definite article
- noun
- /ˈdɛfɪnɪt ˈɑrtɪkl/
:
artículo definido
- This is signaled by the absence of the definite article: he is Adam, not ha-adam: Adam knew his woman again (Gen. 4:26).
Examples
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Here was a world of shorthand declarations, of neat, definite articles.
Fiction book (1997) -
Despite the definite article in the poem's title, "the City" that Auden memorializes is never truly specified as one single city in the poem.
Academic text (2002) -
But it was the definite article that galvanized me.
Fiction book (1997) -
Moreover, the familiar absence of the definite article leaves the open possibility that not all of them will be allowed to return.
Academic text (1994) -
Note that they did not say "churches" but "church" (in the Greek version, ekklesian has one definite article).
Academic text (2008) -
Indeed, the place of "The Church," as the term is commonly used, has been so thoroughly pushed aside that there are few grounds even to employ the term when translating "church" from languages that either have no or almost always use the definite article.
Academic text (2002) -
For example, although the first sentence, "The sheets are dirty" (3), employs a definite article pointing to a specific set of sheets, other sentences in the scene use either indefinite determiners or none at all: "An Indian Health Service hospital in the late sixties."
Academic text (2008) -
So again, both prior to and following the inauguration of the council, the powers transferred to the Palestinian side will cover, in terms of their jurisdiction, "West Bank and Gaza Strip territory." Again, just as with Article IV itself, the term "West Bank and Gaza Strip territory" is not defined, and the definite article (i.e., "the territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip") is excluded.
Academic text (1994) -
The teacher explained how to use the definite article 'the' in sentences.
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In English, the definite article helps specify a noun that is already known to the listener.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is transparently compositional: 'definite' (specific, clearly identified) + 'article' (a function word marking reference) directly yields the meaning 'the article that indicates a specific/known referent' (i.e. 'the'). This concept is cross-linguistically common (many languages mark definiteness), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The term definite article comes from the idea of pointing to one clear thing; the little word the works like a finger showing a 'specific' person or object the listener already knows. That's why we use the before a noun when we mean that exact, known thing.
