Talking about something and identifying it as something the hearer already knows about or doesn’t know about is an important discourse device in all the mIE languages. The Romance languages are fairly consistent in they way they accomplish this, though eccentricities do pop up. In the cartoon, the woman behind the counter, speaking Italian, indicates that some girl, who she doesn’t identify and who the customer probably doesn’t know, bought a certain book. Evidently, both speaker and hearer know which book was bought, since the speaker says il libro ‘the book’.
What girl? What girls?
To indicate that a topic–a noun– is not specific, the Romance languages use an indefinite article. If that topic is specific and known to the speakers a definite article is deployed. Note that Romanian, like Scandinavian languages, attaches definite articles to the end of the noun.
Spanish Una niña compró el libroMsg. [a girl bought the book]
French Une fille a acheté le livreMsg. [a girl has bought the book]
Italian Una ragazza ha comprato il libro. [a girl has bought the book]
Romanian O fată a cumpărat carteaFsg. [a girl has bought book+the]
If a noun is plural, things are not so simple, i.e. much more interesting. Unlike Germanic, Romance languages have developed an indefinite article to agree with plural nouns. (I try to imagine this as a plural ‘a’ but I can’t quite get there.) In order to translate it into a language like English that doesn’t have an indefinite plural article, different kinds of words must be recruited in the target language, or just leave the plural noun without an article. For example, suppose you want to say ‘Indefinite, unidentified girls bought the book.’, the Romance languages can use a distinct indefinite article/determiner meaning “a undetermined, unidentified members of a subset.” As I say, it’s hard for me whose native language is English, to sense the difference between that and the meaning of “some”. It’s like trying to see what the 4th dimension looks like.
Portuguese Umas meninas compraram o livro.
Spanish Unas chicas compraron el libro.
French Des filles ont acheté le livre.
Italian Delle ragazze hanno comprato il libro.
Romanian Niște1 fete au cumpărat cartea.
1 derived historically from late Latin nescio quid ‘I don’t know what.’, i.e. “some”.
While Germanic leaves the indefinite plural box blank, the Romance languages check it:
| Rom ind. def. sg √ √ pl √ √ |
Connecting articles with their nouns.
The fact is, except for English and Persian, articles change form depending on the gender or number of the noun. In Romance, this happens with singular and plural nouns (except French, where gender agreement only happens in the singular).
Spanish Un niño compró los librosMpl / las tarjetasFpl. [a boy bought the books / the cards]
French Un garçon a acheté les livresMpl / les cartesFpl. [a boy has bought the books / the cards
Italian Un ragazzo ha comprato i libriMpl/ le carteFpl. [a boy has bought the books / the cards]
Romanian Un băiat a cumpărat cărţileFpl / pantofiiMpl [a boy has bought books+the / pencils+the]
That’s definitely mine.
The Romance languages are unique among the mIE languages in that they employ a definite article when expressing possession with a possessive pronoun.
Portuguese O seu está sobre a mesa. [the your is on the table] ‘Yours is on the table.’
Spanish El tuyo está sobre la mesa. [the your is on the table]
French Le tien est sur la table. [the your is on the table]
Italian Il tuo è sul tavolo. [the your is on+the table]
Romanian Al tău este pe masă. [the your is on table+the]
A reddit user commented on the difference between Spanish unos ‘some’ and algunos ‘some’: “Something that might be confusing … is that English doesn’t have plural indefinite articles, so in places where a plural indefinite article would be needed, English substitutes some. On the other hand, some is usually plural, although it’s possible to use it as singular. English ignores a distinction that Spanish makes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Spanish/comments/i2ijs1/unosunas_vs_algunosalgunas/
GRAMMAR
*Agreement occurs between two words in a sentence or phrase. Some of the grammatical features of one word (usually a noun) are repeated in another word. For example, if a noun is plural then words modifying the noun will also have plural inflection, thus making obvious which noun is being modified, even if the noun isn’t nearby. Verbs also agree (suggesting at some level that verbs are modifiers also): Thosepl bookspl arepl interesting. (In some languages even ‘interesting’ in that sentence would be marked plural.) Sometimes the agreement is obvious in the repetition of endings, as Russian kniga byla ‘a book was’.
*Determiner is a catchall word for adjectives, possessive pronouns, articles: any word that modifies a noun.
*(In)definiteness indicates whether a topic, a noun, is one that has already been mentioned or that is a commonly known thing (definite) or indicates that the topic, a noun, is one that the speaker has not mentioned yet, is not specific, or wants to define: That is a mistake. (indefinite).
What do you think?