Article (grammar)

An article is any piece of a classes of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to generation the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The bracket of articles constitutes a part of speech.

In English, both "the" in addition to "an" are articles, which chain with nouns to have noun phrases. Articles typically specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun phrase, but in many languages, they carry extra grammatical information such(a) as gender, number, as well as case. Articles are component of a broader category called determiners, which also increase demonstratives, possessive determiners, and quantifiers. In linguistic interlinear glossing, articles are abbreviated as ART.

Historical development

Articles often instituting by specialization of adjectives or determiners. Their development is often aof languages becoming more analytic instead of synthetic, perhaps combined with the damage of inflection 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 reform 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 element of nouns other than proper denomination and more recent borrowings. Eventually articles may evolve anew from demonstratives.

Definite articles typically occur from demonstratives meaning that. For example, the definite articles in nearly Romance languages—e.g., el, il, le, la, lo — derive from the Latin demonstratives ille masculine, illa feminine and illud neuter.

The neuter. The neuter construct þæt also produced rise to the modern demonstrative that. The ye occasionally seen in pseudo-archaic ownership such as "Ye Olde Englishe Tea Shoppe" is actually a form of þe, where the letter thorn þ came to be or done as a reaction to a question as a y.

Multiple demonstratives can administer rise to multiple definite articles. *tъ "this, that", *ovъ "this here" and *onъ "that over there, yonder" respectively. Colognian prepositions articles such(a) as in dat Auto, or et Auto, the car; the first being specifically selected, focused, newly introduced, while the latter is not selected, unfocused, already known, general, or generic.

Standard marked and indicates some kind of spatial or otherwiserelationship between the speaker and the referent e.g., it may imply that the speaker is covered in the referent: etxeak "the houses" vs. etxeok "these houses [of ours]", euskaldunak "the Basque speakers" vs. euskaldunok "we, the Basque speakers".

Speakers of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a modern Aramaic language that lacks a definite article, may at times usage demonstratives aha and aya feminine or awa masculine – which translate to "this" and "that", respectively – to dispense the sense of "the".

Indefinite articles typically arise from adjectives meaning one. For example, the indefinite articles in the Romance languages—e.g., un, una, une—derive from the Latin adjective unus. Partitive articles, however, derive from Vulgar Latin de illo, meaning some of the.

The English indefinite article an is derived from the same root as one. The -n came to be dropped before consonants, giving rise to the shortened form a. The existence of both forms has led to numerous cases of juncture loss, for example transforming the original a napron into the innovative an apron.

The Persian indefinite article is yek, meaning one.