The Numeral ‘One’ as the Indefinite Article: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract While most researchers would agree that neither Chinese nor Japanese, in any stage of their linguistic development, possess fully developed article systems, there have been studies showing signs of article-like usages of certain expressions emerging in both languages. In this paper, I would like to focus on potential indefinite articles in the two languages and stress the role of the numeral ‘one’ in those constructions. While most secondary literature, especially that aiming at a comparison between Japanese and Chinese, tends to focus on Modern Chinese, I propose that yī 一 showed traces of this function even in Classical Chinese and will present some attributed examples from the Thesaurus Linguae Sericae to back up this claim. Even though particular attention will be given to the numeral ‘one,’ I would also like to highlight one particular expression in Japanese that is connected to indefiniteness without making use of a number expression at all: the construction aru + NP. In doing so, I hope to paint a clear picture of how indefiniteness is encoded in both Japanese and Chinese and critically re-examine the theory that almost all markers of indefiniteness ultimately go back to the number one.