by Max Wheeler
la poesia èpica, gènere poc conreat en la literatura del segle XX
epic poetry, a genre little cultivated in twentieth-century literature
Va néixer a Reus, ciutat que ha produït molts fills famosos.
He was born in Reus, a town that has produced many famous sons.
In less formal language the article need not be suppressed before the noun in apposition:
Comentàvem el partit amb en Jaume, un fan incondicional d’aquell club.
We were discussing the game with Jaume, an unconditional fan of that club.
els tomàquets i el cogombre, uns bons ingredients per a una amanida d’estiu
tomatoes and cucumber, good ingredients for a summer salad
(vi) Other expressions contrasting with English
The indefinite article does not appear:
(a) After com a ‘in the capacity of’ or ‘by way of’ (see 14.3) nor after a manera de (nor the more elevated synonym a guisa de):
Anirà a la cerimònia com a amic de la núvia.
He’ll go to the ceremony as a friend of the bride’s.
Dóna-li mil pessetes com a paga i senyal.
Give him 1000 pesetas as a down payment.
Considerem, com a exemple d’això …
Let us consider, as an example of this …
Α manera d’introducció us explicaré aquest acudit.
By way of an introduction I’ll tell you this joke.
(b) After quin/quina ‘What a …’ in exclamations:
Quin miracle! What a miracle!
Quina manera de guanyar-se la vida! What a way to earn a living!
(c) Before tal ‘such a’ and mig/mitja ‘half (a)’.
A notional distinction is made between un tal ‘of such a kind’ and, without the article, tal ‘such a = similar’, the examples usually given being:
Jo no he emprat mai un tal llenguatge.
I have never used language of that kind.
Ella no ha dit mai tal cosa.
She never said such a thing.
Note also un tal Sugranyes ‘a certain (Mr) Sugranyes’, un tal Martí ‘some Martí or other’/‘somebody called Marti’.
English expressions involving ‘a half’/‘half a’ are translated by the adjective mig (see 10.9): mitja taronja, ‘half an orange’, mitja horeta ‘less than half an hour’, mig quilo ‘half a kilo’; note that with the indefinite article un mig quilo corresponds to ‘about half a kilo’.
The influence of Spanish is said to be responsible for non-standard omission of the article with indefinite adjectives altre ‘other’ and cert ‘certain’ (see 8.3):
Ho hauries de fer d’una altra manera, (non-standard … d’altra manera)
You ought to do it another way.
Un color indefinible que té un cert to groguenc, (non-standard … té cert to groguenc)
An indefinable colour that has a certain yellowish hue.
3.2.4 SPECIAL USES OF UNS/UNES
The plural indefinite article in Catalan covers various shades of meaning that may require special glossing in English translation:
(i) Uns/unes before numbers, meaning ‘approximately’
unes sis-centes cinquanta pàgines
about 650 pages/some 650 pages
La pesta va afectar la regió durant uns quinze anys.
The plague affected the region for some fifteen years.
(ii) Uns/unes ‘a few’
Anem a fer unes copes.
Let’s go and have a few drinks.
Encara tinc unes mínimes esperances d’aconseguir-ho.
I still have a few slight hopes of achieving it.
The idea conveyed may be vaguer than ‘a few’, expressing a limited quantity sometimes put across with connotations of restraint on the part of the speaker, like ‘a couple of’ or ‘one or two’:
Hi ha uns detalls que voldria aclarir.
There are one or two details I’d like to clarify.
This moderating function can be so subtle, or so weak, that it merges with the normal use of uns/unes as plural indefinite article:
Hem escoltat unes coses que ens han esgarrifat.
We have listened to (some) things which have horrified us.
