Article (grammar)
In grammar, an article is any of a small set of words or affixes used with nouns to limit or give definiteness to the application. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
Articles combine with nouns to form noun phrases, and typically specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun phrase. In English, the and a are the definite and indefinite articles respectively. Articles in many other languages also carry additional grammatical information such as gender, number, and case. Articles are part of a broader category called determiners, which also include demonstratives, possessive determiners, and quantifiers. In linguistic interlinear glossing, articles are abbreviated as.
Types of article
Definite article
A definite article is an article that marks a definite noun phrase. Definite articles, such as the English the, 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 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 me the book.
- Give me a book.
However, recent developments show that definite articles are morphological elements linked to certain noun types due to lexicalization. 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.
Some languages have definite articles only as suffixes.
Indefinite article
An indefinite article is an article that marks an indefinite 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:- A monster ate a cookie. His name is Cookie Monster.
- A cookie is a wonderful thing to eat.
- A monster must have broken into my house last night and eaten all my cookies.
- A friend of mine told me that happens frequently to people who live on Sesame Street.
- Leaving my door unlocked was a bad decision.
Proper article
A proper article indicates that its noun 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. The Māori language has the proper article a, 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 article a and the definite article Te refers to the person named Te Rauparaha.The definite article is sometimes also used with proper names, which are already specified by definition. 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. 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 usage the Ukraine stressed the word's Russian meaning of "borderlands"; as Ukraine became a fully independent state following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it requested that formal mentions of its name omit the article. Similar shifts in usage have occurred in the names of Sudan and both Congo and Congo ; a move in the other direction occurred with The 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.
Some languages use definite articles with personal names, as in Portuguese, Greek, and Catalan. Such usage also occurs colloquially or dialectally in Spanish, German, French, Italian and other languages. In Hungarian, the colloquial use of definite articles with personal names, though widespread, is considered to be a Germanism.
The definite article sometimes appears in American English nicknames such as "the Donald", referring to current president Donald Trump, and "the Gipper", referring to former president Ronald Reagan. The definite article also appears as part of a nickname in Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, Act IV, Scene I: “Such attribution should the Douglas have...”.
Partitive article
A partitive article is a type of article, sometimes viewed as a type of indefinite article, used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are a class of determiner; they are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite articles. The nearest equivalent in English is some, although it is classified as a determiner, and English uses it less than French uses de.Haida has a partitive article 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."
Negative article
A negative article specifies none 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 simple determiner rather than an article. In English, this function is fulfilled by no, which can appear before a singular or plural noun:In German, the negative article is, among other variations, kein, in opposition to the indefinite article ein.
The equivalent in Dutch is geen:
Zero article
The zero 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 in X-bar theory causally link zero articles to nouns lacking a determiner. In English, the zero article rather than the indefinite is used with plurals and mass nouns, although the word "some" can be used as an indefinite plural article.Crosslinguistic variation
Articles are found in many Indo-European languages, Semitic languages, Polynesian languages, and even language isolates such as Basque; however, they are formally absent from many of the world's major languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, many Turkic languages, many Uralic languages, Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, the Dravidian languages, the Baltic languages, the majority of Slavic languages, the Bantu languages. In some languages that do have articles, such as some North Caucasian languages, the use of articles is optional; however, in others like English and German it is mandatory in all cases.Linguists believe the common ancestor of the Indo-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 in Latin or Sanskrit, nor in some modern Indo-European languages, such as the families of Slavic languages, Baltic languages and many Indo-Aryan languages. Although Classical Greek had a definite article, the earlier Homeric Greek used this article largely as a pronoun or demonstrative, whereas the earliest known form of Greek known as Mycenaean 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 and Italian have a partitive article used for indefinite mass nouns, whereas Colognian has two distinct sets of definite articles indicating focus and uniqueness, and Macedonian uses definite articles in a demonstrative sense, with a tripartite distinction based on distance from the speaker or interlocutor. The words this and that can be understood in English as, ultimately, forms of the definite article the.
In many languages, the form of the article may vary according to the gender, number, or case 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 as topic–comment constructions.
