--- title: "Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the creation — Gasparini 2014" description: "Neo-Aramaic is a scattered, endangered group of Semitic dialects. 3 references." authors: ["Fabio Gasparini"] year: 2014 venue: "RiCognizioni 1" source: "https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ricognizioni/article/view/632" doi: "10.13135/2384-8987/632" licence: "CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; RiCognizioni)" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/gasparini-2014-grammaticalization-adnominal-demonstratives-neo-aramaic/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/gasparini-2014-grammaticalization-adnominal-demonstratives-neo-aramaic/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2014](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2014/page/3/) / Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the creation of a simple determiner # Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the creation of a simple determiner **Authors:** [Fabio Gasparini](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/fabio-gasparini/) · **Year:** 2014 · **Venue:** RiCognizioni 1 · **Licence:** CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; RiCognizioni) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/632) · [PDF](https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/ricognizioni/article/download/632/722) · [DOI 10.13135/2384-8987/632](https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/632) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1484033485) **Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary Neo-Aramaic is a scattered, endangered group of Semitic dialects. Researchers still disagree on whether it has a definite article, and its demonstratives and determiners have rarely been compared across dialects. Gasparini addresses this gap with a comparative survey drawn from published descriptive grammars. The sample covers many North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) varieties, both Christian and Jewish, plus Ṭuroyo, Mlaḥsô and the Neo-Mandaic dialect of Khorramshahr. The paper draws on Heine's set of grammaticalization symptoms and on the observation that demonstratives evolve differently depending on their syntactic slot. It tracks how adnominal demonstratives, the ones that accompany a noun, are losing their pointing function and turning into article-like markers. Ṭuroyo already has an article. In several other dialects the demonstrative is partway along this path. The central claim is that the emerging marker does not encode plain definiteness. It also tracks specificity, meaning the speaker's commitment that a particular referent exists. This helps explain uses that a European-style article would not predict. The work matters for Semitic typology and for documenting dialects that may soon disappear. ## Key points - The paper uses the four-way split of modern Aramaic into NWNA (Maʿlula, Baxʿa, Jubbʿadīn), central Ṭur ʿAbdin varieties (Ṭuroyo, Mlaḥsô), Neo-Mandaic and NENA. It also notes Kim's (2008) objection that these form a discontinuous continuum rather than isolated branches. - Religion shapes variation as much as place does. The Jewish and Christian dialects of Sulemaniyya differ even in basic words, such as "home" (*belá* vs *bésa*) and the copula forms (*-ye* vs *-ile*). - The data come only from existing descriptive grammars, for example Khan's volumes on Barwar, Qaraqosh, Arbel and Sanandaj, Fox on Jilu and Bohtan, Jastrow on Hertevin, Ṭuroyo and Mlaḥsô, and Häberl on Khorramshahr. - Grammaticalization is diagnosed through four symptoms (Heine 1993): - desemantization, - decategorialization, - phonetic erosion, - obligatorification. - Demonstratives can poligrammaticalize (Craig 1991) depending on context. Pronominal uses tend to become pronouns, adnominal uses become noun-phrase operators, adverbial uses become verbal operators, and identificational uses yield markers tied to predicate nominals. ## Interesting ideas - Definiteness and specificity are kept as two independent features, so a noun can be indefinite yet specific, as in the "I'm looking for a policeman… him/one" contrast. - The source of a grammatical marker is predicted from the syntactic slot it occupied (pronominal, adnominal, adverbial or identificational), not from the word alone. - Several separate, observable symptoms (meaning loss, loss of morphosyntax, phonetic reduction, obligatoriness) are combined to decide how far a form has shifted. - Uses of definiteness are split into types: situational, general knowledge, anaphoric, and restricted by a relative clause. - The sample is balanced along both geographic and social (confessional) axes rather than by place alone. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (world): Each entity in the text world could carry separate identifiability and existence-commitment flags, so "a policeman… him" creates a real individual while "…one" creates only a kind-level placeholder. - **I2** (tree): The parser and its UD conversion could label demonstratives by slot (det vs pronoun vs adverbial) and route each slot to a different downstream interpretation instead of treating "that" as one item. - **I3** (learn): Judging whether a word has lost its lexical meaning in a context could rest on a checklist of independent cues, each logged, so the decision stays explainable and auditable. - **I4** (frames): Coreference could record why each "the" phrase is resolvable (situation, world knowledge, earlier mention or modifier), which gives an explainable antecedent search for each case. - **I5** (learn): Silver and evaluation sets could be stratified by register or community as well as by domain, so dialect-like variation in English is not mistaken for noise. