3.1. Use of the Article for Genitives

There is one use of a determiner, which quite clearly cannot be demon-strative, namely, a determiner used in a partitive genitive construction. The Isidor translation contains the phrase in zeihne dhero liudeo, which translates the Latin phrase in signum populorum ‘in (a) sign of the people’. The people are not mentioned in the text immediately preceding this passage, so dhero has no anaphoric or deictic function. The same Latin phrase appears again later in the paragraph without a determiner.

Within the older system, where (in)definiteness is indicated by inter-action between aspect and case, genitive objects are indefinite regardless of whether they appear with perfective or imperfective verbs. When the genitive object is, in fact, definite, the determiner (now an article) is needed to show that. The selections from the Tatian translation contain many such genitives. Some examples are given in 6.

1. (6)

   1. a.

      

   2. b.

      

In 6a, the noun in the genitive case appears for the first time in the cor-responding narrative. More examples of this type appear in Appendix. It is very unlikely that a demonstrative could be used in this way, as there is no deixis shown. The function of the determiner is purely grammatical, that is, the semantics has been lost and the demonstrative has been gram-maticalized to an article.

In the Evangelienbuch, determiners in the genitive case appear everywhere where they are not part of a possessive construction. In some cases, the determiner could be intended simply as a demonstrative in the genitive case, as shown in 7.

1. (7)

   1. a.

      

   2. b.

      

In 7a, thero gomono is in a cataphoric relationship to the relative pro-noun ther. More examples can be found in Appendix.

In all the examples in 8, the nouns in question have been previously mentioned in the text. The determiners could therefore be demonstratives intended to convey the anaphoric relationship. Yet there are other nouns that have not been previously mentioned.

1. (8)

   1. a.

      

   2. b.

      

   3. c.

      

Although these objects have not been recently mentioned by name they are known to the reader. The holy flower and the exalted as well as the bride of God are metaphors for Mary. The table is identifiable as the Lord's table, or the table of the last supper. Identifiability combined with definiteness seems to require the article for these partitive genitives.

3.2. Proximal Use of the Article

The Isidor translator uses determiners 440 times. The overwhelming majority of these determiners are of the type used as articles in PDG, and they are often used where no determiner is present in the Latin original. Such usage suggests that at least some of these determiners were con-strued as articles.

The OHG of the Isidor sometimes makes anaphoric use of a determiner. A referent can be first introduced without a determiner, for example, I.6 daz er fona fater ist gaboran ‘that he from father is born’ and then referred back to with a determiner, for example, I.6 fona demo selbo fater ‘from the/that same father’ to show an anaphoric relationship. Jäger (Reference Jäger1917) finds 32 examples in the Isidor where the determiner has a clearly anaphoric function. Jäger sees this as article usage but notes that possessive pronouns can also be used in place of articles to convey ana-phora. Jäger's analysis, however, does not acknowledge the fact that demonstratives can also be used anaphorically, and, therefore, these demonstratives cannot be said to be articles for this reason alone. Such frequent use of determiners where none are present in the Latin text is, however, consistent with anaphoric article use.

The Tatian translation also contains numerous examples of nouns that appear for the first time without a determiner and later on, when the object or person is referred back to, with a determiner. In these cases, the Latin original never uses determiners for the second mention. Leiss (Reference Leiss, Stark, Leiss and Abraham2007:92) cites one such example from the beginning of the Tatian translation that contains a rhema without an article and thema with an article:

There are many other examples. In 9, an OHG line is followed by the corresponding Latin text: 9a shows the first mention of the noun boat, while example 9b shows the second mention of this noun.

1. (9)

   1. a. 52.1 Imo stigantemo in skef folgetun imo sine iungiron.

      Et adscendente eo in navicula secuti sunt eum discipuli eius.

      ‘With him climbing into (the/a) boat, his disciples followed him.’

   2. b. 52.2 … thaz skef uuard bithekit mit then undon.

      … navicula operiretur flucyibus.

      ‘the/that ship was covered with waves.’

Example 10 offers especially compelling evidence for article use: Since thiu scaf and thio zigun refer to hypothetical sheep and lambs, it is very unlikely that thiu/thio is a demonstrative. For more examples of this type see Appendix.

1. (10) 152.2 so hirti zisceidit scaf fon zigon, inti sezzit thiu scaf fon sineru zesavvun inti thio zigun fon sineru uuinistrun.

   Sicut pastor segregate oves ab hedis, et statuet oves quidam a dextris suis, hedos autem a sinistris.

   ‘Thus (a) shepherd separates sheep from lambs and sets the sheep at his right and the lambs at his left side.’

The Evangelienbuch also contains many determiners that appear to be proximal articles. It is more difficult to determine whether they are ar-ticles or demonstratives though, since the Evangelienbuch is an original composition, with no Latin text for comparison. However, there is one clear example:

1. (11) I.3.9-12 Ni was Noe, ih sagen thir ein,

   not was Noah, I tell you once,

   in then thaz minnista deil,

   among them the least part

   ‘I tell you now, Noah was not the least of them.’

