In
grammatical theory,
definiteness is a feature of
noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases).
There is considerable variation in the expression of definiteness across languages: some languages use a definite
article (which can be a free form, a phrasal
clitic, or an
affix on the noun) to mark a definite noun phrase. Examples are:
- Phrasal clitic: as in Basque: Cf. ("woman"), (woman-ART: "the woman"), (woman beautiful-ART: "the beautiful woman")
- Noun affix: as in Romanian: ("man"), (man-ART: "the man"); (man-ART good: "the good man")
- Prefix on both noun and adjective: Arabic (al-kitāb al-kabīr) with two instances of al- (DEF-book-DEF-big, literally, "the book the big")
- Distinct verbal forms: as in Hungarian: (read-1sg.pres.INDEF a book-ACC.sg: "I read a book") versus (read-1sg.pres.DEF the book-ACC.sg: "I read the book")
Germanic,
Romance,
Celtic,
Semitic, and
auxiliary languages generally have a definite article, sometimes used as a postposition. Many other languages do not. Some examples are
Chinese,
Japanese,
Finnish, and the
Slavic languages except
Bulgarian and
Macedonian. When necessary, languages of this kind may indicate definiteness by other means such as
Demonstratives.
It is common for definiteness to interact with the marking of
case in certain syntactic contexts. In many languages
direct objects (DOs) receive distinctive marking only if they are definite. For example in
Turkish, the DO in the sentence (meaning "I saw the men") is marked with the suffix (indicating definiteness). The absence of the suffix means that the DO is indefinite ("I saw men").
In
Serbo-Croatian, and to a lesser extent in
Slovene, definiteness can be expressed morphologically on prenominal adjectives. The short form of the adjective is interpreted as indefinite ( "a new city"), while the long form is definite and/or specific ( "the new city, a certain new city").
In
Japanese, a language which indicates noun functions with postpositions, the topic marker (wa) may include definiteness. For example, (
uma wa) can mean "the horse", while (
uma ga) can mean "a horse".
In some languages, the definiteness of the
object affects the
transitivity of the
verb. In the absence of peculiar specificity marking, it also tends to affect the
telicity of monooccasional
predications.
See also
