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.