THE
SPANISH DEFINITE ARTICLE
1.
Substantivizing Function
An important aspect of
Spanish syntax is the possibility, which is frequently exploited, of forming an
NP by placing the definite article before an adjective, a PP or a relative
clause (the latter, like any other clause, being denoted here by the letter
‘S’, suggesting the word ‘sentence’ [for relative clauses in detail go to the embedded finite
clauses page):
(1) [NP El [A rubio]] me cae mal.
‘I don’t like the blond
one.’
(2) No alcanzo [NP los [PP de
arriba]].
‘I can’t reach those at the
top.’
(3) Me
gustó [NP la [S que me regalaste el año pasado]].
‘I liked the one you gave
me last year.’
Note that the sentences
above are elliptical, as each of the bracketed NPs requires a noun to be
inferred from the context; e.g. El <hombre> rubio me cae mal ‘I don’t like the blond man’, No alcanzo los <platos>
de arriba ‘I can’t reach the plates
at the top’, Me gustó la <camisa> que me regalaste el año pasado ‘I liked the shirt you gave me last
year’.
A unit that has been
substantivized in this way – particularly an adjective – can itself be modified
by an adjacent unit, such as the PP de la
oficina in (4) below:
(4)
No es tan buena como [NP la
[A nueva] [PP de la oficina]].
‘It’s not as good as the
new one at the office.’
2.
Neuter ‘lo’
The so-called neuter form lo of the article (which must be distinguished from the formally
identical direct object pronoun lo
discussed in 5.1 below) is particularly common in the type of construction just
described:
(5) [NP Lo [A interesante]]
es de Microsoft.
‘The interesting stuff is
from Microsoft.’
(6) Cuéntame [NP lo [PP de
anoche]].
‘Tell me about what
happened last night.’
(7) Me gustó [NP lo [S que
me regalaste el año pasado]].
‘I liked what you gave me
last year.’
Note that lo-NPs are never elliptical; thus, for
example, while los de arriba in (2)
is only fully intelligible if an appropriate masculine plural noun can be
recovered from the context, lo de anoche
in (6) is syntactically complete.
A substantivized adjective
in a lo-NP, like such an adjective in
an el/los-NP or a la(s)-NP,
is frequently modified by an adjacent unit: lo
[A desagradable] [PP de este trabajo] ‘the unpleasant thing
about this job’, lo [A fuerte] [PP
(8) Critican
[NP lo [A antipáticos] [S que son los funcionarios]].
‘They criticize the
unfriendliness of the functionaries.’
An extension of this
construction involves using an adverb (= ‘ADV’) in place of an adjective:
(9) Hay que ver [NP lo [ADV despacio] [S que conduce]].
‘You’ve got to see how
slowly he/she drives.’
Finally, it is interesting
to note that the type of structures exhibited by (8) and (9) are semantically
parallel to certain instances of the more familiar el/los/la(s)
+ noun + relative clause construction:
(10) No
te puedes imaginar [NP la
[N sed] [S que tengo]].
‘You can’t imagine how
thirsty I am.’
3.
Generic NPs
In Spanish as in English,
the definite article may be used with a singular count noun to refer
generically to the whole of a class of individuals:
(11) El león es cada vez menos numeroso en
Africa.
‘The lion is becoming less and
less numerous in
But Spanish goes further
than English, by using the definite article to create generic NPs from plural
nouns and mass nouns:
(12) Pedro odia a los políticos.
‘Pedro hates
politicians.’
(13) El vino tinto emborracha más fácilmente
que el vino blanco.
‘Red wine makes you drunk
more easily than white wine.’
The article is not used,
however, in an NP that is part of an activity predicate (underlined in the
examples below), unless the activity consists in doing something to a
determinate thing or set of things, as in (16):
(14) A Pedro le gusta salir
con chicas pijas.
‘Pedro likes going out with
rich girls.’
(15) A Pedro le gusta beber
cerveza.
‘Pedro likes to drink
beer.’
(16) A Pedro le gusta hojear
los libros de su padre.
‘Pedro likes to leaf
through his father’s books.’