

Articolul nehotărât „un” și aproximarea cantitativă. O privire comparativă
The indefinite article UN and quantitative approximation. A comparative approach

Author(s): Ruxandra Lambru, Silvia Mihăilescu
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Morphology, Comparative Linguistics, South Slavic Languages
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: approximation; indefinite article; numeral; Romance languages; Slavic languages; Balkan linguistics; fuzziness;

Summary/Abstract: Describing the linguistic means of expressing approximate quantity using numerals in Bulgarian, Romanian, French, and Serbian, made us focus on rather a new phenomenon in Romanian. Namely, the usage in the spoken language of a syntactic pattern such as indefinite article + cardinal number (+ preposition) + nominal group, a pattern firstly observed by Camelia Stan in 2006, who found similarities in other Romance languages. Atipical in this patern is the combination of indefinite article with a number; thus, the article is used with adverbial value and expresses approximation. Our aim is to present other parallels of this syntactic model, which can integrate the problem in the Balkan / Slavic context.

  • Issue Year: LV/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 13-18
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Romanian