The Definite Article: The Endophoric Use

The endophoric use will be the last one we are going to discuss about. Although I am not finished with the anaphoric use of the definite article, we are going to make a pause about articles after this post.

The endophoric use is usually the easiest one to explain and, probably, to understand as well. This use, allows the definite article without any previous mention or anchor´s point. The reason behind this is because there is an internal modifier or complement in the Noun Phrase that defines the noun, allowing the use of the definite article. For example:

- A Laura le dieron la noticia.

If the presented information is like this, the only explanation for the use of the definite article would be because there is an anchor´s point previously in the speech/text. However:

- A Laura le dieron la noticia de que su coche había sido robado.

In this last example we can observe that there is a subordinate clause that defines the information, therefore, allowing the use of the definite article.

That is all we are going to see regarding definite articles for now. Further on, we will see more details that the anaphoric use of the definite article has.