Abstract:
This paper discusses the issues raised in Luo Tianhua and Deng Shuwen’s recent article appearing in
Journal of Foreign Languages as to whether there are articles in Chinese. It is mainly concerned with whether the existing understanding give strong backing to the view that “There are articles in Chinese”. What’s more, this paper also demonstrates that the unstressed “
zhe” and “
ge” proposed in Luo & Deng (2022) do not conform to the cross-linguistic definition of articles, and thus does not support the proposition that it is necessary to establish the article as a single part of speech in Chinese.