A number of grammatical processes appear to refer to the feature [+ Def], in the sense that they only apply when this feature is present. An example is object marking, which, as we have briefly observed, only takes place in some languages for definite objects. An alternative way to view such phenomena is that definiteness is only encoded in certain grammatical contexts; thus, for some languages, definiteness is only marked in object position. Apart from restrictions of this kind, some grammatical categories interact with definiteness in that they are encoded together on the same formative – number and gender on the French definite article for example. There are also certain grammatical structures in which a definite element may be inherent; in this connection we will consider the relevance of definiteness for the theory of empty categories.

Direct object marking

We saw in 2.4.1 that some languages have adpositional object markers which are restricted to occurring with definite noun phrases. On the face of it, it is debatable whether these adpositions are “articles” (encoding definiteness) or object markers. There is good reason to believe the latter is the correct conclusion, in part because it is not always, if ever, strictly or only definiteness that is the decisive factor in their appearance. In fact the phenomenon is not limited to such adpositional markers, but extends to what appear to be accusative case morphemes.