УДК 811

Definite and indefinite nouns in Modern Persian and Russian languages

Голами Хамидеx Хасан – магистр филологии университета UUNIT, преподаватель языка Башкирского государственного медицинского университета

Abstract: When the noun is specific, particular and known to the reader, it is called definite noun and when the noun is general and unknown, it is called indefinite.Articles modify nouns and determine the definiteness and indefiniteness of them. These articles come before the nouns and determine and describe it for the audience. In English language famous articles: the, a and an, make the nouns definite or indefinite, when the article “ the” comes before a noun, gives it an identity and clarity and makes it known and definite for the reader and when the articles “ a “ and “ an “ come before a noun, indicate that noun as an indefinite. Do these articles exist in Modern Persian and Russian languages and can make definite nouns? In this resaerch, In this research, the answer to this question will be clear.

Keywords: noun, definite, indefinite, articles.

Relevance

Modern Persian and Russian languages as Indo-European ones, do not have articles such as the English language to determine the definiteness and indefiniteness of a noun, but there are definite and indefinite nouns.  In Modern Persian indefinite nouns follow the word “ a “ or “ one “ that can be similar with the English language or the suffix “ i “ is the equivalent translation of  “ a” or “ an” in English.  In Modern Russian, definite and indefinite nouns follow the gender and grammatical cases rules. Proper nouns such as the name of countries or known items are definite in any language but the sign or suffix or a prefix is different.

Definite and indefinite nouns in Modern Persian language

Definite nouns in Persian don’t have any sign and this being without sign indicates definiteness of a noun, but generally these words and nouns are important definite types:

1. All proper nouns like: Iran, London, Bible.
2. Nouns that come after demonstratives are definite: This book, that house.
3. Generic or mass nouns that contain all members of a type and in singular form and without any sign or prefixes and suffixes is a definite noun, such as: book, horse, tree.
4. In possessiveness phrases that are made of two nouns and first noun is added by ‘e’ ‘Ezãfe ‘ ( extra e) to the next noun and there is a possession relation between two nouns and first noun belongs to the next noun that follows it and second noun is always a proper noun so because of this relation, first noun also becomes definite.

Examples are as follow at table1:

Compound Noun	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Ketãb e Ali	کتابِ علی	Ali’s book (Ali: boy name)
Dast e Farhãd	دستِ فرهاد	Farhãd’s hand (Farhãd: boy name)

In the case of a noun added to the proper noun, the same story happens and the first noun becomes definite but there is no possession relation between two words such as Tehran city (city of Tehran), Koran book (book of Koran). Again these two  nouns are connected with ‘ e ezãfe ‘ (Tab. 1).

Compound Noun	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Tehran city	شهرِ تهران	Tehran city (Tehran, capital of Iran)
Koran book	کتابِ قرآن	Koran book

Table 2: Compound nouns with ‘ e ezãfe ‘

A noun that comes with the suffix ‘ i ‘ and after ‘ ke = that/who ‘ in a subordinate clause and main clause describes this noun, so this noun in this context is a definite one. Here are some cases at table 3 [Anvari, Givi;2011:87].

Compound sentence	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Mardi ke miãyad, barãdar e man ast. (Mardi, definite noun )	مردی که می آید، برادرِ من است.	A man who comes, is my brother.
Deli ke az eshgh khãli bãshad, del nist. (Deli, definite noun)	دلی که از عشق خالی باشد، دل نیست.	A heart that is empty of love, is not heart.

Table 3: Noun with suffix “i “

When a noun is a direct object and has the sign of ‘ rã ‘ (rã is the sign of direct object and comes immediately after object ), it is definite and known for reader or audience (Table 4).

Sentence	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Ketãb rã khãndam. (ketãb: book)	کتاب را خواندم.	I read the book. (read: past tense)
Shahr rã didam. (Shahr: city)	شهر را دیدم.	I saw the city.

Table 4: Direct object with ‘ rã’

In the text and context, based on the meaning and other words, specially words have symmetrical relation and when the reader or audience has information about a noun, that noun is definite.

As a brief result about definite nouns in Modern Persian, can say that if a noun is a direct object and ‘ rã ‘ sign, or comes after demonstratives: this/that and be added to the proper and known noun becomes indefinite [Anvari, Givi;2011:88] ,

A definite noun has a known identity and an indefinite noun has an unknown identity. Modern Persian does not have any article to determine definiteness of the nouns and based on the context nouns can be definite or indefinite. In order to make a clear indefinite noun, the suffix ‘i ‘ can be added and this suffix does not change the word’s stress. If the suffix comes after a consonant, there would be one ‘i ‘, as you see at the table 5:

Noun (base form)	Indefinite noun (with suffix ‘i ‘)	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Khiabãn	Khiabãni	خیابانی	A Street
Shakhs	Ashkhsi	شخصی	A Person
Kolãh	Kolãhi	کلاهی	A Hat

Table 5: An indefinite noun with the suffix “i “

If the suffix comes after the long vowels, it would be written as double ‘i’ , as follow (table 6):

Noun (base form)	Indefinite noun (with suffix ‘i ‘)	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Jã	Jãii	جایی	A Place
Parou	Parouii	پارویی	A spade

Table 6: An indefinite noun ends into the long vowel plus suffix “i “

Based on the ending of a noun, the pronunciation and dictation of the suffix  is different [Mace, J; 2003:37-38] 

Another sign for indefinite nouns in Persian is ‘ yek = one ‘ before it. Sometimes this combination is a matter of emphasis for that noun andpurpose of the writeras you see at the table 7 [Anvari, Givi, 2011:88].

