An article is a word A word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme (e.g. cat), but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form (e.g. the English plural morpheme -s) that combines with a noun Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns may be defined as those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference. The articles in the English language are the and a . An article is sometimes called a noun marker, although this is generally considered to be an archaic term volume or numerical scope of that reference. The articles in the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is are the and a (the latter with variant form an). An article is sometimes called a noun marker, although this is generally considered to be an archaic term.[1]

Articles are traditionally considered to form a separate part of speech In grammar, a lexical category is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others. There are open word classes, which constantly acquire new members, and closed. Linguists place them in the class of determiners A determiner is a noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase, including quantity, rather than its attributes as expressed by adjectives. This word class, or part of speech, is defined in some languages, including English, though most English dictionaries still classify determiners under other parts of speech. Determiners.

Articles can have various functions:[2]

The cat is on the red mat.
A cat is a mammal.
French French is a Romance language spoken, around the world, by more than 100 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language: Voulez-vous du café ? ("Would you like some coffee?" or "Do you want coffee?")
Cats love fish.

Linguists interested in X-bar theory X-bar theory is a component of linguistic theory which attempts to identify syntactic features common to all languages. It claims that among their phrasal categories, all languages share certain structural similarities, including one known as the "X-bar", which does not appear in traditional phrase structure rules. X-bar theory was first causally link zero articles to nouns lacking a determiner.[3]

Contents

Logic of definite articles

In English, a definite article is mostly used to refer to an object or person that has been previously introduced. For example:

At last they came to a piece of rising ground, from which they plainly distinguished, sleeping on a distant mountain, a mammoth bear.... Then they requested the eldest to try and slip the belt over the bear's head.
— Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents,, Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi is a memoir by Mark Twain detailing his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before and after the American Civil War, appendix D

In this example, a bear becomes the bear because a "mammoth bear" had been previously introduced into the narrative, and no other bear was involved in the story. Only previously introduced subjects, and unique subjects, where the speaker can assume that the audience is aware of the identity of the referent (The government has increased tax) typically take definite articles in English.

By contrast, the indefinite article is used in situations where a new subject is being introduced, and the speaker assumes that the hearer is not yet familiar with the subject:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
— A traditional nursery rhyme The oldest children's songs of which we have records are lullabies, intended to help a child sleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby is thought to come from 'lu, lu' or 'la la' sound made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and 'by by' or 'bye bye', either another lulling sound, or a term for good night

Reflecting its historical derivation from the number word one 1 is a number, numeral, and the name of the glyph representing that number. It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of "unit length" is a line segment of length 1, the English indefinite article can only be used with singular count nouns In linguistics, a count noun is a common noun that can be modified by a numeral and occur in both singular and plural form, as well as co-occurring with quantificational determiners like every, each, several, etc. A mass noun has none of these properties. It can't be modified by a numeral, occur in singular/plural or co-occur with the relevant. For mass nouns In linguistics, a mass noun is a common noun that presents entities as an unbounded mass. Given that different languages have different grammatical resources, the actual test for which nouns are mass nouns may vary from language to language. In English, mass nouns are characterized by the fact that they cannot be directly modified by a numeral, or for plurals, adjectives or adjective phrases like some or a few substitute for it, or it is omitted. In English, pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun (or noun phrase) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is called the antecedent of the pronoun, nouns already having another non-number determiner, and proper nouns Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns may be defined as those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase usually do not use articles. Otherwise in English, unlike many other languages, singular count nouns take an article; either a, an, or the.[4] Also in English word order, articles precede any adjectives In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Some examples can be seen in the box to the right. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words that modify the applicable noun.[5]

In French, the masculine definite article le (meaning the) is contracted with a following word if that word begins with a vowel sound. When the French words de and le are to be used sequentially (meaning of the), the word du is used instead, in addition to the above mentioned use of du as a partitive article.

