Correlation between Serbian aspect in adjectives and articles in English and Spanish

Abstract

This essay aims to illustrate the phenomenon of (in-)definiteness in three languages – them being English, Spanish, and Serbian. Not many similarities could be found among the three languages. While English and Spanish recognise the notion of definite-indefinite article, there is no article in the Serbian language. However, what Serbian does have is the concept of definite and indefinite aspect in adjectives – which, it is assumed, could serve as a compensation for the definite-indefinite article on many occasions. With this in mind, a brief survey among Serbian native speakers who study both English and Spanish was conducted. The results it yielded showed that Serbian speakers do recognise, though to a certain extent only, the difference between definite and indefinite aspect in adjectives in their mother tongue. The lack of full awareness of the mentioned aspects leads to them not using this potential of Serbian when dealing with Spanish and English articles.