(iii) Uns/unes: symmetrical pairs
The plural indefinite article occurs with the meaning of ‘a pair of’ (symmetrical and joined) objects always conceived of as a pair (see 2.1.7), the commonest being: unes tisores ‘(a pair of) scissors’, une pinces ‘(a pair of) tweezers’, unes alicates ‘(a pair of) pincers’, unes pantalons ‘(a pair of) trousers’, uns calçotets ‘(a pair of) underpants’, unes calces ‘(a pair of) knickers’, uns pantis ‘(a pair of) tights’, unes ulleres ‘(a pair of) spectacles’, uns prismàtics ‘(a pair of) binoculars’, uns auriculars ‘(a pair of) earphones’, and also unes cortines ‘(a pair of) curtains’. Footwear (uns mitjons ‘socks’, unes mitges ‘stockings’, unes botes ‘boots’, unes sabates ‘shoes’) and uns guants ‘gloves’ can be presented thus, but they can also be preceded by un parell de ‘a pair of’.
(iv) Emphatic or metaphorical use of uns/unes
As with the singular indefinite article (3.2.3, especially iii) the plural form may be retained, where normally not expected, to show that an indefinite noun is being used emphatically or metaphorically:
Són uns fills de puta. They’re real bastards.
Sou uns pallassos. You’re behaving like clowns.
3.2.5 APPRECIATIVE USE OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE
Emphatic use of the indefinite article: in sentences like Alií fan un vi! or He vist uns cotxes! the indefinite article emphasizes admiration by underlining the uniqueness in its class of the object referred to by the noun. Contrasted with the normal statements Alií fan vi ‘They make wine there’ and He vist cotxes Ί saw cars’, the versions with the indefinite article might be translated ‘What wine they make there!’, ‘The cars that I saw!’.
With singular mass nouns qualified by an adjective or a relative clause the use of the indefinite article is emphatic: Allí serveixen cafè molt bo or Alií serveixen un cafè molt bo ‘They serve very good coffee there’; Duc llenya sequíssima or Duc una llenya sequíssima ‘I’ve brought some very dry firewood’. It must be said that when an intensifier (e.g. molt, ben) or a superlative is involved in the adjectival qualification, the presence of the indefinite article is more normal than its absence.
3.3 THE PERSONAL ARTICLE
Proper names of persons, both given names and surnames, are often introduced by an article; in many varieties the standard definite article (el, la) has taken over from the original personal article forms.
The personal article is not used at all in Valencia and southern Catalonia.
3.3.1 MORPHOLOGY OF THE PERSONAL ARTICLE
before consonant before vowel
masculine en (el) n’ (l’)
feminine na (la) n’ (l’)
Contraction occurs between ca (but not a, de, or per) and the personal article en. The circumstances and resulting forms follow the model of those for el: can Joan, ca n’Enric (see below, in conjunction with the section in 3.1.1 on contractions).
3.3.2 USAGE OF THE PERSONAL ARTICLE
Four patterns of usage of the personal article can be identified:
(i) En, Na, N’
(ii) en, na, n’
(iii) en, la, 1’
(iv) el, la, 1’
Pattern (i), with initial capital letter, is an honorific title used in formal written style, preceding given name + surname. It corresponds very roughly to the use of Esq. in English: En Miquel Ferrer, N’Antònia Salvà i Pérez. It cannot be combined with other titles like Senyoreta, Doctor, etc.
Pattern (ii) is found in the Balearic Islands. There the personal article is used very widely, before given names or surnames, of individuals personally known or not, current or historical: en Nicolau Dols/en Nicolau/en Dols, na Lourdes Urquidi, n’Eiximenis, na Mercè Rodoreda. Only names of persons in the Bible or in Classical an
tiquity appear without the article: Maria, Pilat, Aristòtil, Ciceró.
Pattern (iii) is current in Catalonia generally, with pattern (iv) more usual in colloquial Barcelona speech. In Catalonia the personal articles (patterns (iii) and (iv)) are typically used when the speaker expects the hearer will recognize, from the context or from shared assumptions, who is being spoken about. In this respect the personal article resembles the definite article with more prototypical noun phrases; thus En Max m’ho va explicar ‘Max told me’, Vas a veure l’Alan? ‘Are you going to see Alan?’, Ho vaig consultar amb la Rigau Ί discussed it with Rigau’, L’Oriol Pi és qui ho porta ‘Oriol Pi is the one who is dealing with it’. The personal article is not typically used in Catalonia when a name identifies someone who is taken to be well known to everybody, that is, for public figures or historical figures. So Ha cantat Raimon ‘Raimon sang’ (where Raimon is the well-known protest singersongwriter), Montserrat Caballé cantarà divendres al Palau de la Música rather than La Montserrat Caballé … ‘Montserrat Caballé sings on Friday at the Palau de la Música’, Beethoven va tornar sord ‘Beethoven went deaf’, Gaudí projectà la Sagrada Família ‘Gaudí planned the Sagrada Família’. The personal article can be used with the surname of a public figure, en Pujol, la Caballé; the article gives a connotation of familiarity or solidarity, that is, it invites the listener to consider the person identified not on the basis of unique salience but on the basis of mutual knowledge. In this context, the article used with a famous name can be slightly derogatory, as possibly la Thatcher ‘Thatcher (the person of that name that we all know about)’.
