Re: Articles, determiners, quantifiers, whatever...

The only language I have with "articles" is Kamakawi, but these articles
are directly related to the subject status markers.   So, if you go here:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/nouns.html

You'll see that I have some basic glosses where, for example, you have:

nawa = "a fish"
e nawa = "the fish (sg.)"
u nawa = "the fish (plu.)"

What it doesn't say on this particular page (since it's not important to a
discussion of nouns) is that the article only appears when the noun has
already been introduced in the discourse *and* the noun is not the subject.
This is because the definite articles above are actually descended from the
subject status markers.   So if you say...

Maka nawa i paopu.

It means "A fish eats a worm."   The fish is new to the discourse.   But if
you
already know about the fish, you just say:

E maka i paopu.

The initial "e" is to let you know that the subject of the sentence is the
same
as the last sentence.   And, since the subject is the same, you don't need to
state it again.

Anyway, now that we know about the fish, let's say you come across this
sentence:

Ka maka hopoko ie nawa.

Now a man is introduced, and he ate the fish.   Not just any old fish, but
the
one we already know about.   Thus, the singular definite article "e" (now a
clitic which attaches to the object marker) acts as a kind of definite
argument
marker for the object clause within the larger clause.

So, while on the surface the articles look rather simple, the story of how
they
came to be is slightly more interesting.

-David