Abstract
This paper offers a quantitative diachronic study of the developmentof Spanish un, from its cardinal value to its use as an indefinite article.Based on a corpus comprising texts from the thirteenth to theseventeenth century, I present an analysis and a chronology of themain changes undergone by un throughout this period, notably itsincreasing use as a marker of non-specific indefinites, and its furtherincorporation in generic noun phrases and predicates. Additionally,demonstrate that the development of the plural indefinite determinerunos is, with a few restrictions, parallel to that of its singularcounterpart, not only in its increasing frequency rate, but also in itsintroduction into new contexts.Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica (1947-), volume 66, 2, July-December 2018, is a semi-annual publication edited by El Colegio de México, Carretera Picacho Ajusco 20, Ampliación Fuentes del Pedregal, Tlalpan, C.P. 14110, Mexico City, Mexico, Tel. (55) 5449-3000, http://nrfh.colmex.mx/index.php/NRFH, nrfh@colmex.mx. Editor: Pedro Martín Butragueño. Assistant editors: Alejandro Rivas and Jesus Jorge Valenzuela. All Rights Reserved: 04-2015-070112341900-203, ISSN (print): 0185-0121, ISSN (electronic): 2448-6558, as registered with the National Copyright Institute. Typographical composition: El Atril Tipográfico. Person in charge of updating this issue: Perla Reyna Muñoz; date of last update: June 26, 2018.
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