4.2 The rise of the article.

It’s worth mentioning the evolution of the demonstrative pronouns, which is closely connected with the rise of the article.

In 12-13th cc. due to the reduction of unstressed syllables and the decay of the nominal declension the demonstrative pronouns lost the traces of their inflections and became indeclinable. As a result, each demonstrative had two sg. forms. One was based on the OE neuter singular that and this (that < OE þæt and this <OE þis), which was correspondingly matched to the and thes, the result of the fusion of the OE masc. and fem. sg. forms due to phonetic changes. The form the supplanted the OE masculine sē and feminine sēo; it had its initial sound by analogy with the other case-forms, which all began with [T]. The form thes supplanted the OE masc. þēs and fem. þēos.

In OE the demonstratives were frequently used as noun-determiners before the weak form of the adjective, which expressed definiteness. As the decay of the adjectival declension took place, the demonstrative pronouns remained the only means of expressing definiteness. By the end of the ME period the weakened unstressed form of the true demonstratives the (< ME the ‘that’ and thes ‘this’) split from them and grew into the definite article.

As the result of these changes, since the 14th c. the forms that and this, based on the OE neuter sg. þæt and þis, were only preserved as demonstrative pronoun forms. But the plural forms of both developed somewhat irregularly. At first, the plural of that was thos, the expected development of OE þā with an –s, which was added by analogy with the other plurals in -s; however, the plural tho survived alongside thos(e) until the ENE period. The plural of this became thise or these on analogy with the plural form of adjectives from sg. this and thes, the latter became the only pl. form of this by the end of 15th c.

In sum, by the end of the ME period, the modern system of two demonstratives inflected only for number (this/these and that/those) and a single indeclinable definite article (the) was firmly established for English.

However, the article developed into a part of speech when the opposition of the definite and indefinite article appeared. The latter developed from the OE numeral ān. In ME it split into two words: the indefinite pronoun an, which was frequently used in unstressed position, and the numeral oon ‘one’. Later the unstressed weakened form of the indefinite pronoun grew into the indefinite article, and together with the definite article formed a new grammatical category.

The changes in the declinable parts of speech can be summed up in the following:

1. the reduction in the number of declinable parts of speech;

2. the reduction in the number of declensions;

3. the reduction in the number of grammatical categories;

4. the reduction in the number of the categorical forms;

5. the development of new analytical features;

6. the rise of a new part of speech.