Interviews, reports, articles and cartoon strips: genres using the personal article in Catalan (DOI: 10.2436/20.3008.01.90)

Abstract

In contrast to the guidelines set out in the majority of Catalan language style manuals, placing an article before an individual’s proper name is a habitual practice in certain types of written journalism, especially interviews, daily-life reports, certain opinion articles and cartoon strips. The continued and widespread use of the personal article in Catalan, handed down from courteous forms of address used in former times, is singular among Romance languages today, and although it is proper to oral forms, its scope extends to written use, literary and non-literary, in accordance with certain genres. It is one of the most basic and frequent structures in Catalan.

KEY WORDS:

journalism genres, readability, orality, written language, informal registers, personal article.