The Spanish Article: Conceptualization and Primary Uses

Abstract

The motivation for and starting point of this research has been the grammatical description of the essential uses of the Spanish definite and indefinite articles as a necessary tool for future application in the context of second language acquisition from a teaching and learning perspective. To this end, the aim of the present research was to identify the essential uses through a synchronous panoramic ([1954] Amado Alonso, Alarcos Llorach [1970, 2000], Lapesa [1974, 1975, 1980], Lazaro Carreter [1980], and Laca [1999] Leonetti [1999] among others). Although grammarians’ proposals to which we have referred embrace all uses of Spanish article, there is a lack of systematic proposals with an invariant value capable of describing the operation of the article, as well as the complex network of contextual relations established in its different uses.