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
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.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?
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.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?