Re: Unmarked definiteness

Quoting Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@...>:


> *This is not quite clear to me just now, because he is inclined to think that
> most (or all?)"indefinite articles" do not, strictly speaking, indicate
> indefiniteness.  Rather, they're markers of cardinality that only imply
> indefiniteness.  In that case, it may be that indefiniteness is never marked,
> strictly
> speaking.
This seems reaonable for the umpteen languages that use the numeral one (or a
form closely allied thereto) for a sg indefinite article, but what about pl
ones? Saying that French _des_ indicates cardinality != 1 seems faintly
contrived to me.

                                                 Andreas