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<center><h1><!--title-->Verdurian article syntax
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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Panu Petteri H&ouml;glund</b>
on <!--date-->6:18 8/27/01
<p>In reply to: (none)


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<p>
As I am fluent in Irish, a language with an article usage strikingly
different from English, as we see in the following examples:

<p><i>Bh&iacute; na m&iacute;lte daoin&iacute; ann</i> = There were thousands of people (in Irish, NA
m�lte = THE thousands)

<p> and

<p><i>Is &iacute; Josephine de Geer pr&iacute;omhinnealt&oacute;ir an ghl&eacute;asra </i> = Josephine de Geer
is the First Engineer of the industrial plant (in Irish, "First Engineer
of the plant" - one definite article makes the whole noun-phrase
definite)

<p><i>Labhair m&eacute; le fear an phoist </i> = I spoke with the postman (in Irish, man
of the post - one definite article makes the whole noun-phrase definite)

<p>- as my Irish has made me very sharp-eyed for differences in article
syntax, I have been wondering about article usage in Verdurian as
opposed to English. "So Sanno Lebe" seems to correspond closely to "The
Lord of News" - which, incidentally, would be <i> Tiarna an Nua&iacute;ochta </i> in
Irish ("Lord of the News") - or, more idiomatically, <i> Rogha an
Nua&iacute;ochta </i> or <i> Scoth an Nua&iacute;ochta </i>.  (And yes, I know that <i> nua&iacute;ocht </i> is
dialect and <i>nuacht </i>" is standard!)  Sure Verdurian could not coincide
with English article usage throughout, could it?




<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>When to use articles can be quite difficult, and I'm not sure I know
how to describe it well.  The basic reference for Verdurian is <a href="../../syntax.htm#artix">the 
discussion in the Reference Grammar</a>, which does mention differences
from English and French usage.

<p>From your examples, it looks like Irish likes to make the last NP in
a complex NP definite-- "man of THE post" instead of "THE man of post".
Verdurian prefers the opposite approach, making only the head noun
definite (<b>so uestu nazhden&euml;i</b>).

</i>

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