ABSTRACT
In some languages it is possible to use a possessive pronoun in the incompletely restricted sense. MHG had ein stn bruoder, where now ein bruder von ihm is said. In Italian, possessives are not definite, hence the possibility of saying un mio amico I alouni suoi amici I con due 0 tre amici suoi I 8i oomunicarono certe loro idee di gastronomia (Serao, Cap. Sans. 304). Consequently the article is needed to make the expression definite: il mio amico. But there is an interesting exception to this rule: with names indicating close relationship no article is used: mio fratello, 8UO zio. If I am not mistaken this must have originated with mio padre, mia madre, where definiteness is a natural consequence of one's having only one father and one mother, and have been analogically extended to the other terms of kinship. It is perfectly natural that the article should be required with a plural: i miei fratelli, and on the other hand that it should not be used with a. predicative: questo libro e mio. In French the possessives are definite, as shown through their combination with a comparative as in man meilleur ami 'my best friend,' where the pronoun has the same effect as the article in le meilleur ami.1 But a different form is used in (the obsolete) un mien ami = It. un mio amico, now usually un de mes amis (un ami a moi). In English indefiniteness of a possessive is expressed by means of combinations with of : a friend of mine I some friends of hers, of. also any friend of Brown's, a combination which is also used to avoid the collocation of a possessive (or genitive) and some other determining pronoun : that noble heart of hers I this great America of yours, etc. .As a. partitive explanation lis excluded here, we may call this construction " pseudo-partitive."
