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Central semantics of value article

The article is a PoS which combines and agrees with the noun, qualifying it in determinative (value def) and inderterminative way (value indf).

The determinative article combines with prepositions, giving rise to the so called ``preposizioni articolate" (see below, under Prepositions).

Morphosyntactic criteria:

- The article has the gender and number marks and undergoes the agrement mechanism with the noun.
An apparent conflicting case in the number of the noun and its article is in crystalled expressions: un due pezzi, la due ruote (where the nouns costume is omitted in the first expression and moto in the second one).

Graphical criteria:

- una and la are elided before words beginning with vowel: l'erba, un'amica.

- uno and lo are elided before words beginning with vowel: l'amico, un ambasciatore.

- the graphical form l' is homograph for the feminine and the masculine (and can create problems in the recognition of the gender, when tagging: l'insegnante masc. or femm.?).

- il, i and un are used before words beginning with
- simple consonant, i capi, il papa', un siluro, or
- consonant other than s followed by l or r, i.e. liquid: il cloro, un trono, i Greci.

- lo, gli and uno are used:
a) before words beginning with vowel (where lo and uno appear in the elided form l' and un): l'oro, un eroe, gli Italiani.
b) before semi-consonant,

  1. elided before -u: un uomo, l'uovo and
  2. not elided before i: lo iato, uno iato.
c) before word beginning with s plus consonant: uno scatto, lo stivale, uno sciame, lo sci.
d) before palatal n, uno gnomo, lo gnu and z, lo zio, uno zero.
e) before x and other consonants groups: lo xilofono, uno psicologo, uno mnemonico, uno pneumococco.
In some familiar uses il and un are attested in il pneumatico, un pneumatico.



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