The determiner in this example is almost certainly an article, not a demonstrative, since the author is not pointing out and comparing specific parts (deil). The Evangelienbuch also contains many clear examples of distal articles.

3.3. Distal Use of the Article

All of the works examined show that distal articles can be used for at least some of the purposes identified above. However, none of them contain examples of a distal article used with referents with inalienable properties. In this section, various distal uses of the article are discussed.

First, an article can be used to express the uniqueness of an object. In PDG, nouns that denote unique objects such as sun, moon, earth, devil, heaven, hell, life, death, sin, and night require an article. In contrast, in the OHG translation of the Isidor or Tatian uniqueness does not seem to play a role in article use. The Isidor translation has words for sun, earth, heaven, and devil that never appear with a determiner of any kind. Similarly, the selection from the Tatian translation contains words for earth, life, and sin that are never used with an article to express unique-ness.

In the Evangelienbuch, however, an article is used with unique objects. The first mention of night (naht) and foundation (of the earth) (fundament) contains an article:

1. (12)

   1. a. II.1.13 Er mano rihti thia naht,

      before moon steered the night

      joh wurti ouh sunna so glat,

      and became also sun so smooth

      ‘before the moon steered the night and before the sun

      became so smooth’

   2. b. II.1.22 thaz fundament zi houfe, thar thiu erda ligit ufe:

      the foundation to ground where the earth lies on:

      ‘the foundation was laid where the earth now lies’

This usage is common in PDG and other Germanic languages, but it is applied to somewhat different sets of nouns in different languages and dialects. Otfrid mentions heaven (himil), earth (erda), moon (mano), and sun (sunna) for the first time without an article. The use of the article to encode uniqueness tends to expand over time. Examples 16 show the early stages of such use.

Second, an article can be used with nouns whose referents are iden-tified by a prenominal adjective. The older Germanic languages use the so-called strong and weak declensions to indicate indefiniteness and definiteness, respectively. In OHG, the following adjective forms were uninflected: in the nominative case, masculine/feminine/neuter forms, both singular and plural, and in the accusative case, the neuter singular form. The uninflected forms arose through loss of unstressed syllables. Then new adjectival inflection was created by adding to these uninflected forms either nominal endings inherited from Proto-Indo-European or recently introduced pronominal endings. Thus, a strong declension came into being, which in the modern Germanic languages indicates indefinite-ness.

Interestingly, pronominal inflections are not used for masculine or neuter nouns in the Isidor translation, and of 20 feminine examples, only five show pronominal inflection (Braune/Eggers Reference Braune and Eggers1975:216, Anm. 2). These uninflected adjectives, in fact, do not seem to indicate indefinite-ness of the noun they modify; on the contrary, the nouns appear to be definite by identifiability:

1. (13)

   

A good test for the use of a determiner solely as a definiteness marker is its compatibility with superlatives. “It is a general fact that languages which have definiteness marking use it with superlatives: the cleverest boy, *a cleverest boy. And it is clear that what is involved here is definiteness in the narrow, grammatical sense” (Lyons Reference Lyons1999:246). In the Isidor translation, there are only 3 examples of superlatives modifying nouns. Two of them contain a determiner:

1. (14)

   1. a. IV.2 in dhemu eristen deile

      ‘in the first part’

   2. b. V. 9 mit dhem hohistom salidhom

      ‘with the highest holiness’

These determiners can hardly be considered demonstratives in this context. There is one example of a postposed adjective with weak declension:

1. (15) V.1 frido herost-o

   peace highest-def

   ‘the highest peace’

There are many examples of superlatives used as adjectival nouns. Some of them appear with determiners:

1. (16)

   1. a. IV.4 in dhemu eristen

      ‘in the first’

   2. b. V.4 dher hohist-o

      the highest-def

      ‘the highest one’

   3. c. IX.9 dhea herost-un

      the highest-def

      ‘the highest ones’

However, other such adjectival nouns show either weak declension alone, as in 17, or null declension, as in 18.

1. (17)

   

2. (18)

   

In all of the above examples, there is some kind of definite marking. The occasional use of an article, even though definiteness could be marked by adjective declension alone, indicates that there is a grammatical tran-sition underway.

In the language of the Tatian translation, it is also possible to mark definiteness on an adjective by using the weak declension, as shown in the first line of example 19 (the -e ending).

1. (19)

   

When the weak declension is used in conjunction with a determiner, it continues to be used as an agreement feature marking definiteness along-side the determiner. This may explain why unstressed adjectival endings did not disappear: They were repurposed as agreement.

It is likewise possible to mark indefiniteness with the strong adjective declension alone.

1. (20)

   

2. 

