In their contexts of use, both definite and indefinite articles are not obligatory in LIS. However, when they are omitted, they are replaced by obligatory non-manuals (the ones described in SYNTAX 4.1.1.3).
In the example below, the pointing sign ix is not produced and the noun man is accompanied by obligatory non-manuals marking definiteness (here labelled as ‘def’).
def
man umbrella take
‘The man took the umbrella.’
The same pattern holds for indefinite articles. When the manual sign is not present, the noun must be accompanied by non-manuals marking indefiniteness (here labelled as ‘indef’).
indef
woman CL(G): ‘woman_come’
‘A woman came to me suddenly.’