In Bavarian and Venetan dialects, given names are often preceded by definite articles (see examples [1a], die Maria, and [2a] la Maria; ‘In this room Maria is the most beautiful one’), in contrast to Standard German and Italian (see [1b], [2b], Maria).
(1) a. In dem Saal isch die Maria die schianschte
(Fiè allo Sciliar [BZ]; Rabanus et al. 2023: S0015_tir_U0372)
b. In diesem Saal ist Maria die schönste
(2) a. In questo locale la Maria l’è la più bella
(Grezzana [VR]; Rabanus et al. 2023: S0015_vec_U0556)
b. In questa stanza Maria è la più bella
Given names have, similarly to other proper names, two main features distinguishing them from common nouns (see Nübling et al. 2012): they express “Monoreferenz” (a name refers to one and only person in the relevant context). They also express “Direktreferenz” (the reference is direct in the sense that the phonological or graphical substance of the name identifies the person without considering its meaning). “Monoreferenz” is relevant for the research questions in the present article as definiteness is inherent in given names, hence, it does not require a specific marker. Therefore, in Standard German and Italian, given names are usually used without article (see [1b] and [2b]). The use of the definite article in standard languages is, however, not excluded but very restricted. In any case, the definitive article, if present, does not express definiteness but has other functions. Consequently, the definite article in front of given names is also called “expletive article”.
Examples (1a) and (2a) are taken from the VinKo corpus (Rabanus et al. 2023). In the VinKo project (‘Varietà in contatto’, ‘Varieties in Contact‘), the variants of the same linguistic variables for all dialects and minority languages present in the Italian regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Veneto (belonging to either the Germanic or the Romance language group) were collected in crowdsourcing mode. In the analysis of given names and expletive articles, the dialect translations of the 28 sentences in the questionnaire, which feature given names, were considered. As of 31st December 2021, deadline of this study, informants from 229 locations had participated for an amount of 4,735 sentences with given names: 698 for Tyrolean, 104 for German-speaking minorities including Mòcheno, Cimbrian and Saurano, 226 for Ladin varieties, 676 for Trentino-Lombard and Trentino-Venetan varieties (in the Trentino region) as well as 3,031 for Venetan varieties (in the Veneto region).
The gender of the person, to which the name refers, is the most studied variable for the expletive article distribution. Two recent projects focus on this variable using Internet-crowdsourcing methods for colloquial German and Italian. The maps based on the third enquiry of the Atlante della Lingua Italiana Quotidiana (ALIQUOT, “Atlas of Everyday Italian”) underline clear differences depending on the person’s gender. The use of expletive articles with male names (il Luca, l’Antonio, il Michele) is documented in the area of Western and Alpine Lombard and, less often, in the Eastern-Lombard, as well as in the area of investigation of the VinKo project. As far as Southern Italy is concerned, there are some traces of article use with male names only in the Salento region. The region in which expletive articles are used with female names (la Sara, la Martina, la Valentina) is much bigger and includes the whole Italian-Romance area in Northern-Italy, Tuscany and Salento. The maps of the 9th enquiry of the Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (AdA, “Atlas of Colloquial German”) show a geographical mirror image of the Italian situation. The expletive article is, in fact, commonly used in front of given names in the south of the German-speaking area, approximately south of the line Cologne-Dresden. AdA’s maps are not differentiated for gender, but based on Alber and Rabanus’ (2011) hierarchy of animacy, we expect a higher percentage of constructions with an article for the male gender in German varieties.
The maps M and F, which were created with VinKo data, confirm the mirror image: the expletive article is commonly used in the south of the German-speaking area and in the north of the Italian-speaking area. In Tyrolean, the expletive article is more frequent with male names (at a very high general level: 95.08% for male, 80% for female), whereas in Venetan it is more frequent with female names (14% for male, 41.43% for female). Differences are statistically relevant. In the central Trentino area, there are very small and not statistically relevant differences; the frequency of the expletive article is, however, high (72.26% for male, 75.71% for female). In the German-related minority languages Mòcheno, Cimbrian and Saurano, the expletive article is, basically, always used; in Ladin it occurs, on the contrary, only rarely. However, in Map no. 138 of the Atlante linguistico del latino dolomitico e dei dialetti limitrofi (ALD-II, Linguistic Atlas of Dolomitic Ladinian and neighbouring dialects), “Barbara …/ Giacomo…”, the expletive article can be more often found together with female than with male names.
The least expected result is the low percentage of the expletive article before of female names in Venetan, which in previous literature is considered almost obligatory. In his grammar of the Verona dialect, Bonfante (2018) writes that “female given names are always preceded by an article”, thereby expressing an opinion which is widely shared by the speaker community. However, map F shows a high degree of variation for expletive articles with female names. The result might be due to the applied method, i.e., to the translation task carried out by informants autonomously on the VinKo platform. A stimulus sentence, either in Standard Italian or in Standard German, usually without any article, might lead informants either to replicate the absence of the article in their dialects or, more generally, to produce sentences which do not represent their dialect not even with respect to other typical dialect features. It is true that in crowdsourcing there is no investigator who in traditional field work is able to remind informants to produce the required variety (dialect) or to reflect about the feature in question (use of the article). Nevertheless, there are several reasons for considering our results valid. The most important one is that the translation task and the highly unnatural crowdsourcing situation are identical for all informants. Consequently, the absolute number of occurrences with or without an article might be affected by the situation but this should occur for the whole area under investigation. The differences that can be found between locations in terms of percentages of constructions with or without expletive articles must therefore be connected to the proprieties of the specific dialect in which the article is more or less resistant to the effects of the situation and, hence, more or less obligatory. Otherwise we cannot explain why the percentage of constructions with an article before female names, considered to be almost obligatory by previous literature for all Italian dialects in VinKo area, is high in the Trentino region and low in the Veneto region. On the other hand, the fact that the use of the article is optional is a necessary pre-condition for use of the expletive article as marker of social proximity or familiarity (functions excluded in systems where its use is grammatically obligatory). The connotations of familiarity (for expressing positive or negative emotions) and the preference of their expression with respect to men and women probably depends on specific cultural factors.
In the maps, pie charts represent percentages of constructions with article (red) and without article (light blue) for each area.
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