En réponse à Michael David Martin <mdmartin@...>:
> Hello,
Welcome to the list!
> I've got a basic question regarding the definite and indefinite
> articles
> ('the' 'a') - are they really necessary?
Not at all. As already plenty of people said, there are plenty of languages out
there that do without :)) .
Is there any reason to have
> them?
Redundancy. One of the most important feature in languages. Articles may be
useful to repeat information that is known in other ways but may have been
overlooked (lack of attention, noisy environment, etc...). But there are other
ways to achieve redundancy, so articles are only one possibility among
plenty :) .
> How about having the definite article but not the indefinite article?
It's very common. The opposite case (an indefinite article but no definite one)
is rarer I think.
I
> was
> just wondering if there was a reason that a language should have them.
>
No reason per se. But there's no reason either why a language *shouldn't* have
them either ;))) .
> Hope this question isn't too simple, but I am a novice to conlanging.
There's no question too simple, especially in linguistics :) .
> Thanks
> for your answers.
>
You're welcome! :)
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
It takes a straight mind to create a twisted conlang.