Noun (base form)	Indefinite noun With yek before it	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Parande	Yek Parande (Dar jangal, yek parande didam)	یک پرنده (در جنگل، یک پرنده دیدم)	One bird (In Jungle, I saw one bird)
Nãme	Yek Nãme (Yek nãme ruye miz ast)	یک نامه (یک نامه رویِ میز است)	One letter (one letter is on the table)

Table 7: Indefinite noun with yek before it

A combination of these two signs: ‘i ‘ and one makes the noun indefinite. Again ‘yek ‘ comes before the noun and ‘i’ comes after the noun (Table 8).

Noun (base form)	Indefinite noun With yek before it and i after it	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Rouz	Yek Rouzi (Yek rouzi be Iran miravam)	یک روزی (یک روزی به ایران می روم)	One day (One day, I go to Iran)

Table 8: Indefinite noun with yek before it and i after it

Nouns come after qualifiers and determiners like: every, each and any, are indefinite nouns in Persian and most of the time these nouns take ‘i ‘ sign at the end also. The meaning of each/every in Persian is ‘ har’ and no/any means ‘hich’ (Table 9).

Noun (base form)	Indefinite noun With each/any before it and i after it	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Medãd	Har medãd Gheimat e har medãd, bist sent ast.	هر مِداد      قِیمتِ هر مداد بیست سِنت است.	Each pencile Price of each pencile is 20 cent.
Medãd	Hich Medãddi Hich medãdi rouye miz nist.	هیچ مِدادی    هیچ مِدادی رویِ میز نیست .	There is no pencile on the table.

Table 9: Indefinite noun with each/any before it and i after it

There is a special indefinite noun in Persian that is called assigned indefinite or specific indefinite and just comes in compound sentences and in the subordinate clause is indefinite but the main clause gives information about it and finally makes it definite. In this context, nouns have the sign ‘ i ‘ for indefinite nouns. So this noun comes in the category of definite nouns and also indefinite as you see at the table 10[same, 89].

Compound sentence	Persian transcripts	Meaning in English
Mardi ke tokhm mikãrad, keshãvarz ast. (Mardi, indefinite noun )	مردی که تخم  می کارد، کشاورز است.	A man who plants the seed, is farmer.

Table 10: Compound sentence

Definite and indefinite nouns in Modern Russian language

Definite and indefinite articles (corresponding to 'the', 'a', 'an' in English) do now not exist within the Russian language. The feel conveyed via such articles may be decided in Russian via context. however, Russian also utilizes different method of expressing whether or not a noun is definite or indefinite: the use of an instantaneous object within the genitive rather than the accusative in negation signifies that the noun is indefinite, evaluate: Я не ви́жу кни́ги ("I don't see a ebook" or "I do not see any books") and Я не ви́жу кни́гу ("I don't see the e-book").
The identical goes for certain verbs expressing a desire to gain some thing: wait, wish, ask, want, and many others. when the inanimate item is definite (positive, or at the least expected), the accusative is used; when it's far indefinite (uncertain), the genitive is used. evaluate: Я жду автобус ("i am looking ahead to the bus", а precise, scheduled bus) and Я жду автобуса ("i'm looking ahead to a bus", any bus, if one will come).[6]
using the numeral one every now and then signifies that the noun is indefinite, e.g.: Почему́ ты так до́лго? – Да так, встре́тил одного́ дру́га, пришло́сь поговори́ть ("Why did it take you goodbye?" – "nicely, I met one [=a] buddy and had to talk").
phrase order may also be used for this motive; evaluate В ко́мнату вбежа́л ма́льчик ("Into the room rushed a boy") and Ма́льчик вбежа́л в ко́мнату ("The boy rushed into the room").
The plural shape may characterize indefiniteness: Вы мо́жете купи́ть э́то в магази́нах ("you could buy this in stores") vs. Вы мо́жете купи́ть э́то в магази́не ("you can buy this in the shop"). (Wikipedia)

As a result, In Russian, definiteness is primarily indicated by using definite and indefinite articles. However, it's important to note that Russian does not have indefinite articles (equivalent to "a" or "an") but uses the context and word order to express indefiniteness.

Definiteness in Russian is expressed through the use of the definite article "the." The definite article has different forms depending on the gender, number, and case of the noun it accompanies. For example:

"Старая машина" (Staraya mashina) - "the old car" (feminine singular)

"Старый дом" (Staryy dom) - "the old house" (masculine singular)

"Старое здание" (Staroye zdanie) - "the old building" (neuter singular)

"Старые машины" (Staryye mashiny) - "the old cars" (plural)

In Russian, to express indefiniteness (equivalent to "a" or "an" in English), you generally omit the definite article. The absence of the definite article implies that the noun is indefinite. For example:

"Машина" (Mashina) - "a car" or "some car"

"Дом" (Dom) - "a house" or "some house"

Additionally, indefinite meaning can also be conveyed through certain quantifiers, such as "несколько" (neskol'ko) - "several,""некоторый" (nekotoryy) - "some," or "какой-то" (kakoy-to) - "some" in Russian (wikipedia).

Conclusion

In the English language, definite and indefinite articles make the following nouns definite and indefinite. Definite articles, the same as English do not exist in Modern Persian and Russian languages and proper nouns are definite nouns and have a known identity for the adudience. In Russian language the definiteness or indefiniteness of the noun follows the gender and grammatical cases rules. In Modern Persian, indefinite nouns come after “ one “ “yek” or the suffix “ i” determines the indefiniteness of the noun and is similar to the English language and indefinite nouns in Persian follow qualifiers such as: every, any, each, … . Definite and indefinite nouns are practical in writing and frequently have been used in many contexts and make the writings more beautiful specially in these two languages.  

References

1. Anvari H., Givi H. Persin language grammar. 4^th volume. 2011. P. 87-89.
2. Mace J. Persian grammar for reference and revision. RoutledgeCurzon. 2003. P. 37-38.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_grammar.

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