A Contrastive Analysis on the Application of Definite and Indefinite Articles in the Story Texts in Persian and English Languages

Abstract

Languages have different linguistic forms which can be contrasted to explore differences and similarities among them. The present study is a contrastive analysis comparing the application of definite and indefinite articles in English and Persian languages. In this regard 10 texts including historical and religious<br><br>stories in Persian and their translations into English were chosen. Among these texts 113 cases of definite and indefinite articles were compared in two languages. The results of the study showed that 43 cases of definite article "the" and 29 cases of indefinite articles "a, an" were applied to show definiteness and indefiniteness respectively. Also the results of the study demonstrated that only 3 cases of definite article "the" were used for representing indefiniteness in Persian language.