30 (7)
The lion is a mammal.
In English, this phenomenon is somewhat restricted, but as we shall see below, it plays a more salient part in other languages. The most common diachronic source for definite articles is demonstrative pronouns, typically distal ones (‘that’). As pointed out by Lyons (1999: 332), there is a substantial overlap between the domains of use of demonstratives and definite articles, notably in anaphoric function. For instance, in a context like the following, both that and the are acceptable: (8)
Last year, I saw a film by Ingmar Bergman. I would like to see that/the film again.
The first stage in the development of definite articles from demonstratives, accordingly, consists in a more general use of a demonstrative in anaphoric function. Such “anaphoric articles” are attested in various languages – Lyons (1999: 53-54) mentions Hausa and Lakota as examples. Geographically closer to the area studied here is spoken Finnish, where at least in some varieties, the demonstrative se tends to be used in ways suggestive of an “anaphoric article” (see Laury (1997), and for a more sceptical view, Juvonen (2000)): (9)
Finnish ...niin sit
se
mies meni
ja,
so
this
man
and
then
go.PST
osti
ne
kaikki ilmapallot
buy.PST
this.PL
all
balloon.NOM.PL
ja
anto
ne
sille
pojalle,
and
give.PST
them
this.ALL
boy.ALL
ja
sit
se
poika...
and
then
this
boy
‘…so then the man went and bought all the balloons and gave them to the boy, and the boy…’ (Juvonen (2000: 136)) For an erstwhile demonstrative to look more like the definite articles we are used to from languages such as English, it has to acquire also non-anaphoric uses. Finnish se is still unacceptable e.g. in a context as that exemplified in (6). The mechanism behind an expansion from an anaphoric to a more general definite article is not well understood, but we may note that it involves the elements usually associated with grammaticalization processes: a rise in frequency through the expansion to new contexts where the element becomes obligatory, combined with a loss of prosodic prominence and an ensuing reduction of phonetic weight (what is commonly but misleadingly referred to as “erosion”).