Tables
| Definite | Indefinite | Gendered | Numbered | Case-inflected | |
| Afrikaans | |||||
| Albanian | |||||
| Arabic | |||||
| Armenian | |||||
| Basque | |||||
| Belarusian | |||||
| Bengali | |||||
| Bulgarian | |||||
| Catalan | |||||
| Chinese | |||||
| Czech | |||||
| Danish | |||||
| Dutch | |||||
| English | |||||
| Esperanto | |||||
| Estonian | |||||
| Faroese | |||||
| Finnish | |||||
| French | |||||
| Georgian | |||||
| German | |||||
| Greek | |||||
| Guarani | |||||
| Hawaiian | |||||
| Hebrew | |||||
| Hungarian | |||||
| Icelandic | |||||
| Interlingua | |||||
| Irish | |||||
| Italian | |||||
| Japanese | |||||
| Korean | |||||
| Latvian | |||||
| Lithuanian | |||||
| Macedonian | |||||
| Malay/Indonesian | |||||
| Nepali | |||||
| Norwegian | |||||
| Pashto | |||||
| Persian | |||||
| Polish | |||||
| Portuguese | |||||
| Romanian | |||||
| Russian | |||||
| Sanskrit | |||||
| Scottish Gaelic | |||||
| Serbo-Croatian | |||||
| Slovak | |||||
| Slovene | |||||
| Somali | |||||
| Spanish | |||||
| Swahili | |||||
| Swedish | |||||
| Tamil | |||||
| Thai | |||||
| Toki Pona | |||||
| Turkish | |||||
| Ukrainian | |||||
| Vietnamese | |||||
| Welsh | |||||
| Yiddish |
| Language | definite article | partitive article | indefinite article |
| Abkhaz | a- | -k | |
| Afrikaans | die | ||
| Albanian | -a, -ja, -i, -ri, -ni, -u, -t, -in, -un, -n, -rin, -nin, -në, -ën, -s, -së, -ës, -të, -it, -ët | disa | një |
| Arabic | or el ال | -n | |
| Armenian | -ը -ë, -ն -n | մի mi | |
| Assamese | -tû, -ta, -ti, -khôn, -khini, -zôn, -zôni, -dal, -zûpa etc. | êta, êkhôn, êzôn, êzôni, êdal, êzûpa etc. | |
| Bengali | -টা, -টি, -গুলো, -রা, -খানা | একটি, একটা, কোন | |
| Breton | an, al, ar | un, ul, ur | |
| Bulgarian | -та, -то, -а, -ът, -я, -ят, -те | няколко | един/''някакъв, една/някаква, едно/някакво, едни/някакви |
| Catalan | el, la, l, els, les ses, lo, los, es, sa | un, una uns, unes | |
| Cornish | an | ||
| Danish | Singular: -en, -n -et, -t Plural: -ene, -ne | en, et | |
| Dutch | de, het ; archaic since 1945/46 but still used in names and idioms: des, der, den | een | |
| English | the | a, an | |
| Esperanto | la | ||
| Faroese | -n, -ð, -na, -num, -ni, -ns, -nnar, -nir, -nar, -num, -nna | ein, eitt, eina, einum, eini, eins, einnar, einir, einar, eini, einna | |
| Finnish | se | yks | |
| French | le, la, l', ''les | de, d', du, de la, des, de l | un, une, des |
| German | der, die, das des, dem, den | ein, eine, einer, eines einem, einen | |
| Greek | ο, η, το οι, οι, τα | ένας, μια, ένα | |
| Hawaiian | ka, ke nā | he | |
| Hebrew | |||
| Hungarian | a, az | egy | |
| Icelandic | -nn, -n, -ð, -na, -num, -nni, -nu, -ns, -nnar, -nir, -nar, -num, -nna | ||
| Interlingua | le | un | |
| Irish | an, na, a' | ||
| Italian | il, lo, la, l i'', gli, le | del, dello, della, dell dei, degli, degl', delle | un, uno, una, un |
| Khasi | u, ka, i ki | ||
| Kurdish | -eke -ekan | hendê, birrê | -êk -anêk |
| Latin | |||
| Luxembourgish | den, déi , dat dem, der | däers/es, däer/er | en, eng engem, enger |
| Macedonian | -от ''-ов -он -та -ва -на -то -во -но -те -ве -не -та -ва -на | неколку | еден една едно едни |
| Manx | y'', yn, n, ny | ||
| Malay and Indonesian | -nya, before names: si, sang | se- | |
| Māori | te, ngā | he | |
| Maltese | l-, ċ-, d-, n-, r-, s-, t-, x-, z-, ż- | ||
| Nepali | euta, euti, ek, anek, kunai एउटा, एउटी, एक, अनेक, कुनै | ||
| Norwegian | Singular: -en, -et, -a Plural: -ene, -a | en, et, ei | |
| Norwegian | Singular: -en, -et, -a Plural: -ane, -ene, -a | ein, eit, ei | |
| Papiamento | e'' | un | |
| Pashto | yaow, yaowə, yaowa, yaowey يو, يوهٔ, يوه, يوې | ||
| Persian | in, ān -e | ye -i | |
| Portuguese | o, a os, as | um, uma uns, umas | |
| Quenya | i, in, n | ||
| Romanian | -l, -le, -a -lui, -i, -lor | un, o'' unui, unei niște, unor | |
| Scots | the | a | |
| Scottish Gaelic | an, am, a, na, nam, nan | ||
| Sindarin | i'', in, -in, -n, en | ||
| Spanish | el, la, lo, los, las | un, una unos, unas | |
| Swedish | Singular: -en, -n, -et, -t Plural: -na, -a, -en | en, ett | |
| Welsh | y, yr, -'r | ||
| Yiddish | דער ', די ', דאָס ', דעם ' | אַ ', אַן ' |
The following examples show articles which are always suffixed to the noun:
- Albanian: zog, a bird; zogu, the bird
- Aramaic: שלם, peace; שלמא', the peace
- * Note: Aramaic is written from right to left, so an Aleph is added to the end of the word. ם becomes מ when it is not the final letter.
- Assamese: "কিতাপ ", book; "কিতাপখন ": "The book"
- Bengali: "বই ", book; "বইটি /বইটা /বইখানা " : "The Book"
- Bulgarian: стол stol, chair; столът stolǎt, the chair ; стола stola, the chair
- Danish: hus, house; huset, the house; if there is an adjective: det gamle hus, the old house
- Icelandic: hestur, horse; hesturinn, the horse
- Macedonian: стол stol, chair; столот stolot, the chair; столов stolov, this chair; столон stolon, that chair
- Persian: sib, apple.
- Romanian: drum, road; drumul, the road
- Swedish and Norwegian: hus, house; huset, the house; if there is an adjective: det gamle /gamla huset, the old house
- , transcribed as yeled, a boy; הילד, transcribed as, the boy
- , a book; il-ktieb, the book;, a donation; l-għotja, the donation;, a key; iċ-ċavetta, the key;, a house; id-dar, the house;, an ant; in-nemla, the ant;, a head; ir-ras, the head;, a bed; is-sodda, the bed;, an apple; it-tuffieħa, the apple;, a month; ix-xahar, the month;, a carrot; iz-zunnarija, the carrot;, a time; iż-żmien, the time
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 in italics are constructed languages and are not natural, that is to say that they have been purposefully invented by an individual with some purpose in mind.