Expression of Definiteness and Albanian Proper Nouns : A Description Based on Comparison with English
Abstract
In English the category of in/definiteness has been given a great deal more attention than in Albanian. We can find systematic descriptions of articles in standard grammars starting from Sweet's (1892) grammar, to a more detailed account in Jespersen's (1949) work up to the major contemporary synchronic grammars, Quirk et al. (1985) and Huddleston and Pullum (2002).
Since the 1930s there has been a line of monographs on the English articles. One of the most significant is Christophersen's (1939) study which for a long time dominated the field.
Other authors dealing with the topic were Yotsukura (1970), Krámský (1972), Hewson (1972), Hawkins (1978), Kałuźa (1981), Chesterman (1991) and, most recently, Lyons (2003). As the title suggests, the main strategy for describing definite reference and the use of the definite article in Albanian proper nouns is comparison-driven, using the sophisticated framework developed for English as its basis.
In the English grammars mentioned above, the starting point is the examination of English proper nouns and how they relate to definiteness. This procedure forms the model for the description of the expression of definiteness in Albanian proper nouns and the use of the definite article/form.
Inasmuch as the comparison of the formal expression of definiteness, i. e. by means of the definite article, in Albanian and English is bidirectional, the study seeks the answers to the following two questions: 1) What happens with Albanian proper nouns in a context where English nouns are found with the definite article? 2) What happens with English proper nouns in a context where Albanian nouns are found with the definite article?