Evolucioni paralel i nyjave të përparme e të prapme në gjuhën shqipe (Në nderim të Holger Pedersenit, 1867-1953)
The parallel evolution of postpositive and prepositive articles in Albanian

Summary/Abstract: The article problem is one of the most disputed in the Albanian language. This problem has been displayed as a permanent debate about such questions as “What is the origin of the postpositive (definite) article in Albanian? “ “Which article is older, the prepositive or postpositive one?” that is “Did the prepositive article derive from the postpositive one or, on the contrary, the postpositive article derive from the prepositive one?”. Several researchers have responded differently to these questions, every one of them presenting his arguments. My article is an effort to shed a new light on the process that gave birth to the Albanian articles (both prepositive and postpositive). According to my opinion the main question is not the chronological order of the articles origin (as it has been put so far), but the way through which Albanian articles came to life. The word “way” entails more or less the real process of acquiring them, a process with which H. Pedersen dealt first (his example pus i thellë – “deep well” is commonly known). Following Pedersen’s path, I intend to bring up this problem again and to deal with it on a new basis. There is a starting point, which consists of two preconditions that could explain the birth of the postpositive (definite) and prepositive articles in Albanian: Albanian: 1. Considering the birth process of postpositive (definite) and prepositive articles on the basis of the grammaticalization theory. 2. Detaching the problem of the prepositive article from adjectives and transferring it to the genitive case of nouns. The process of the Albanian articles origin has passed through four stages. These stages had one single pattern, which was the structure “noun + adpositional element + noun”. The structure “noun + adjective” is related to the substantivated use of adjectives. The best environment for their substantivization was the genitive case. In the course of time postposition became the habitual position of adjectives. The frequent appearance of the article in an almost closed category, like adjectives, gave the impression that the article was a part of the adjective. Its occurrence, too, before nouns in genitive, despite the loose grammatical relation, left the same impression as if article was a part of the genitive form of the noun.

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