Here, again, the declension functions as agreement when used within a semantically indefinite context, for instance, with the weak quantifier many:Footnote ²

1. (21)

   

The strong declension is also used with collectives and abstract nouns:

1. (22)

   

In contrast to the Isidor translation, the selections from the Tatian translation do not contain definite objects with an adjective and a deter-miner. Adjective declension in the Evangelienbuch appears the same as in the Isidor in the sense that the use of an article with definite objects modified by adjectives appears to be optional:

1. (23)

   

2. 

The word wine in each example can be said to be definite based on the adjective declension and/or the context. In 23a, the speaker is referring to a specific type wine, the better one of two, and an article is used. In 23b, (the) very best wine is definite wine but not specific or identifiable wine, and therefore, an article apparently is not required.

Third, an article can be used with nouns that name generic objects. In the Isidor translation and in the selections from the Tatian translation, an article is not found with generic objects. In the Evangelienbuch, how-ever, determiners are used in cases of what could be called a generic reference:

1. (24)

   

In these examples, the nouns in question all refer to people in general. The use of the article may also have to do with the fact that they are all in the genitive case (see section 3.1 above).

There is another type of generic reference to something other than people that requires the use of the article in cases other than genitive:

1. (25)

   

2. 

Here Otfrid is referring to literature and the books of the bible in general. The Isidor and Tatian translators may not have had any opportunity to use articles for such references.

Fourth, an article can appear with nouns whose referents are iden-tifiable. In the Isidor translation, determiners and possessive adjectives appear with certain referents at all times including the first mentioning, regardless of how they appear in the Latin source. In the Isidor, these referents are primarily well-known biblical characters and things. For example, burc when it refers to Jerusalem, tempil when it refers to the temple in Jerusalem, and samanunge in the sense of synagogue, always appear with a determiner. Dhazs heilege chiscribe ‘the Holy Scripture’ always appears with a determiner and an adjective (see Jäger Reference Jäger1917:37–42). This kind of determiner use appears to be motivated by identifiablity alone. It conveys no proximal or distal sense and should therefore be considered an article.

The Tatian translation also provides evidence of identifiability being encoded by determiners used as articles. The word for savior appears as ther heilant 13 times in the text selections. It appears without a determiner only when used to address Christ.

In all cases, heilant/ther heilant is a translation of the Latin Ihesus. It would not make sense for the translator to use it in the distal (or proximal) sense of that/this savior so many times throughout the text when it is clear to the audience to whom he is referring. This must be an example of an article. There are other examples of this type:

1. (26)

   

2. 

The gastihus is the inn where Mary and Joseph wish to stay the night of Jesus’ birth, and it is only mentioned this one time in the text. The sea (that is, the Sea of Galilee) is not mentioned previously. These deter-miners therefore do not contain a deictic element and are better described as articles.

The selection from the Evangelienbuch also contains examples of an article used with nouns whose referents are identifiable to the reader:

1. (27)

   

2. 

All of these nouns are mentioned for the first time in the passages above. They all refer to the structure of poetry. Since they denote entities known to the reader or listener, the article encodes their identifiability.

Finally, an article can be used in cases of associate occurrence. In the Tatian translation, there is another example of determiners that for simi-lar reasons are not likely to be demonstratives:

1. (28)

   1. a. 5.1 Iesse gibar Dauiden then cuning.

      Jesse begat David.accthe.acc king.acc

      ‘Jesse begat David the King.’

   2. b. 5.2 Dauid ther cuning gibar Salomonen.

      David the king begat Salomon.acc

      ‘David the King begat Salomon.’

King David is not mentioned previously in the text. The determiner therefore cannot be a demonstrative or express an anaphoric relationship. It is used in an associative occurrence and as such is a distal definite article. The Isidor and the selections from the Evangelienbuch do not contain examples of this use of the definite article.

3.4. Cliticized Articles

Finally, certain determiners appear as clitics. Since a stressed word such as a demonstrative would not cliticize, this clearly shows that these words are articles.

1. (29) Ein scaf er stantan gisah, thaz was zem opphere gimah;

   a sheep he standing saw that was to-the sacrifice suited

   ‘He saw a sheep standing there that was suitable for sacrifice.’

This preposition-determiner contraction occurs throughout the Evan-gelienbuch with the preposition zu and the determiners them (zem) and ther (zer). The fact that this contraction exists shows that them and ther cannot be demonstratives in those instances, as only an unstressed function word, such as an article, could cliticize. In 33, them is used as a distal article with a noun (sacrifice) whose referent is identifiable in the wider context and that has not been previously mentioned. Although the contraction never occurs with other prepositions in the Evangelienbuch, new grammatical constructions often begin with a narrow scope of applicability. Then they either expand their scope over time or die out. The zum contraction probably represents the initial stage, following which, during Middle High German and PDG, the scope of the construction expands to include other prepositions and articles. This process, known as extension, is beyond the scope of the present article. For a similar development involving the extension of the -st verb ending in OHG, see Somers Reference Somers2011. As an affix, the article is in stage 4 of the DP cycle, as defined by van Gelderen.