Word used with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun
Ingrammar, anarticle is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used withnoun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes apart of speech.
Articles combine with nouns to form noun phrases, and typically specify the grammaticaldefiniteness of the noun phrase.In English,the anda (rendered asan when followed by a vowel sound) are the definite and indefinite articles respectively. Articles in many other languages also carry additional grammatical information such asgender,number, andcase. Articles are part of a broader category calleddeterminers, which also includedemonstratives,possessive determiners, andquantifiers. In linguisticinterlinear glossing, articles areabbreviated asART.
"Definite article" redirects here. For the comedy album, seeDefinite Article.
Adefinite article is an article that marks adefinite noun phrase. Definite articles, such as the Englishthe, are used to refer to a particular member of a group. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be otherwise something uniquely specified.
For example, Sentence 1 uses the definite article and thus, expresses a request for a particular book. In contrast, Sentence 2 uses an indefinite article and thus, conveys that the speaker would be satisfied with any book.
Give methe book.
Give mea book.
The definite article can also be used in English to indicate a specific class among other classes:
The cabbage white butterfly lays its eggs on members ofthe Brassicagenus.
However, recent developments show that definite articles are morphological elements linked to certain noun types due tolexicalization. Under this point of view, definiteness does not play a role in the selection of a definite article more than the lexical entry attached to the article.[clarification needed][1][2]
Anindefinite article is an article that marks anindefinite noun phrase. Indefinite articles are those such as English "a" or "an", which do not refer to a specific identifiable entity. Indefinites are commonly used to introduce a new discourse referent which can be referred back to in subsequent discussion:
Aproper article indicates that itsnoun is proper, and refers to a unique entity. It may be the name of a person, the name of a place, the name of a planet, etc. TheMāori language has the proper articlea, which is used for personal nouns; so, "a Pita" means "Peter". In Māori, when the personal nouns have the definite or indefinite article as an important part of it, both articles are present; for example, the phrase "a Te Rauparaha", which contains both the proper articlea and the definite articleTe refers to the person nameTe Rauparaha.
The definite article is sometimes also used with proper names, which are already specified by definition (thereis just one of them). For example:the Amazon, the Hebrides. In these cases, the definite article may be considered superfluous. Its presence can be accounted for by the assumption that they are shorthand for a longer phrase in which the name is a specifier, i.e.the Amazon River,the Hebridean Islands.[citation needed] Where the nouns in such longer phrases cannot be omitted, the definite article is universally kept:the United States,the People's Republic of China.
This distinction can sometimes become a political matter: the former usagethe Ukraine stressed the word's Russian meaning of "borderlands"; asUkraine became a fully independent state following thecollapse of the Soviet Union, it requested that formal mentions of its name omit the article. Similar shifts in usage have occurred in the names ofSudan and bothCongo (Brazzaville) andCongo (Kinshasa); a move in the other direction occurred withThe Gambia. In certain languages, such as French and Italian, definite articles are used with all or most names of countries:la France,le Canada,l'Allemagne;l'Italia,la Spagna,il Brasile.
If a name [has] a definite article, e.g.the Kremlin, it cannot idiomatically be used without it: we cannot sayBoris Yeltsin is in Kremlin.
Some languages use definite articles withpersonal names, as inPortuguese (a Maria, literally: "the Maria"),Greek (η Μαρία,ο Γιώργος,ο Δούναβης,η Παρασκευή), andCatalan (la Núria,el/en Oriol). Such usage also occurs colloquially or dialectally inSpanish,German,French,Italian and other languages. InHungarian, the colloquial use of definite articles with personal names, though widespread, is considered to be aGermanism.
The definite article sometimes appears in American English nicknames such as "the Donald", referring to current presidentDonald Trump, and "the Gipper", referring to former presidentRonald Reagan.[4]
Apartitive article is a type of article, sometimes viewed as a type of indefinite article, used with amass noun such aswater, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are a class ofdeterminer; they are used inFrench andItalian in addition to definite and indefinite articles. (InFinnish andEstonian, the partitive is indicated by inflection.) The nearest equivalent in English issome, although it is classified as adeterminer, and English uses it less than French usesde.
Haida has a partitive article (suffixed-gyaa) referring to "part of something or... to one or more objects of a given group or category," e.g.,tluugyaa uu hal tlaahlaang "he is making a boat (a member of the category of boats)."[5]
Anegative article specifiesnone of its noun, and can thus be regarded as neither definite nor indefinite. On the other hand, some consider such a word to be a simpledeterminer rather than an article. In English, this function is fulfilled byno, which can appear before a singular or plural noun:
No man has been on this island.
No dogs are allowed here.
No one is in the room.
InGerman, the negative article is, among other variations,kein, in opposition to the indefinite articleein.
