ARTICLE, in Grammar, denotes a particle used in most languages for the declining of nouns, and denoting the several cases and genders thereof.
The use of articles arises chiefly hence, that in languages which have no different terminations, to express the different states and circumstances of nouns, there is something required to supply that office.
The Latins have no articles; but the Greeks, and
most of the modern languages, have had recourse to them, for fixing and ascertaining the vague signification of common and appellative names.
The Greeks have their α, the eastern tongues their be emphaticum; the Italians their il, lo, and la. The French their le, la, and les. The Germans their der, das, die.
The English also have two articles, a and the; which being prefixed to substantives, apply their general signification to some particular things.
Some grammarians make the article a distinct part of speech; others will have it a pronoun, and others a noun adjective. See GRAMMAR.
Articles are of great service in a language, as they contribute to the more neat and precise expressing of several properties and relations, which must otherwise be lost. And hence one great advantage of such languages over the Latin, in that the article being either expressed or left out, makes an alteration in the sense, which the Latins cannot distinguish. Thus when the devil said to our Saviour, Si tu es Filius dei, it may either be understood, "if thou art a son of God," or, "if thou art the son of God." The Italians even prefix articles to proper names, which do not naturally need any, because they themselves signify things individually. Thus they say, il Ariosto, il Tasso, il Petrarca. Even the French join the article to the proper names of kingdoms, provinces, &c. as la Suede, la Normandie. And we likewise annex it to the names of certain mountains and rivers; as, The Rhine, the Danube, the Alps, &c.