Linguistic theory and the Greek article: a parametric perspective.

The historical development and the internal structure of the system of the articles in Greek have long been explored under various approaches. The description, analysis and explanation of the diachronic changes which produced the current state of affairs, the observation of the interac- tion between syntax and semantics in the construction of the peculiar interpretative properties of the article(s), the identification of crosslinguistic (universal?) patterns, the selection of appropriate em- pirical evidence are only the most common issues discussed so far in the literature. The aim of this contribution is to suggest that the exploration of the development of the Greek article-system and of its main properties can be effectively supported by the tools provided by formal theories of syntax.