Schwarz (2013): Two Kinds of Definites Cross-Linguistically

@cite{schwarz-2013} @cite{hawkins-1978} @cite{schwarz-2009}

Cross-linguistic typology of the weak/strong article distinction. Schwarz identifies seven languages where the morphological article paradigm distinguishes a weak article (uniqueness/situational use) from a strong article (anaphoric/familiarity use), supporting his earlier @cite{schwarz-2009} analysis that the two definite articles correspond to different syntactic projections (D_det vs D_deix + D_det).

Core Generalizations

1. Strong → anaphoric: every surveyed language uses the strong article for anaphoric definites (§3.1.1).
2. Weak → uniqueness: every surveyed language uses the weak article (or a bare nominal) for uniqueness-based definites (§3.1.2).
3. Bridging splits: most languages split bridging across article forms — part-whole bridging takes weak, producer bridging takes strong (§3.2).
4. Bare-nominal strategy: languages with only one overt article form (Akan, Mauritian Creole) use bare nominals for weak-article definites (§4.1).
5. Haitian Creole exception: single determiner la for both anaphoric and uniqueness uses — no weak/strong split (§4.3).

The article-pronoun parallel (§5.5) is exploited by @cite{patel-grosz-grosz-2017} (Studies/PatelGroszGrosz2017.lean), where weak article ↔ PER pronoun and strong article ↔ DEM pronoun.

structure Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.SchwarzArticleDatum : Type

Per-language article paradigm from @cite{schwarz-2013}.

• language : String
• isoCode : String
• strongForm : Option String

  Morphological form of the strong article (if any).

• weakForm : Option String

  Morphological form of the weak article (if any).

• weakStrategy : Features.Definiteness.WeakArticleStrategy

  How weak definites are expressed.

• strongForAnaphoric : Bool

  Strong article used for anaphoric definites.

• weakForUniqueness : Bool

  Weak article/bare nominal used for uniqueness/situational.

• bridgingSplit : Bool

  Bridging shows the split (part-whole = weak, producer = strong).

def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instReprSchwarzArticleDatum.repr : SchwarzArticleDatum → Nat → Std.Format

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@[implicit_reducible]

instance Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instReprSchwarzArticleDatum : Repr SchwarzArticleDatum

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• Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instReprSchwarzArticleDatum = { reprPrec := Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instReprSchwarzArticleDatum.repr }

def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instBEqSchwarzArticleDatum.beq : SchwarzArticleDatum → SchwarzArticleDatum → Bool

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• Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instBEqSchwarzArticleDatum.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instBEqSchwarzArticleDatum : BEq SchwarzArticleDatum

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• Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instBEqSchwarzArticleDatum = { beq := Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.instBEqSchwarzArticleDatum.beq }

def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.german : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.fering : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.akan : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.mauritianCreole : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.lakhota : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.hausa : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.haitianCreole : SchwarzArticleDatum

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def Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.allData : List SchwarzArticleDatum

All 7 languages from @cite{schwarz-2013} survey.

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theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.strong_for_anaphoric : (allData.all fun (x : SchwarzArticleDatum) => x.strongForAnaphoric) = true

Strong article → anaphoric use (@cite{schwarz-2013} §3.1.1): all surveyed languages use the strong article for anaphoric definites.

theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.weak_for_uniqueness : (allData.all fun (x : SchwarzArticleDatum) => x.weakForUniqueness) = true

Weak form → uniqueness/situational use (@cite{schwarz-2013} §3.1.2): all surveyed languages use weak articles (or bare nominals) for uniqueness-based definites.

theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.bridging_split_is_majority : (List.filter (fun (x : SchwarzArticleDatum) => x.bridgingSplit) allData).length = 5

Bridging split (@cite{schwarz-2013} §3.2): most languages split bridging across article forms (part-whole = weak, producer = strong). 5 of 7 languages show this pattern; Hausa lacks data, and Haitian Creole uses a single form for everything.

theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.bare_nominal_languages : (List.filter (fun (x : SchwarzArticleDatum) => x.weakStrategy == Features.Definiteness.WeakArticleStrategy.bareNominal) allData).length = 2

Bare-nominal strategy (@cite{schwarz-2013} §4.1): languages with only one overt article form (Akan, Mauritian Creole) use bare nominals for weak-article definites.

theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.haitian_creole_no_split : (haitianCreole.weakStrategy == Features.Definiteness.WeakArticleStrategy.sameAsStrong) = true

Haitian Creole is exceptional (@cite{schwarz-2013} §4.3): single determiner la for both anaphoric and uniqueness uses — no weak/strong split.

theorem Studies.Anaphora.Schwarz2013.semantic_mapping : Features.Definiteness.useTypeToPresupType Features.Definiteness.DefiniteUseType.anaphoric = Features.Definiteness.DefPresupType.familiarity ∧ Features.Definiteness.useTypeToPresupType Features.Definiteness.DefiniteUseType.immediateSituation = Features.Definiteness.DefPresupType.uniqueness ∧ Features.Definiteness.useTypeToPresupType Features.Definiteness.DefiniteUseType.largerSituation = Features.Definiteness.DefPresupType.uniqueness

The semantic mapping is compositional (@cite{schwarz-2013} §2.2): weak article contributes uniqueness presupposition (ι-operator); strong article contributes familiarity/anaphoricity (index variable).