
Italian has ‘prepositions followed by articles’ (preposizione articolate). This is a specific grammatical type, which refers to a word (e.g. della) that replaces a preposition (di) followed by an article (la):
il lo l’ la i gli le di del dello dell’ della dei degli delle a al allo all’ alla ai agli alle da dal dallo dall’ dalla dai dagli dalle in nel nello nell’ nella nei negli nelle su sul sullo sull’ sulla sui sugli sulle
This specific grammatical type also corresponds to:
- in French: du = de le, des = de les
- in Corsican and especially in the Sartenese variant: ‘llu = di lu, ‘lla = di la, etc.
This raises the general problem of the number of grammatical types we should retain. Should we create new grammatical types beyond the classical ones, in order to optimise translators and NLP in general? What is the best grammatical type to retain for ‘prepositions followed by an article’: a new primitive one or a compound one (always keeping Occam’s razor in mind)? A preposition followed by an article behaves like a preposition for words on its left, and like an article for words on its right.