Thezero article is the absence of an article. In languages having a definite article, the lack of an article specifically indicates that the noun is indefinite. Linguists interested inX-bar theory causally link zero articles to nouns lacking a determiner.[6] In English, the zero article rather than the indefinite is used withplurals andmass nouns, although the word "some" can be used as an indefinite plural article.
Linguists believe the common ancestor of theIndo-European languages,Proto-Indo-European, did not have articles. Most of the languages in this family do not have definite or indefinite articles: there is no article inLatin orSanskrit, nor in some modern Indo-European languages, such as the families ofSlavic languages (except forBulgarian andMacedonian, which are rather distinctive among the Slavic languages in their grammar, and some Northern Russian dialects[7]),Baltic languages and manyIndo-Aryan languages. AlthoughClassicalGreek had a definite article (which has survived intoModern Greek and which bears strong functional resemblance to the German definite article, which it is related to), the earlierHomeric Greek used this article largely as a pronoun or demonstrative, whereas the earliest known form of Greek known asMycenaean Greek did not have any articles. Articles developed independently in several language families.
Not all languages have both definite and indefinite articles, and some languages have different types of definite and indefinite articles to distinguish finer shades of meaning: for example,French andItalian have a partitive article used for indefinitemass nouns, whereasColognian has two distinct sets of definite articles indicating focus and uniqueness, andMacedonian uses definite articles in a demonstrative sense, with a tripartite distinction (proximal, medial, distal) based on distance from the speaker or interlocutor. The wordsthis andthat (and their plurals,these andthose) can be understood in English as, ultimately, forms of the definite articlethe (whose declension in Old English includedthaes, an ancestral form of this/that and these/those).
In many languages, the form of the article may vary according to thegender,number, orcase of its noun. In some languages the article may be the only indication of the case. Many languages do not use articles at all, and may use other ways of indicating old versus new information, such astopic–comment constructions.
^abcGrammatically speakingFinnish has no articles, but the wordsse (it) andyks(i) (one) are used incolloquial Finnish in the same fashion asthe anda/an in English and are, for all intents and purposes, treated like articles when used in this manner.
The following examples show articles which are always suffixed to the noun:
Macedonian: столstol, chair; столотstolot, the chair; столовstolov, this chair; столонstolon, that chair
Persian:sib, apple. (There is no definite articles in the Standard Persian. It has one indefinite article 'yek' that means 'one'. InStandard Persian, if a noun is not indefinite, it is a definite noun. 'Sib e' man' means 'my apple'. Here, 'e' is like 'of' in English, so literally 'sib e man' means 'the apple of mine'. However, inIranian Persian, "-e" is used as a definite article, quite different fromStandard Persian.pesar, boy;pesare, the boy;pesare in'o be'm dād, the boy gave me this.)
Romanian:drum, road;drumul, the road (the article is just "l", "u" is a "connectionvowel"Romanian:vocală de legătură)
Swedish andNorwegian:hus, house;huset, the house; if there is an adjective:det gamle (N)/gamla (S) huset, the old house
Examples of prefixed definite articles:
Hebrew:ילד, transcribed asyeled, a boy;הילד, transcribed ashayeled, the boy
Maltese:ktieb, a book;il-ktieb, the book;Maltese:għotja, a donation;l-għotja, the donation;Maltese:ċavetta, a key;iċ-ċavetta, the key;Maltese:dar, a house;id-dar, the house;Maltese:nemla, an ant;in-nemla, the ant;Maltese:ras, a head;ir-ras, the head;Maltese:sodda, a bed;is-sodda, the bed;Maltese:tuffieħa, an apple;it-tuffieħa, the apple;Maltese:xahar, a month;ix-xahar, the month;Maltese:zunnarija, a carrot;iz-zunnarija, the carrot;Maltese:żmien, a time;iż-żmien, the time
A different way, limited to the definite article, is used byLatvian andLithuanian. The noun does not change but the adjective can be defined or undefined. In Latvian:galds, a table / the table;balts galds, a white table;baltais galds, the white table. In Lithuanian:stalas, a table / the table;baltas stalas, a white table;baltasis stalas, the white table.
Languages in the above table written initalics areconstructed languages and are not natural, that is to say that they have been purposefully invented by an individual (or group of individuals) with some purpose in mind.
