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Indefinite Article
In grammar , an indefinite article is a subcategory of indefinite determiner , which participates in the updating of name kernel simply stating that the principal, the referent (the thing, the animal, the person in question) exists, but remains unknown to the actants of the utterance : it is the type of tool in determining incomplete. It thus opposes the definite article , which presupposes that the referent is known of the actants of the utterance.
- The indefinite article takes two singular forms "a" and "an", and one in the plural: "des" (mixed form or shape epicene ):
- A garden, a house, gardens, houses.
Notes on the singular indefinite article
- The singular indefinite article has the same form as the cardinal numeral adjective ("a / an). If this form refers generally an unknown speaker's referent, this is the article. If, however, this form refers only to a unit quantity, it is the numeral. It is the linguistic or extralinguistic that alone makes this deduction:
- A swallow has returned.
- If we mean "a swallow any ... "" One, not two, not three ... , "" A "can be analyzed as a cardinal numeral.
- It may take a general value, defined near the singular applied to this case:
- A dog never betrays his master.
- To mean "The dog never betrays his master," or "Dogs never betray their master."
- It may take a particular form called partitive article.
Notes on the indefinite article plural
- The plural indefinite article is almost always converted "from" a verb in the negative:
- He eats fruits / He never eats fruit.
- It usually becomes "de", when between him and the name ring is interposed another element (or qualifier adjective, or another component):
- A delicious fruit / fruit delicious
- A delicious exotic fruit / delicious exotic fruit / other exotic fruits ...
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