Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, September 9, 2002, 10:53 |
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Quoting Joe <joe@...>:
> From: "bnathyuw" <bnathyuw@...>
> > i' ve seen french described as having THREE articles :
> >
> > indefinite: un/une/des
> > partitive: du/de la/des
> > definite: le/la/les
> >
> > where the first two have convergent forms in the
> > plural ( with some exceptions of usage )
> >
> > but this might have been the grammarian's pet theory .
>
> In that case, english has 3 articles 'a/an', 'the' and 'some'.
In my very brief exposure to French, I found the indefinite
use here of _des_ *far* more frequent textually than _some_ would
ever be in English texts. One would think that an article, if it
truly is such, would be relatively frequent on a textual basis.
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637
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