Article (grammar)
An article
(abbreviated
ART) is a word
that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference
being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages
extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an,
and (in some contexts) some. 'An' and 'a' are modern forms of the Old
English 'an', which in Anglian dialects was the number 'one' (compare 'on', in
Saxon dialects) and survived into Modern Scots as the number 'ane'. Both 'on'
(respelled 'one' by the Normans) and 'an' survived into Modern English, with
'one' used as the number and 'an' ('a', before nouns that begin with a
consonant sound) as an indefinite article.
In some
languages, articles are a special part of speech, which cannot easily be
combined with other parts of speech. It is also possible for articles to be
part of another part of speech category such as a determiner,
an English part of speech category that combines articles and demonstratives
(such as 'this' and 'that').
In languages
that employ articles, every common noun, with
some exceptions, is expressed with a certain definiteness (e.g., definite or
indefinite), just as many languages express every noun with a certain grammatical number
(e.g., singular or plural). Every noun must be accompanied by the
article, if any, corresponding to its definiteness, and the lack of an article
(considered a zero article)
itself specifies a certain definiteness. This is in contrast to other
adjectives and determiners, which are typically optional.
Types
Articles are
usually characterized as either definite or indefinite.[2] A few languages with
well-developed systems of articles may distinguish additional subtypes.
Within each
type, languages may have various forms of each article, according to
grammatical attributes such as gender, number, or
case, or according to adjacent sounds.
Definite article
A definite
article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to
the listener. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it
may be something uniquely specified. The definite article in English, for both
singular and plural nouns, is the.
The children know the
fastest way home.
The sentence
above refers to specific children and a specific way home; it contrasts with
the much more general observation that:
Children know the
fastest way home.
The latter
sentence refers to children in general, perhaps all or most of them.
Likewise,
Give me the
book.
refers to a
specific book whose identity is known or obvious to the listener; as such it
has a markedly different meaning from
Give me a
book.
which does not
specify what book is to be given.
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 of the Brassica genus.
Indefinite article
An indefinite
article indicates that its noun is not a particular one (or ones) identifiable
to the listener. It may be something that the speaker is mentioning for the
first time, or its precise identity may be irrelevant or hypothetical, or the
speaker may be making a general statement about any such thing. English uses a/an,
from the Old English forms of the number 'one', as its primary indefinite
article. The form an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound
(even if spelled with an initial consonant, as in an hour), and a
before words that begin with a consonant sound (even if spelled with a vowel,
as in a European).
She had a
house so large that an elephant would get lost without a map.
Before some
words beginning with a pronounced (not silent) h in an unstressed first
syllable, such as hallucination, hilarious, historic(al), horrendous,
and horrific, some (especially older) British writers prefer to use an
over a (an historical event, etc.).[3] An is also preferred
before hotel by some writers of British English (probably reflecting the
relatively recent adoption of the word from French, where the h is not
pronounced).[4] The use of "an" before
words beginning with an unstressed "h" is more common generally in
British English than American.[4] American writers normally use a
in all these cases, although there are occasional uses of an historic(al)
in American English.[5] According to the New Oxford
Dictionary of English, such use is increasingly rare in British English too.[3] Unlike British English, American
English typically uses an before herb, since the h in this
word is silent for most Americans.
The word some
is used as a functional plural of a/an. "An apple" never means
more than one apple. "Give me some apples" indicates more than
one is desired but without specifying a quantity. This finds comparison in
Spanish, where the singular indefinite article 'uno/una' ("one") is
completely indistinguishable from the unit number, except where it has a plural
form ('unos/unas'): Dame una manzana" ("Give me an apple")
> "Dame unas manzanas" ("Give me some apples").
However, some also serves as a quantifier rather than as a plural
article, as in "There are some apples there, but not many."
Some also serves as
a singular indefinite article, as in "There is some person on the
porch". This usage differs from the usage of a(n) in that some
indicates that the identity of the noun is unknown to both the listener and the
speaker, while a(n) indicates that the identity is unknown to the
listener without specifying whether or not it is known to the speaker. Thus There
is some person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to both the listener
and the speaker, while There is a person on the porch indicates
indefiniteness to the listener but gives no information as to whether the
speaker knows the person's identity.
Partitive article
A partitive
article is a type of indefinite article used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate
a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite
articles. The nearest equivalent in English is some, although this is
considered a determiner
and not an article.
French: Voulez-vous
du café ?
Do you want (some)
coffee? (or, dialectally but more accurately, Do you want some
of this coffee?)
See also more
information about the
French partitive article.
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).'[6]
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:
No man is an
island.
No dogs are
allowed here.
Pronunciation of a and an
Both words are
usually pronounced with a schwa: /ə/, /ən/.
However, when stressed (which is rare in ordinary speech), they are normally
pronounced respectively as /eɪ/ (to rhyme
with day) and /æn/ (to rhyme with pan).
Representing the number one
In addition to
serving as an article, a and an are also used as synonyms for the
number one, as in "make a wish", "a hundred". An was
originally an unstressed form of the number ān 'one'.
A and an
are also used to express a proportional relationship, such as "a dollar a
day" or "$150 an ounce" or "A Mars a day helps you work,
rest and play", although historically this use of "a" and
"an" does not come from the same word as the articles.[12]
The
mathematically-minded might heed H. S. Wall's
reminder that the statement "I have a son" does not
necessarily imply that "I have exactly one son" or that "I
have only sons". In other words, "The little words count."[13]
"Some" as an indefinite article
As a plural
The word some
is used as a functional plural of a/an. "An apple" always
means one indefinite apple. "Give me some apples" indicates
more than one is desired but without specifying a quantity. This finds
comparison in Spanish, where the singular indefinite article 'uno/una'
("one") is completely indistinguishable from the unit number, but
where it has a plural form ('unos/unas'): Dame una manzana" ("Give
me an apple") > "Dame unas manzanas" ("Give
me some apples").
However, some
also serves as a quantifier rather than as a plural article, as in "There
are some apples there, but not many." As a result, the meaning
intended by the speaker may be unintentionally or even deliberately unclear, or
the speaker could intend both meanings simultaneously: "I see some
cars" could have the indefinite meaning in "I see some cars (but I
don't know whose)" or the quantificational meaning in "I see some
cars (but not a lot of them)".
As a singular
Some also serves as
a singular indefinite article, as in "There is some person on the
porch". This usage differs from the usage of a(n) in that some
indicates that the identity of the noun is unknown to both the listener and the
speaker, while a(n) indicates that the identity is unknown to the
listener without specifying whether or not it is known to the speaker. Thus There
is some person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to both the listener
and the speaker, while There is a person on the porch indicates
indefiniteness to the listener but gives no information as to whether the
speaker knows the person's identity.
However, some
before a mass noun (a singular noun referring to a
non-discrete undivided entity) always has a partitive meaning: for example, in I'll
have some coffee, some means a subset of all coffee.
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