(By Jeremy Collins and Jay Latarche): "For this feature, we need explicit support that indefinite/non-specific NPs commonly occur with an indefinite/non-specific article. Three or more examples of indefinite/non-specific nominals occurring with an indefinite/non-specific article is sufficient to code 1. ❡
An indefinite article is a marker that accompanies the indefinite noun and expresses notions such as non-specificity and indefiniteness. Sometimes these notions of non-specificity and indefiniteness are summed up in the term ‘identifiability’. A language does not necessarily have both a non-specific/indefinite and a specific/definite marker. These markers often stem from very different sources (numerals and demonstratives) and need not be similar in formal expression or position. ❡
The formal expression is irrelevant; articles can be free, bound, or marked by suprasegmental markers such as tone. Articles are different from demonstratives in that demonstratives occur in a paradigm of markers that have a clear spatial deictic function. As demonstratives can grammaticalize into definite or specific articles, they form a natural continuum, making it hard to define discrete categories. Articles are more grammaticalized, i.e. are often obligatory in certain contexts that require definite or specific reference. Definite or specific articles can also grammaticalize from pronouns meaning ‘a certain’. As articles necessarily accompany nouns, it is in these cases that it is necessary to investigate whether the marker can occur independently or not; if it can it is most likely a pronoun and not an article. Articles can be homophonous with pronouns and demonstratives, and also with classifiers."