Persistencia referencial, accesibilidad y tópico. La semántica de la construcción artículo + posesivo + sustantivo en el español medieval

Abstract

The paper analyzes the semantics and the syntax of the medieval Spanish noun phrases headed by article + possessive simultaneously, like el mi amigo, la su casa, los vuestros mensajeros. The paper analyzes three variables: Accessibility of the possessor, Referential Persistence of the possessor and, in a lesser degree, of the possessum, and the Semantic Integrity between posessor and possessum. The paper shows that the noun phrase has a very specialized meaning, which is a consequence of a grammaticalization process: syntagmatic sequence > construction. Double determination in medieval Spanish may be placed in a continuum of possession: the less marked pole is occupied by noun phrases headed by single article, la casa de Juan, the intermediate zone is filled by noun phrases headed by single possessive, su casa, and the more specialized or marked syntagm is the one headed by both article plus possessive, la su casa.