4.1. Interpretation of the status of the English Article

T here are two general approaches to the grammatical morphological status of the Article (Drawing 4.2).

I . II.

As a word it defines a certain type of the Noun and has its Grammatical Meaning (to define concrete known or any, not particular, noun)

The combination ‘an article + a noun’ is considered to be an analytical form of the Noun (its material morphological index)

Drawing 4.2. The problem of Status of the English Article

1. The approach to the Article as to a definite Syntacategorematic word which defines the Noun.

Article here is compared with the Adjectival Pronoun (his, her, its, etc.).

BUT such approach leads to treating the combination ‘Article + noun’ as an attributive word-combination and, consequently to treating Article as the Attribute in the Sentence, which is not possible for the Article does not possess the Lexical Meaning.

It has its own Grammatical Meaning which is to define concrete known or any, not particular, noun. Its Grammatical Category is based on the opposition of the definite – indefinite attitude to the Noun. Though there is no Lexical Meaning of any type of the Article. Consequently it can not be regarded as a member of a sentence because only Categorematic words/parts of speech (which have their own individual lexical meanings) are considered as members of the Sentence.

For example, compare:

*It is my book.

My is an attribute of a direct object book as it, firstly, defines the noun book and, secondly, has its own lexical meaning, it is lexically-morphologically expressed by the possessive pronoun my in the possessive form of a personal pronoun I which means ‘the subject of a verb when the speaker or writer is referring to himself/herself’’.

*It is a book. It is the book.

Neither article a nor article the can be considered as the attributes because in spite of having grammatical meanings neither of them has a lexical one (what then the attribute will be expressed by?).

2. The approach to the Article as to a peculiar morpheme of the Noun.

The English linguist Christophersen emphasizes analytical nature of English and considers the Article as a morpheme of the Noun.

Firstly, he distinguishes three Morphological Forms of the Noun in the Category of the Article (table 4.1):

Table 4.1

Three Morphological Forms of the Noun in the Category of the Article

Morphological Form	Grammatical Meaning	Its versions in
		Singular	Plural
Zero form	attitude to a thing as to a general phenomenon	cake	cakes
		Cake is nice food.	Cakes are liked by kids.
A-form	treating a thing as any representative of a class of things	a cake	__
		I’d like a cake.
The-form	considering a thing as a unique or concrete known one	the cake	the cakes
		The cake we’ve eaten was delicious!	The cakes we’ve eaten were delicious!

Secondly, Christophersen stipulated his approach with the following arguments:

1) Article resembles the Auxiliary of the Verb as both of them create a definite analytical form of a part of speech, auxiliary verbs – of the Verb, articles – of the Noun. He stipulates Article as the Auxiliary of the Noun on the ground of the following arguments:

1. article is a formal morphological index of the Noun;

2. article does not have Lexical Meaning.

BUT these arguments are not enough and there is a confusion:

1. article is not a pure unique index of the Noun.

For example:

(The) water (noun) was wonderful those days. They water (verb) flowers.

2. article is a definer of the Noun but it does not create Morphological Forms of it whereas auxiliaries create new Morphological forms of the Verb, they change it. Consequently, there is a syntactic connection of the Article and the Noun and there is not of the Auxiliary and the Verb.

For example:

*Article can be substituted by another proper word/pronoun (syntactic connection):

The man is a smart one. = This man is a smart one.

A girl suddenly came in. = Some girl suddenly came in.

*Auxiliary cannot be replaced/substituted by any other word (morphological connection):

He is singing a beautiful song. We have been climbing the rock for three hours.

In the Occidental science there has still been some arguments to the problem of Article (where to refer it). In the Post-Soviet science the Article is treated as a Syntacategorematic part of speech.