Definite articles in indefinite contexts

As noted by Delsing (2003:15-19), some Swedish, Fenno-Swedish and Norwegian dialects are known for using the suffixed definite article in a number of contexts, in which such an article is ungrammatical in Standard Swedish and Norwegian. The dialects in question use the definite article in cases when the standard languages have a bare noun (i.e. noun uninflected for definiteness). The definite article can be used with mass-denoting nouns, (1a), or it can be used in predicative constructions, (1b) (both examples from Delsing 2003:16).


Introduction
As noted by Delsing (2003:15-19), some Swedish, Fenno-Swedish and Norwegian dialects are known for using the suffixed definite article in a number of contexts, in which such an article is ungrammatical in Standard Swedish and Norwegian.The dialects in question use the definite article in cases when the standard languages have a bare noun (i.e.noun uninflected for definiteness).The definite article can be used with mass-denoting nouns, (1a), or it can be used in predicative constructions, (1b) (both examples from Delsing 2003:16).

there is water.DEF there_in bucket.DEF
'There is water in the bucket.' b.Hä ä sommarn. (Swedish) there is summer.DEF 'It is summer.' According to Delsing (2003:16), the use of the definite article with mass-denoting nouns (or uncountable nouns), is often considered a typical feature of the Northern Swedish dialects.It is also known from the Ostrobothnian dialects in Finland and also found in Norway (Trøndelag and parts of Nordmøre).The predicative use of the definite article is found in Northern Sweden (the provinces of Värmland, Dalarna, Medelpad, Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, and Norrbotten), in the Fenno-Swedish dialects of Österbotten and Nyland, as well as from the now extinct Estonian Swedish (Delsing 2003).The use of the suffixed definite article in indefinite contexts is however missing in Danish, Icelandic and Faroese (ibid.).
Interestingly, the definite article can be used with nouns following indefinite quantifiers such as numerals and the equivalent of 'much' in some Northern Swedish dialects (the regions of Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Ångermanland, and Jämtland) and in the Fenno-Swedish dialects from Österbotten (Delsing 2003:17)

Nordic Syntax Database (NSD)
The use of the suffixed definite article in indefinite contexts have been tested in the ScanDiaSyn questionnaire for Swedish and Norwegian by means of two sentences, one being an existential clause (3) and the other containing a mass-denoting noun (4). (

Nordic Dialect Corpus (NDC)
A number of examples illustrating the use of the definite article in indefinite contexts are found in the NDC.These are mostly attested in the southeastern parts of Norway, as can be seen in Map 2.
Map 2: The use of the definite article in indefinite contexts in Scandinavia, based on the NDC data (white pins represent places where such use has been found).

Garbacz
Definite articles in indefinite contexts NALS Journal

91
The examples of use of definite form in indefinite contexts is mostly limited to a copula verb together with a season term in the definite form (around 90% of the hits), see the examples in (5) below.
( ), but this phenomenon is not found in the NDC.

Distribution, age variation and the origin
Our results show a similar distribution of the suffixed definite article in indefinite contexts in Scandinavia as that reported in the dialect literature.In the literature, the use of the suffixed definite article is reported for Northern Swedish and the Fenno-Swedish dialects of Österbotten (Delsning 2003:16) and the NSD data confirm this picture.The NDC data, however, are less consistent with the picture presented in the existing litterature, as the definite article in indefinite contexts is not found in the Swedish part of the corpus.This is probably due to the small size of the corpus.On the other hand, the definite article in or on Iceland.Last, but not least, the phenomenon is also more accepted (and used) by older informants than by younger, a fact indicating that it may be on its way to loose ground.
According to Vangsnes (2001:287 ff.), the use of definite article on mass-denoting noun phrases corresponds to both the definite and partitive article in French (in singular) and to both the definite and the indefinite article in French (in plural).Seen in this way, the definite article can be used as both definite article and as a partitive/plural indefinite article in the dialects that display definiteness on massdenoting noun phrases (ibid.).
The origin of the use of definite articles in indefinite contexts (mainly on mass-denoting nouns) has not been investigated.Vangsnes (2001:288) notes that "there is widespread homophony between indefinite and definite plural forms on nouns in N[orth-]N[ortheastern] Swedish" and speculates that the development has started by the reanalysis of the plural affix as a carrier for the [MASS]-feature, and that the development in singular followed.The results from the ScanDiaSyn infrastructure suggest that the use of definiteness on mass-denoting nouns is more spread on singular than on plural nouns (cf.Section 1).

Garbacz
Definite articles in indefinite contexts NALS Journal 93 The use of the definite article in indefinite contexts in Scandinavia (#694: Det växer björkarna her.'There grow birches here'; #695:Om du är törstig, så finns det mjölken i kylskåpet.'Ifyou are thirsty, there is milk in the refrigerator' ).(Blue pins represent places where sentence #694 got a high score, grey pins represent places where sentence #695 got a high score) Garbacz Definite articles in indefinite contexts NALS Journal 90 The of the definite article in indefinite contexts is rejected by the Norwegian informants, with very few individual exceptions (the older informants in Vang, Oppland accept sentence #695, and the older informants in Meråker, Nord-Trøndelag accept sentence #695).
indefinite contexts is found in Norway, but almost only in the construction 'det er/var sommeren' (lit. it is/was the summer), instead with mass-denoting nouns.The definite article on mass-denoting noun is found only in one Swedish location in Dalarna (Åsen) and in the Norwegian province of Hedmark (Åsnes).The definite article on a noun following a quantifier is only found once in the NDC, in Trøndelag.No examples of the definite article in indefinite contexts are found in Denmark, in the Faroes, Faarlund et al. (1997:301 ff.)mention the possibility of having definite form of a noun when it is preceded by an adjective with 'expressive meaning', e.g.svarte natta (lit.dark night.DEF) tjukke skogen (lit.thick forest.DEF) etc. (ibid.