In various languages other than English, the form of the article may vary according to the grammatical gender If a language distinguishes between masculine and feminine gender, for instance, then each noun belongs to one of those two genders; in order to correctly decline any noun and any modifier or other type of word affecting that noun, one must identify whether the noun is feminine or masculine. The term "grammatical gender" is mostly used, number The count distinctions typically, but not always, correspond to the actual count of the referents of the marked noun or pronoun or case In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. While most languages distinguish cases in some fashion, it is only customary to say that a language has cases when these are codified in the morphology of its nouns — that is, of the noun it combines with. (In some languages the article may be the only indicator of the case, eg., ::Der Hut des Napoleon, Napoleon's hat.) Many languages do not use articles at all, and may use other ways of indicating old vs. new information, such as topic-comment In linguistics, the topic is informally what is being talked about, and the comment (rheme or focus) is what is being said about the topic. Although this general nature of topic-comment dichotomy is generally accepted, anything beyond that is a matter of great controversy constructions.

The

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The word the is the only definite In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases) article in the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is, and the most frequently used word in English.[6] In spoken English, it takes two forms, the vowel being a schwa The word "schwa" is from the Hebrew word shva , which designates the Hebrew niqqud vowel sign shva "ְ" that in modern Hebrew indicates either the phoneme /e/ or the complete absence of a vowel. It is sometimes represented by the upside down e symbol for Schwa, a misleading transliteration, since the Schwa vowel is not before a word starting with a consonant, and otherwise a long e sound.

The article "the" is used with singular and plural, countable and uncountable nouns when both the speaker and listener know the thing or idea already. The article the is often used as the very first part of a noun phrase Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, but some languages like Tuscarora and Cayuga have been argued[by whom?] to lack this category in English English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is. For example:

The end of time begins now.

Here, "the end of time" is a noun phrase. The use of the signals that the reference is to a specific and unique instance of the concept (such as person, object, or idea) expressed in the noun phrase. Here, the implication is that there is one end of time, and that it has arrived.

The time is 3:29 PM.

There are many times, but the meaning here is the time now, of which (at the moment the sentence was produced) there is only one.

Etymology

Linguists believe that the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian subcontinent. "Indo" refers to the Indian subcontinent, since in the pre-colonial era the language group extended geographically from Europe in the west to India in the (i.e., the Proto-Indo-European language The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and there have been many attempts at reconstruction. Nevertheless, many disagreements and uncertainties remain) did not have a definite article. Most of the languages in this family do not have definite or indefinite articles; there is no article in Latin Latin is an Italic language historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, especially European languages, including, Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of Nepal and India, Persian Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Bahrain and has official-language status in the first three countries under different names. Persian is a pluricentric language. The Persian language has been a medium for literary and, nor in some modern Indo-European languages, especially in Slavic languages — Russian Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn,, Polish Polish is a West Slavic language. and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland and Czech Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian, etc., nor in the Baltic languages — Latvian Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language. Because of language policy in Latvia approximately 60% of, Lithuanian Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they are not mutually intelligible. It is written in an and Latgalian. (The only Slavic languages that have articles are Bulgarian Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group and Macedonian Macedonian ( македонски јазик , IPA: [maˈkɛdɔnski ˈjazik]) is the official language of Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian and Serbian languages). Classical Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC–6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine Greek Greek , an Indo-European language native to the southern Balkan peninsula, is the language of the Greeks. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical Ancient Greek literature has a definite article, but Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in dactylic hexameter, of poets such as Hesiod. Unlike later forms did not. In the etymologies For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used at earlier stages, and when they entered the languages in question. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that of these and many other languages, the definite article arose from a demonstrative pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun (or noun phrase) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is called the antecedent of the pronoun or adjective In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Some examples can be seen in the box to the right. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words changing its usage A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for design and writing of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication or organization. Style guides are prevalent for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of the various academic disciplines, medicine,; compare the fate of the Latin demonstrative "ille" (meaning "that") in the Romance languages The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. There are more than 600 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the Americas, Europe, and Africa, as well as many smaller regions scattered throughout the world. The six most widely spoken, becoming French French is a Romance language spoken, around the world, by more than 100 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language le, la, l’, and les, Spanish el, la, lo, los, and las, Italian il, la, lo, l’, i, gli, and le, and Portuguese o, os, a, and as.

In some languages, such as Icelandic, Norwegian and Romanian, the definite article is not always a separate word but is sometimes attached to the end of the noun it governs:

Icelandic: hestur, horse; hesturinn, the horse Norwegian: stol, chair; stolen, the chair Romanian: drum, road; drumul, the road

The and that are common developments from the same Old English system. Old English had a definite article se, in the masculine gender, seo (feminine), and þæt (neuter). In Middle English these had all merged into þe, the ancestor of the Modern English word the.

