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Article published In: Journal of Uralic Linguistics
Vol. 4:2 (2025) ► pp.148–178

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The Finnish definite article

ORCiD logo with link | Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Hungary
Published online: 24 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jul.00040.tor
Abstract
While there is a great deal of work analyzing definiteness in Finnish, the literature on the ongoing development of a definite article is either inconclusive or incomplete. Using a battery of tests gauging definiteness and articlehood, this article argues that Finnish has developed a definite article. The core proposal is that the demonstrative elements se/ne ‘that/those’ have developed into definite articles, syntactically D heads, while still also occurring as neutral demonstratives. This paper therefore proposes that, for Finnish se and ne, each one has two lexical entries: one for the definite article, and one for the demonstrative.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A brief typology of the Finnish demonstrative system
  • 3.Previous discussions of se as an article
    • 3.1Lack of adequate tests for articlehood
    • 3.2Misanalyzed data
    • 3.3Interim summary
  • 4.Tests for articlehood
    • 4.1Demonstratives vs. the definite article
    • 4.2The Associative Test for se
    • 4.2The Uniqueness Test for se
    • 4.3Unique adjectives with se
    • 4.4Proper names with se
    • 4.5A shift in labor?
    • 4.6The plural ne
    • 4.7Interim summary
  • 5.The Finnish DP
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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