Nouns in the English Language – Articles
In a nutshell, articles are a language invention. Articles, like all languages, are made up of simple units of words and ideas. They function as vehicles by which we express our ideas to the world. As such, articles have become the most widely used form of writing in the world.
An article is any constituent of a literary class of articles that are utilized with an adjective to mark the identity of the referent of the noun phrase being described. The accepted category of articles comprises a very large segment of common writing. In fact, articles are so widely used that the shortest known language in the world- English–contains more articles than all the alphabets of all the world’s languages put together.
The basic function of articles is to provide information about the subject of a particular paragraph. However, it is also possible to express other ideas in the articles using the articles. In fact, the only limitation to the usage of articles in the English language is the limitations that naturally occur in the use of language and the vocabulary of the human species as a whole. Thus, the articles may indicate any idea expressed by the human mind.
One example of a category of articles is the indefinite article. The indefinite article refers to a quantity that is not specified. indefinite articles can appear as either single words or as parts of words that specifically identify the indefinite quantity. As an example, the expression “the number of stars in the sky” refers to the unknown number of heavenly bodies that contains the starry sky. In this example, the indefinite article emphasizes the unspecific nature of the term.
Another example of indefinite articles is the word “the sun.” The definite article indicates the nature of the Sun, while the indefinite article does not. Although the words “the sun” and “the” are obviously related in meaning, they are different from “the sun.” Because of this distinction, the indefinite articles are used in contexts that do not necessarily require a specific object. For example, the sun in the sky is a non-sufficient noun, while the sun is a sufficiently definite noun to be used in a sentence indicating that something happens in the sky.
As was noted above, there are various forms of articles. However, a distinction between singular and plural articles exists, even in the English language. A singular article can refer to any number of objects, whereas a plural article always refers to a single object. For example, the singular article “the dog” refers to a canine animal, while “the dogs” refer to a set of dogs.