Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction\

En réponse à Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>:

>
> Yes. An interesting example I remember from my French classes is the
> sentence:
> "Le lait est bon pour les enfants."
>
> Interestingly, the definite article is used here instead of the
> expected
> partitive article.
Because the partitive refers to a particular instance of a certain quantity
(though undefined) of milk. When you talk about a generic thing, you have to
use the definite article, because a generic concept is definite enough by
itself and thus can be used with the definite article (I personally always
found strange languages that don't put the definite article for generic
concepts. They make them look like they are indefinite, while they are really
very well defined).

In fact, the rule is simple in French: no noun (except personal names, and even
then it's valid in Standard French but some dialects behave differently) can
appear without an article of some kind before it. It can be a possessive, a
deictic, or just one of the three kinds of articles. And if you're not sure
which one to use, just use the definite article, it's the default when nothing
else would fit.

 Any other language known to me wouldn't use an
> article at
> all.
>
I have to talk about Maggel's handling of its article |a|. But it's a bit too
complicated to do with the little time I have now :((( .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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