Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction\
| From: | Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, September 9, 2002, 13:32 |
|---|
--- John Cowan wrote:
> But in French almost all NPs begin with an article or equivalent, whereas
> English is very free with article-less NPs. So French is no basis for
> judgment. In particular, "le" and friends (as I posted a while back)
> are moving toward becoming mere syntactic sugar, and the truly definite
> article is becoming "ce".
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. Any other language known to me wouldn't use an article at
all.
Jan
=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
Reply