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* Fields: [Linguistics & languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/linguistics/) Topics: [🕎 Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [🐪 Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) · [⏳ Historical linguistics & language change](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-change/) ## Institutions - [University of Naples - L'Orientale](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-naples-l-orientale/) — University, Naples, Italy · 3 works · 420 citations ## Cite Cite as: Fabio Gasparini. 2014. Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the creation of a simple determiner. RiCognizioni 1. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{gasparini2014grammaticalization, title = {{Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the creation of a simple determiner}}, author = {Fabio Gasparini}, booktitle = {RiCognizioni 1}, year = {2014}, doi = {10.13135/2384-8987/632}, url = {https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/632} } ``` - [← previous From Glosses to the Linguistic Nature of Canaano-Akkadian](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/andrason-2026-glosses-linguistic-nature-canaano-akkadian/) - [next → Phoenician/Punic Loans in Berber Languages and Their Role in the Chronology of Berber](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/blazek-2026-phoenician-punic-loans-berber-languages/) - [↑ back to papers of 2014](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2014/page/3/) ## References 3 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Arnold W. (1990), Das Neuwestaramäische, 5 Volumes, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Bhat D.N.S. (2004), Pronouns, Oxford, Oxford University Press Christophersen P. (1939), The articles. A study of their Theory and Use in English, Copenhagen, Munksgaard Cohen E. (2012), The Syntax of Neo-Aramaic: the Jewish Dialect of Zakho, Piscataway (NJ), Gorgias Press Craig C.G. (1991), Ways to Go in Rama: A Case Study in Poly-Grammaticalization, in Heine, Traugott (1991): 455-492 Diessel H. (1999), Demonstratives: Form, Function, and Grammaticalization, Amsterdam, Benjamins Fassberg S.E. (2010), The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Challa, Leiden, Brill Fox S.E. (1997), The neo-Aramaic Dialect of Jilu, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Fox S.E. (2009). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Bohtan, Piscataway (NJ), Gorgias Press Gasparini F. (2014). I dimostrativi in neo-aramaico: tipologia e variazioni dialettali, Master Degree dissertation, Università degli Studi di Torino, unpublished Givón T. (1978), Definiteness and Referentiality, in J. Greenberg, C. Ferguson, E. Moravcsik (eds.), Universals of Human Language, 4, Stanford, Stanford University Press: 291-330, Greenberg J.H. (1978), How Does a Language Acquire Gender Markers, in J. Greenberg, C. Ferguson, E. Moravcsik (eds.), Universals of Human Language, 4, Stanford: Stanford University Press: 47-52 Greenberg J.H. (1991), The Last Stages of Grammatical Elements: Contractive and Expansive Desemanticization, in Heine, Traugott (1991): 301-314 Greenblatt J. (2011), The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Amadiya, Leiden, Brill Häberl C.G. (2009), The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Hawkins J.A (1978), Definiteness and Indefiniteness: a Study in Reference and Grammaticality Prediction, London, Croom Helm Heine B. (1993), Auxiliaries. 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(1993), Grammaticalization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Jastrow O. (1988), Der neuramäische Dialekt von Hertevin (Provinz Siirt), Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Grammaticalization of adnominal demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic Jastrow O. (1990), Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns in Central Neo-Aramaic: a Comparative and Diachronic Discussion Based on Ṭūrōyo and the Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Hertevin, in W. Heinrichs (ed.), Studies in Neo-Aramaic, Atlanta, Scholar Press: 89-103 Jastrow O. (1992), Lehrbuch der Ṭuroy-Sprache, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Jastrow O. (1994), Der neuramäische Dialekt von Mlaḥsô, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Jastrow O. (2005), Der bestimmte Artikel im Aramäischen: ein Blick auf 3000 Jahre Sprachgeschichte, in B. Burtea, J. Tropper, H. Younansardaroud (eds.), Studia Semitica et Semitohamitica: Festschrift fur Rainer Voigt, Münster, Ugarit-Verlag: 137-50 Khan G. (1999), A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic. The Dialect of the Jews of Arbel, Leiden, Brill Khan G. 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(2008), Trans-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic, in “Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies”, 71: 409-431 Nöldeke T. (1881), Der neu-aramaeische Dialekt des Tur ‘Abdin, 1. Die Texte, 2. Uebersetzung (Syrische Sagen und Maerchen aus dem Volksmunde gesammelt und uebersetzt), in “ZDMG”, 35: 218-35 Plank F., Moravcsik E. (1996), The Maltese Article: Language-Particulars and Universals, in “Rivista di Linguistica”, 8: 183-212 Rubin A.D. (2005), Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization, Winona Lake (IN), Eisenbrauns FABIO GASPARINI • Fabio Gasparini was born in Borgomanero (NO), Italy, on the 8th of July 1988. He studied Linguistics at Turin University (Italy), where he graduated in 2014. He is now a PhD student at the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Naples l’Orientale (Italy). His current research project concerns Modern South-Arabian languages. E-MAIL • fabio.gasparini@studenti.unito.it [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kim+R%2E+%282008%29%2C+Stammbaum+or+Continuum%3F+The+Subgrouping+of+Modern+Aramaic+Dialects+Reconsidered%2C+in+%E2%80%9CJournal+of+the+American+Oriental+Society%E2%80%9D%2C+128%3A+505%2D531+Krotkoff+G%2E+%281982%29%2C+A+Neo%2DAramaic+Dialect+of)