Definiteness in Cuevas Mixtec

Languages vary widely in in their morpho-syntactic strategies for marking definite- ness within the noun phrase. Schwarz (2009; 2013) and Jenks (2015) find that these strategies often correspond to distinct characterizations of the semantics of definite descriptions. Many languages feature distinct mechanisms for expressing definite descriptions as either unique or familiar, such as by having two distinct classes of definite article or by contrasting definite bare nominals with some form of overt definite marking. Cuevas Mixtec shows that a language can also feature internal variation in the marking of either uniqueness or familiarity. Most nominals of this language are capable of taking on bare forms for the expression of uniqueness, while familiarity is expressed using overt definite articles. There are some nom- inals, however, which never combine with overt definite articles or which must take on definite articles in a larger set of semantic environments. The variation observed here seems to be tied to etymological factors within the nominal and the influence of an animacy hierarchy