In Middle English the (þe) was frequently abbreviated as a þ with a small e above it, similar to the abbreviation for that, which was a þ with a small t above it. During the latter Middle English and Early Modern English periods, the letter Thorn (þ) in its common script, or cursive, form came to resemble a y shape. As such the use of a y with an e above it as an abbreviation became common. This can still be seen in reprints of the 1611 edition of the King James Version of the Bible in places such as Romans 15:29, or in the Mayflower Compact. Note that the article was never pronounced with a y sound, even when so written.

Reduction and omission

In news headlines and informal writing, such as notes or diaries, the definite article and some other particles are often omitted, for example, "Must pick up prescription at pharmacy today."

In some Northern England dialects of English, the is pronounced as [t̪ə] (with a dental t) or as a glottal stop, usually written in eye dialect as <t>; in some dialects it reduces to nothing. This is known as definite article reduction; see that article for further details.

In dialects that do not have /ð/ (voiced dental fricative), the is pronounced with a voiced dental plosive, as in /d̪ə/ or /d̪iː/).

Geographic uses

In English most cities and countries never take the definite article, but there are many that do. It is commonly used with many country names that derive from names of island groups (the Philippines), mountain ranges (the Lebanon), deserts (the Sudan), seas, rivers and geographic regions (the Middle East).[7] Such use is declining, but for some countries it remains common. Since the independence of Ukraine, most style guides have advised dropping the article, in part because the Ukrainian Government was concerned about a similar issue involving prepositions. Another example is Argentina, which is now more usual than 'the Argentine', which is old fashioned.

The definite article is always used for countries whose names are descriptions of the form of the state rather than being purely geographical; for example, the United States, the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic.

The U.S. Department of State [2] and CIA World Factbook [3] show the definite article with only two countries: The Bahamas and The Gambia.

Similarly, in other languages some geographic names take the article while others do not: die Schweiz, Switzerland; les Pays-Bas, the Netherlands.

Pronunciation

According to Merriam-Webster' online dictionary, "the" is pronounced with a schwa (as in "uh") before words beginning with consonants (e.g. b, c, d, f), and usually with a different vowel sound /i/ (as "y" in "easy") before words beginning with vowels and in cases of proper nouns or emphasis[8].

See also

Look up the in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ Articles, Determiners and Quantifiers
  2. ^ The Use and Non-Use of Articles
  3. ^ [1] Peter Master (1997), The English article system: Acquisition, function, and pedagogy, System, Volume 25, Issue 2, Pages 215–232
  4. ^ Sidney Greenbaum, The Oxford English Grammar (Oxford University Press, 1996) ISBN 0-19-861250-8
  5. ^ Dorothy Disterheft, "Advanced Grammar" (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004) ISBN 0-13-048820-8
  6. ^ World English. "The 500 Most Commonly Used Words in the English Language". http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm. Retrieved on 2007-01-14.
  7. ^ How English works, p25, Michael Swan
  8. ^ the — Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

External links

Categories: Parts of speech | English language

 

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Establish a . definite. timeline for your accomplishment.​ 4. Create a precise plan for carrying out your accomplishment and start immediately, whether you feel you are ready or not. Do not procrastinate! 5. Write your goal and action plan down . 6. ... We Automatically Distribute . Articles. To Thousands Of Publishers And Web Sites: Submit . Article. . All content is viewed and used by you at your own risk and we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the information. ...

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'Definite Article' Answers
can we write or use the names of countries like UK etc without the definite article 'the'?
Q. can we write or use the names of countries like UK etc without the definite article 'the'?
Asked by sncsrinivasan - Mon Sep 10 06:22:45 2007 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. In case of the UK, it should be preceded with a definite article, but England of course comes without 'the'. There are other countries which must be written with the definite article 'the' such as: The Sudan, The United States Of America (but when you say America you don't preceded with a definite article), The Bahamas, The Gambia, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, The Philippines, The Seychelles, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and The West Indies. The rest of the countries are written without the definite article 'the'.
Answered by purestar777 - Mon Sep 10 06:53:17 2007

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