The relationship between the article and demonstratives and possessives with regard to the errors...

Abstract

In this paper we start by describing the relationship of the definite article with demonstratives, since these two types of word are connected, both diachronically and synchronically. We will see how demonstratives are subject to more restricted conditions of use, which means that the demonstrative can be replaced by the definite article, but the reverse is not always true. Secondly, we focus on the contexts in which the article should be used in place of the possessive. These are contexts in which the possessor is reflected in a component outside the defined noun phrase. In the third place, we offer the results of the analysis of the false selection errors, which constituted the base of the author’s doctoral thesis, carried out by examining essays written by 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Serbian students of Spanish. Likewise, we will observe that the incorrect selection of another determiner instead of the definite article can be due to not only the interference of Serbian but also the interference of any other foreign language that the Serbian student may be familiar with. Finally, we suggest possible procedures to eradicate the Serbian subjects’ errors, based on the two methods of analysis previously used by this author: contrastive analysis and error analysis.