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Na'ama Pat-El, The Development of the Semitic Definite Article: A Syntactic Approach, Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 54, Issue 1, Spring 2009, Pages 19–50, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgn039
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Abstract
This paper aims at explaining the development of the Semitic definite article through an examination of its attested syntactical features. The paper will try to show that the original function of the definite article was not to mark definiteness, that it was first attached to the attribute, not the noun, and that only later was it transferred to the noun and interpreted as an article.
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