text_combined: summary q articles two weeks ago posted following query system articles innovative feature number languages examples languages lost articles would also interested creoles especially say source languages articles pidgin creole turned lacking thanks following responding lars borin david gohre john e koontz jeff marck deborah kela ruuskanen achim stenzel shigenori wakabayashi dave wharton 8 replies one actual response query lars borin lars borin ling uu se pointed finnish romani language lost articles completely loss almost certainly due finnish influence many traits modern finnish romani morphology syntax moreover colloquial finnish may seem developing article system using demonstrative se def numeral yksi one indef interesting note lars noticed finnish romani texts forms demonstrative pronouns auva ouva reduced phonologically indeclinable reduced versions nominative plural forms ala ola nominative plurals auva douva written aala doola b used much spoken finnish e e perhaps representing first maybe second stage development demonstrative preposed definite article importantly definite articles used sg masculine sg feminine e plural genders hence nothing like demonstrative pronouns let elaborate somewhat reason inquiring matter disregarding massive language contact e hey way say things around better start creolization e ok guys let start begin lexical categories case universal tendency languages acquire articles loose take configurational approach noun phrase interpretation could say articles hence semantics associated noun phrase internal functional projection much way linguists would assume association tense verbal inflections clausal functional projection essence talking kind dp analysis since possible noun phrase interpretations differ minimally across languages guess would assume languages without articles functional projection associated semantic properties question would phonetically empty heads possible tendency acquiring articles could explained strive fill head overt elements unfortunately say far reason convinced line reasoning cant see obvious reason give either however ready butchered probably read following references provided john e koontz koontz alpha bldr nist gov greenberg joseph h 1978 language acquire gender markers pp 4782 universals human language vol 4 ed jos h greenberg et al stanford ca stanford university press discusses evolution gender marking articles articles demonstratives see also greenberg joseph h 1981 nilo saharan moveablek stage iii article penutian typological parallel journal african languages linguistics 3 105112 interested definiteness especially respect english finnish consult following work provided deborah kela ruuskanen druuskan cc helsinki fi chesterman 1991 definiteness study special reference english finnish cambridge studies linguistics 56 cambridge university press worth reading done 0ystein alexander vangsnes university iceland university bergen oystein rhi hi vangsnes foli uib