Definite: definiteness or state
In Irish, definiteness is indicated through the use of a definite article singular an or plural na (also used with feminine singular in genitive case, see below), much like the definite article “the” in English. There is no indefinite particle, with nouns considered indefinite unless otherwise indicated.
Def : definite
Determiners an and na are both definite, as mentioned above.
In the case of a genitive construction (eg hata fhir an bhaile “the hat of the man of the town”), the noun can also indicate definiteness, though treatment depends on gender and number.
Nominative case
In the nominative case (see Case) nouns undergo some changes following the definite article an; most feminine nouns are lenited after the definite article, while feminine nouns beginning with ‘s’ are eclipsed, becoming ‘ts’. Meanwhile, masculine nouns beginning with a vowel get the prefix ‘t-‘.
Examples
- an bua “the win”
- an fharraige “the sea”
- an tseachtain “the week”
- an t-aonad “the unit”
Following the plural definite article na, both masculine and feminine nouns beginning with a vowel receive the prefix ‘h’.
Examples
- na buntáistí “the advantages”
- na hábhair “the subjects”
Genitive
In the genitive case (see Case) the singular definite article an is only used with masculine nouns. In this case, masculine nouns behave like feminine nouns in the nominative case, most masculine nouns beginning with a consonant are lenited, and those beginning with a ‘s’ change to ‘ts’. However, nouns beginning with a vowel remain the same.
Examples
- imeachtaí an Éirí Amach “activities of the uprising”
- chumas an pháiste “ability of the child”
- biaiste an tsamhraidh “season of summer”
The plural definite article na is used with feminine singular nouns. In this case, feminine singular nouns beginning with a vowel are prefixed by ‘h’, while those beginning with a consonant don’t change. For plural nouns, na triggers eclipsis where nouns begin with a consonant. Plural nouns beginning with a vowel are eclipsed by the prefix ‘n-‘.
Examples
- thitim na hoíche “fall of the night”
- óga na tíre “young of the country”
- eagras na bhfostóirí “organisation of the employers”
- measc na n-ábhar “middle of the subjects”
Ind : indefinite
There are no indefinite articles in Irish, however some nouns may inflect to show indefinite features.
Examples
- a gcuid uibheacha “her eggs”
- as láimh “out of hand”
Treebank Statistics (UD_Irish)
This feature is universal.
It occurs with 2 different values: Def, Ind.
1552 tokens (11%) have a non-empty value of Definite.
495 types (13%) occur at least once with a non-empty value of Definite.
408 lemmas (15%) occur at least once with a non-empty value of Definite.
The feature is used with 5 part-of-speech tags: ga-pos/DET (914; 7% instances), ga-pos/NOUN (601; 4% instances), ga-pos/PROPN (29; 0% instances), ga-pos/NUM (7; 0% instances), ga-pos/X (1; 0% instances).
DET
914 ga-pos/DET tokens (72% of all DET tokens) have a non-empty value of Definite.
The most frequent other feature values with which DET and Definite co-occurred: PronType=Art (881; 96%), Case=EMPTY (777; 85%), Gender=EMPTY (776; 85%), Number=Sing (759; 83%).
DET tokens may have the following values of Definite:
Def(914; 100% of non-emptyDefinite): an, na, gach, chuile, ‘n, ngach, a, a’EMPTY(362): a, seo, sin, aon, eile, mo, cibé, do, uile, s’
NOUN
601 ga-pos/NOUN tokens (16% of all NOUN tokens) have a non-empty value of Definite.
The most frequent other feature values with which NOUN and Definite co-occurred: Form=EMPTY (601; 100%), VerbForm=EMPTY (601; 100%), Number=Sing (495; 82%), Case=NomAcc (439; 73%), Gender=Masc (392; 65%).
NOUN tokens may have the following values of Definite:
Def(597; 99% of non-emptyDefinite): bhliain, fear, hoíche, saol, leabhar, duine, lá, méid, bliana, daoineInd(4; 1% of non-emptyDefinite): Criosanna, dlíthe, láimh, oibreEMPTY(3129): bheith, chur, dhéanamh, rud, leith, duine, fáil, daoine, chuid, níos
| Paradigm obair | Ind | Def |
|---|---|---|
| Case=Gen | oibre | hoibre |
| Case=NomAcc | obair |
Definite seems to be lexical feature of NOUN. 99% lemmas (385) occur only with one value of Definite.
PROPN
29 ga-pos/PROPN tokens (6% of all PROPN tokens) have a non-empty value of Definite.
The most frequent other feature values with which PROPN and Definite co-occurred: Number=Sing (28; 97%), Gender=Fem (23; 79%), Case=NomAcc (16; 55%).
PROPN tokens may have the following values of Definite:
Def(29; 100% of non-emptyDefinite): Gaeilge, Ghaeilge, hÉireann, hEorpa, Afraic, Bheilg, Breathnach, Ceallach, Cholóim, CoileánachEMPTY(445): Gaeilge, Seán, Fraince, Átha, Éirinn, Cliath, mBaile, Bhaile, Chaoin, Eoin
Definite seems to be lexical feature of PROPN. 100% lemmas (15) occur only with one value of Definite.
NUM
7 ga-pos/NUM tokens (4% of all NUM tokens) have a non-empty value of Definite.
The most frequent other feature values with which NUM and Definite co-occurred: NumType=Card (7; 100%), Form=EMPTY (7; 100%).
NUM tokens may have the following values of Definite:
Def(7; 100% of non-emptyDefinite): dá, dháEMPTY(169): dhá, chéad, céad, trí, 1997, aon, seacht, 3, ceithre, 1
X
1 ga-pos/X tokens (1% of all X tokens) have a non-empty value of Definite.
The most frequent other feature values with which X and Definite co-occurred: PronType=EMPTY (1; 100%), Abbr=EMPTY (1; 100%), Dialect=Ulster (1; 100%).
X tokens may have the following values of Definite:
Def(1; 100% of non-emptyDefinite): achanEMPTY(150): san, (1), (2), so, (c), (4), (a), (b), Uimh., FÁS
Relations with Agreement in Definite
The 10 most frequent relations where parent and child node agree in Definite:
NOUN –[det]–> DET (524; 58%).
Definite in other languages: [am] [ar] [bg] [bxr] [ca] [ckb] [cop] [cu] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [et] [eu] [fa] [fo] [fr] [ga] [gl] [got] [grc] [he] [hi] [hr] [hu] [id] [it] [ja] [kk] [kmr] [ko] [la] [lv] [mr] [nl] [no] [pl] [pt] [ro] [sa] [sk] [sla] [sl] [so] [sr] [sv] [swl] [ta] [tr] [u] [ug] [uk] [ur] [urj] [vi] [yue] [zh]