The article

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John Brainard
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Joined: September 18th, 2011, 5:17 pm

The article

Post by John Brainard »

At the risk of sounding stupid I as this question.

In Greek the Article is often called the Definite article. Is it correct to call it a Definite article or should we simply call it the article? :?

John
David Lim
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Joined: June 6th, 2011, 6:55 am

Re: The article

Post by David Lim »

John Brainard wrote:In Greek the Article is often called the Definite article. Is it correct to call it a Definite article or should we simply call it the article?
Greek has only one article and it is definite, so take your pick. (http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/project/f ... pre-alpha/) Personally I suggest you start on Funk's Grammar and ask here any questions you have along the way. I learnt a lot this way thanks to everyone here. :)
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cwconrad
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Re: The article

Post by cwconrad »

John Brainard wrote:At the risk of sounding stupid I as this question.

In Greek the Article is often called the Definite article. Is it correct to call it a Definite article or should we simply call it the article? :?
I don't think it's a stupid question. It's true that earlier Greek had only a definite article (ὁ, ἡ, τό) derived from the older weak 3d-person pronoun (there's a fascinating account by Bruno Snell in a book written half a century ago, The Discovery of the Mind on the "invention of the article" in the 6th c. BCE.). But I think that the characterization of this article as "definite" is appropriate to distinguish its function from the function of an article that might mark a noun or substantive that is not specific or general. Koine Greek is beginning to use εἷς, μία, ἕν as an indefinite article. Latin had neither a definite nor an indefinite article, but it developed both, the former from the demonstrative ille, illa, illud, the latter, like Greek, from the numeral for one -- unus, una, unum, wherefore the Romance languages are well supplied with both kinds of article.

While it is true, however, that the definite article in Greek does not quite fully correspond to the usage of the definite article in English or another language, its usage is significantly distinct, I think, that it is right to characterize it as "definite." It does serve to mark the noun or substantive to which it is attached as having a function that is different from the "unmarked" noun or substantive. For instance, Callimachus may have been referring specifically or even obliquely to the Homeric epics when he wrote "μέγα βιβλίον μέγα κακόν," but more likely he was telling his fellow "bookish" poets like Apollonius of Rhodes, not to go on writing big epic poems.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
John Brainard
Posts: 72
Joined: September 18th, 2011, 5:17 pm

Re: The article

Post by John Brainard »

I want to thank both of you for your input.

John
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