Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

----- Original Message -----
From: David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction


> Quoting Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>:
>
> << > Do all languages make a distinction between definite and indefinite
>
> > articles, à la "the" and "a"? Assuming a language uses articles at all,
>
> > that is. >>
>
>     Turkish has an indefinite article and no definite article, just to add
to
> the list...
Are you sure? AFAIK, Turkish has a definite article and no indefinite
article, and actually, this shows up only when nouns are in object position,
not in subject position... So in the nominative case, there's no distinction
between definiteness and indefiniteness, but there is a distinction in the
accusative case...

kalem siyah = the pencil is black / a pencil is black
kalem al = take a pencil
kalemi al = take the pencil

Of course, you can put the word 'bir' (one) before the noun and it functions
as an indefinite article, but it's not as frequently used as in English...

Santiago Feldman