Within Catalonia, where the personal article is always l’ before names beginning with a vowel, and la before other feminine names, en and el are in variation before consonant-initial masculine names. Where both are found alongside one another, outside Barcelona, el seems to be more used before given names, such as, el Miquel, el Pere, while en is preferred before surnames: en Ballester, en Garriga. Pattern (iii), with en in both cases, is regarded as more ‘correct’.
The personal article does not appear in vocatives: Miquel, vine aquí! ‘Miquel, come here!’ (never *En Miquel, vine aquí!).
The Catalan equivalent of English ‘the Smiths’, ‘the Wilkinsons’, etc. uses the plural article els, but without making the family name plural: els Oliver = la família Oliver ‘the Olivers’, ‘the Oliver family’, els Porta = la família Porta, etc. (2.1.8).
3.4 IDIOMS WITH FEMININE ARTICLES
Feminine articles figure in a variety of idiomatic expressions in Catalan:
(i) Idiomatic adverbial phrases with a la/a les
When the feminine definite article is preceded by preposition a and followed by an adjective (often an adjective denoting geographical origin) the noun manera can be understood between article and adjective (cf. French à la):
Com t’estimes més que et preparin el sopar, a la (manera) francesa ο a la (manera) russa?
How do you prefer your supper to be prepared, in the French or the Russian style?
Dinarem de pop a la mallorquina.
We’ll have Majorcan-style octopus for lunch.
Several idioms, which are adverbial phrases unrelated to geographical origin, also begin with a la/a les:
a la babalà crazily a les clares plainly, openly
a la puta carelessly (vulgar) a les fosques in the dark
a la torta twistedly a les palpentes by touch
a les bones willingly a les totes really well/quickly
Some of the glosses given above are very approximate; English equivalents may be variously idiomatic, according to context:
Es va haver de vestir a les palpentes.
She had to feel her way into her clothes.
Si no m’ho dóna a les bones, li ho prendré a les males.
I’ll get it out of him one way or the other/whether he likes it or not.
Parla alemany a les totes.
He can jabber away in German.
(ii) Idiomatic use of la de/una de expressing quantity
In colloquial language the feminine singular articles (strongly emphasized in pronunciation) occur in admirative expressions of quantity, roughly equivalent to ‘loads/tons of’:
N’hi havia una d’estrangerots, i no vam poder banyar-nos enlloc.
There were all these horrid foreigners, and we couldn’t get a swim anywhere.
La de vegades que t’he hagut de dir això!
The times I’ve had to tell you this!
Amb la d’empreses que es dediquen a això, la competència és fortíssima.
With ever so many firms doing this line, competition is fierce.
(iii) Idiomatic feminine articles without visible antecedents
A number of quite lively idioms contain the feminine article with no antecedent:
La que s’armarà si ton pare ho sap!
There’ll be one hell of a to-do if your father finds out!
No vulguis saber la que em va dir.
You can’t imagine what he said to me.
We may suppose that the understood noun here is cosa ‘thing’ or feta ‘deed’, as in
N’ha dites unes de grosses. He came out with some really rich ones.
Me n’ha passat una com un cove. Something really bizarre has happened to me.
This implicit feminine referent can also be detected in various idioms involving other parts of speech:
passar-les magres have a lean time
portar-ne alguna de cap have a bee in one’s bonnet
Se les sap totes. She doesn’t miss a trick.