When using a definite article inTokelauan language, unlike in some languages like English, if the speaker is speaking of an item, they need not have referred to it previously as long as the item is specific.[8] This is also true when it comes to the reference of a specific person.[8] So, although the definite article used to describe a noun in the Tokelauan language iste, it can also translate to the indefinite article in languages that requires the item being spoken of to have been referenced prior.[8] When translating to English,te could translate to the English definite articlethe, or it could also translate to the English indefinite articlea.[8] An example of how the definite articlete can be used as an interchangeable definite or indefinite article in the Tokelauan language would be the sentence “Kua hau te tino”.[8] In the English language, this could be translated as “A man has arrived” or “The man has arrived” where usingte as the article in this sentence can represent any man or a particular man.[8] The wordhe, which is the indefinite article in Tokelauan, is used to describe ‘any such item’, and is encountered most often with negatives and interrogatives.[8] An example of the use ofhe as an indefinite article is “Vili ake oi k'aumai he toki ”, where ‘he toki ’ mean ‘an axe’.[8] The use ofhe andte in Tokelauan are reserved for when describing a singular noun. However, when describing a plural noun, different articles are used. For plural definite nouns, rather thante, the articlenā is used.[8] ‘Vili ake oi k'aumai nā nofoa’ in Tokelauan would translate to “Do run and bring me the chairs” in English.[8] There are some special cases in which instead of usingnā, plural definite nouns have no article before them. The absence of an article is represented by0.[8] One way that it is usually used is if a large amount or a specific class of things are being described.[8] Occasionally, such as if one was describing an entire class of things in a nonspecific fashion, the singular definite nounte would is used.[8] In English, ‘Ko te povi e kai mutia’ means “Cows eat grass”.[8] Because this is a general statement about cows,te is used instead ofnā. Theko serves as a preposition to the “te” The articleni is used for describing a plural indefinite noun. ‘E i ei ni tuhi?’ translates to “Are there any books?”[8]
Articles often develop by specialization ofadjectives ordeterminers. Their development is often a sign of languages becoming moreanalytic instead ofsynthetic, perhaps combined with the loss ofinflection as in English, Romance languages, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Torlakian.
Joseph Greenberg in Universals of Human Language describes "the cycle of the definite article": Definite articles (Stage I) evolve from demonstratives, and in turn can become generic articles (Stage II) that may be used in both definite and indefinite contexts, and later merely noun markers (Stage III) that are part of nouns other than proper names and more recent borrowings. Eventually articles may evolve anew from demonstratives.[9]
Definite articles typically arise fromdemonstratives meaningthat. For example, the definite articles in mostRomance languages—e.g.,el,il,le,la,lo, a, o — derive from theLatin demonstrativesille (masculine),illa (feminine) andillud (neuter).
TheEnglish definite articlethe, writtenþe inMiddle English, derives from anOld English demonstrative, which, according togender, was writtense (masculine),seo (feminine) (þe andþeo in the Northumbrian dialect), orþæt (neuter). The neuter formþæt also gave rise to the modern demonstrativethat. Theye occasionally seen in pseudo-archaic usage such as "Ye Olde Englishe Tea Shoppe" is actually a form ofþe, where the letterthorn (þ) came to be written as ay.
Multiple demonstratives can give rise to multiple definite articles.Macedonian, for example, in which the articles are suffixed, hasстолот (stolot), the chair;столов (stolov), this chair; andстолон (stolon), that chair. These derive from theProto-Slavic demonstratives*tъ "this, that",*ovъ "this here" and*onъ "that over there, yonder" respectively.Colognian prepositions articles such as indat Auto, oret Auto, the car; the first being specifically selected, focused, newly introduced, while the latter is not selected, unfocused, already known, general, or generic.
StandardBasque distinguishes between proximal and distal definite articles in the plural (dialectally, a proximal singular and an additional medial grade may also be present). The Basque distal form (with infix-a-, etymologically a suffixed and phonetically reduced form of the distal demonstrativehar-/hai-) functions as the default definite article, whereas the proximal form (with infix-o-, derived from the proximal demonstrativehau-/hon-) ismarked and indicates some kind of (spatial or otherwise) close relationship between the speaker and the referent (e.g., it may imply that the speaker is included in the referent):etxeak ("the houses") vs.etxeok ("these houses [of ours]"),euskaldunak ("the Basque speakers") vs.euskaldunok ("we, the Basque speakers").
Speakers ofAssyrian Neo-Aramaic, amodern Aramaic language that lacks a definite article, may at times use demonstrativesaha andaya (feminine) orawa (masculine) – which translate to "this" and "that", respectively – to give the sense of "the".[10] InIndonesian, the third personpossessive suffix-nya could be also used as a definite article.[11]
Indefinite articles typically arise from adjectives meaningone. For example, the indefinite articles in theRomance languages—e.g.,un,una,une—derive from theLatin adjectiveunus. Partitive articles, however, derive fromVulgar Latinde illo, meaning(some) of the.
TheEnglish indefinite articlean is derived from the same root asone. The-n came to be dropped before consonants, giving rise to the shortened forma. The existence of both forms has led to many cases ofjuncture loss, for example transforming the originala napron into the modernan apron.
^abcdefghijklmnoSimona, Ropati (1986).Tokelau Dictionary. New Zealand: Office of Tokelau Affairs. p. Introduction.
^Greenberg, Joseph H. (2005).Genetic linguistics : essays on theory and method. William Croft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-151452-4.OCLC132691297.
^Solomon, Zomaya S. (1997).Functional and other exotic sentences in Assyrian Aramaic, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, XI/2:44-69.
