The combination of indefinite and definite 'determiners' - a cross linguistic study

In some languages, definite and indefinite ‘determiners’ can combine giving rise to a definite interpretation, posing a puzzle for a compositional analysis of DPs. We tested this combination in four West African languages: Akan, Ga (Kwa), Hausa, Ngamo (West-Chadic). While the indefinites involved are always choice-functional (CF) in their regular use (Arkoh 2011, Grubic 2015, Renans 2018, a.o.), the definites encode familiarity (Arkoh & Matthewson 2013, Renans 2016, a.o.). When combined, three different readings arise: (i.) an anaphoric, (ii.) a ‘recognitional’ (iii.) and a complement anaphoric reading. We propose that the obtained readings depend on (i) whether the definite is strongly or weakly familiar, and (ii) whether the CF indefinite has a novelty condition or not. By that the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on the available interpretation on (in)definites across languages and their analysis.