Datapoint Early Sranan/Co-occurrence of demonstrative and definite article

Value 1:
When disi appears postnominally (as it does increasingly over time), it cooccurs with a prenominal definite article; the same applies to the single 18th-century instance of adnominal dati.

Value 2:
When disi appears prenominally, it does not cooccur with a definite article.

Value 3: The determiners da (SG) and den (PL) function as definite articles and as adnominal demonstratives in Early Sranan.
In the latter function, they have a deictic value similar to dati, which is not used adnominally for most of the 18th century. When disi and dati appear after the noun and coocur with da or den, the latter are articles. Over time, these forms lost their demonstrative value, concurrent with the rise of adnominal dati.

Values

No co-occurrence Frequency: 45.5%

Example 1-20:
Da boote de go na diesi netti.
Da
det.sg
boto
boat
de
ingr
go
go
na
on
disi
this
neti.
night
The boat is going this night.
Dutch: De Boot gaat van deeze Nagt. [op.cit.]

Source: van Dyk ca. 1765: 91

Example 1-90:
de negere fo disi pranasie
den
det.pl
nengre
black
fu
of
disi
this
pranasi
plantation
the blacks of this plantation
Dutch: de Neegers van deeze Plantagie [op.cit.]

Source: van Dyk ca. 1765: 79

Confidence:
Very certain

Demonstrative identical to definite article Frequency: 27.3%

Example 1-23:
Da stoeloe sa hey toemoesie sontem foe joe, Diesja sa moro betree.
Da
det.sg
sturu
chair
sa
fut
hei
high
tumusi
too.much
sonten
perhaps
fu
for
yu,
2sg
disi-dya
this-here
sa
fut
moro
more
betre.
better
That chair may be too high for you, this one here will be better.
Dutch: Die stoel […]. Deeze […]. [op.cit.]

Source: Weygandt 1798: 122

Example 1-24:
[...] tra dirkture [... ] Takki mi hoe fa den dirkture de doe fo holli pranasie krien alle tem.
[...]
[...]
tra
other
driktoro
manager
[...]
[...]
Taki
tell
mi
1sg
o
q
fa
manner
den
det.pl
driktoro
manager
de
hab
du
do
fu
for
hori
hold
pranasi
plantation
krin
clean
ala
all
ten.
time
[...] other managers [...] Tell me how those managers manage to keep their plantations clean all the time.
Dutch: Ik zie hoe de andere Directeurs Leeven met het Plantagie-Werk en de Plantagies zyn altyd schoon en zy Werken niet half zoo veel als wy. [op.cit.]

Source: van Dyk ca. 1765: 87

Confidence:
Very certain

Co-occurrence Frequency: 27.3%

Example 1-21:
Tee mie werie foe da Pliesierie datie, dan mie dee go baka na hoso.
Te
when
mi
1sg
wêri
weary
fu
of
da
det.sg
prisiri
pleasure
dati,
that
dan
then
mi
1sg
de
hab
go
go
baka
back
na
at
oso.
house
When I’d got tired of that pleasure, then I’d (usually) return to the house.
Dutch: Vermoeid van dat vermaak, ging ik dan weer na huis [op.cit.]

Source: Weygandt 1798: 140

Example 1-22:
wan vo dem pikin dissi
wan
one
fu
of
den
det.pl
pikin
child
disi
this
one of these children

Source: Schumann 1781: 158

Example 1-91:
da Ningre dissi
da
det.sg
Nengre
negro
disi
this
this negro
German: dieser Neger [op.cit.]

Source: Schumann 1783: 32

Confidence:
Very certain