Definiteness in Molise Slavic

This study is the first attempt to describe aspects of Molise Slavic information structure. Molise Slavic is a micro-language of Slavic (štokavian) descendance spoken only in three villages in Southern Italy. Claims have been made that in contrast to most Slavic languages Molise Slavic has articles: Indefiniteness is expressed with an article, while no overt article exists for the expression of definiteness. Consequently, the aim of this study is two-fold. First, it aims to provide a systematic overview of those modifiers that can impose definiteness on a nominal phrase. These markers are also investigated regarding typological peculiarities. It turns out that demonstratives and personal pronouns convey definiteness, but numerals and possessives only to some extent, whereas the long forms of adjectives and the genitive-accusative distinction do not trigger definiteness. Second, definiteness is seen as a semanto-pragmatic category that can be expressed by other means than morphosyntactic ones. The investigation shows a clear tendency for topics to be definite, and a restriction of topicalization strategies to definite referents. For the analysis of intonation, a ToBI annotation tool for Molise Slavic was developed that can also be used for future analyses of Molise Slavic intonation. The analysis shows that, while focus is clearly achieved by pitch variation, topic is not marked intonationally