Possessive adjectives with and without articles: the case of Piedmontese

Abstract

According to the grammars of contemporary Piedmontese (based on the variety of Turin), the use of possessive adjectives with definite articles is restricted to the plural masculine ij mè lìber ‘my books, lit. the my books’, in contrast with such forms as mè lìber ‘my book’ (singular masculine), mia ca ‘my house’ (singular feminine) and mie ca ‘my houses’ (plural feminine). This behaviour of the masculine plural may be attributed to a functional need, i.e. that of distinguishing the plural masculine from the singular masculine. This paper aims to investigate whether the pattern described above is confirmed by both historical and non-Turinese data. The analysis will focus on similarities and differences not only between geographical varieties of Piedmontese, but also between such varieties and Italian.