Aquesta me la pagaràs. I’ll get my own back (on you for that).
Se la/les dóna d’expert. He reckons he’s an expert.
4 ADJECTIVES
Attributive adjectives in Catalan agree in gender with the head of the noun phrase they appear in (expressed or understood): la meva estimada muller ‘my (f.) dear (f.) wife (f.)’. Predicative adjectives agree with their subject noun phrase: Aquelles taronges no són pas madures ‘Those (f.pl.) oranges (f.pl.) are not ripe (f.pl)’ Most adjectives have distinct forms for masculine and feminine, in the singular at least, and are referred to here as ‘adjectives with two endings’. There is no direct relation between word ending and gender, although it is true that consonant endings and -e/-o endings tend to represent the masculine, while -a tends to represent the feminine. Exceptions to this ‘rule’ are so many (see 4.1.2) that it cannot be taken for granted. Adjectives showing no distinction between the masculine singular and feminine singular form are referred to as ‘adjectives with one ending’. Our main discussion of morphology (4.1.1–3) concentrates on this distinction between singular adjectives with one and with two endings; formation of plural adjectives is covered in 4.1.4.
The typical position of attributive adjectives in Catalan is following the noun which they qualify. This is true of all specifying adjectives (les arts pictòriques ‘pictorial arts’, una escala metàl·lica ‘a metal ladder’), but for other types position can be affected by various factors of sentence structure and pragmatics. The question is considered in 4.2.1.
4.1 MORPHOLOGY OF ADJECTIVES
4.1.1 FEMININE SINGULAR ADJECTIVES: THE BASIC TWO-ENDING PATTERN
The normal way to form the feminine singular of an adjective in Catalan is by adding the morpheme -a to the stem. It is a convenient simplification to say that feminine forms of adjectives are based on masculine forms. (In many cases, though not always, the masculine form is indeed the bare stem.) Since masculine forms (rather than stems) are what are given in dictionary entries, we shall adopt this convenient simplification here (as we did for the corresponding gender formation of nouns; see 1.1.1).
The commonest pattern is that in which a feminine adjective is derived from the corresponding masculine one by the addition of the feminine gender suffix -a (replacing any unstressed final -e, or -o of the masculine). Thus:
bonic (m.) bonica (f.) pretty baix(m.) baixa (f.) short, low
malèvol (m
.) malèvola (f.) spiteful pobre (m.) pobra (f.) poor
prim (m.) prima (f.) thin flonjo (m.) flonja (f.) spongy
fort (m.) forta (f.) strong, loud etc.
In many cases there are consequential modifications to spelling (37.3 and 37.5):
tebi (m.) tèbia (f.) lukewarm vague (m.) vaga (f.) vague
danès (m.) danesa (f.) Danish etc.
4.1.2 MORE COMPLEX ALTERNATIONS IN ADJECTIVES WITH TWO ENDINGS
4.1.2.1 Adjectives ending in a stressed vowel
Adjectives ending in a stressed vowel add -na for the feminine singular; this -n- appears in the plural forms also (see 4.1.4 and cf. 2.1.3):
m.sg. f.sg m.pl. f.pl
sa sana sans sanes healthy
bo bona bons bones good
pie plena plens plenes full
amè amena amens amenes pleasant
genuíetc. genuïna genuïns genuïnes genuine
Exceptions to this rule are cru/crua/crus/crues ‘raw’, and nu/nua/nus/nues ‘naked’.
4.1.2.2 Adjectives whose masculine singular ends in -t or -c preceded by a vowel
As a final voiced plosive (-b, -d, -g) is unpronounceable in Catalan, many masculines whose underlying stem ends in one of these consonants have them written as -p, -t, -c respectively (though there happen to be no adjectives illustrating the p-b alternation): buit ‘empty’ (but buidar ‘to empty’), menut ‘tiny’ (but menudesa ‘tininess’), cec ‘blind’ (but ceguesa ‘blindness’), antic ‘ancient’ (but antiguitat ‘antiquity’), etc. All these adjectives show the voiced consonant in their feminines: buida, menuda, cega, antiga, etc. There are very many instances of the t-d alternation, including the great majority of past participles.