The Latin grammarians of Late Antiquity denied that the article belonged to a separate class of Latin words. They recognized, however, that one of the syntactical functions of the pronomen was denominated articulare pronomen or articulus (e.g. hic magister, hic sacerdos, haec sacerdos). A pointed discussion arose among grammarians regarding the syntactical function of the articulus when it preceded indefinite pronouns such as alter, alius; in these cases, some held, the pronouns turned into nouns, inasmuch as they ceased to be indefinite upon being preceded by a definite article (e.g. hic alter, hic alius). Priscian supplies light to appreciate the importance of the discrepancies among grammarians in their debate over the syntactical functions of Latin pronouns.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International