2. Functions of articles

The articles have morphological, syntactical and communicating functions.

The morphological function of the article consists in serving as a formal indicator of the noun (the presence of the article signals that what follows is noun).

The articles have two syntactic functions:

1) The article separates the noun phrase from other part of the sentence,

E.g. John has brought:

- a magazine

- an interesting magazine

- an English interesting magazine

2) The articles may connect sentences within a text by correlating a noun it modifies with some word or a group of words in the previous context,

E.g. John has bought a book.

The book is interesting.

Thus, the article in such a case has a connecting function.

The articles also have the communicating function. To understand this function, it is necessary to determine the relation between the definite and indefinite articles.

The opposition of general and individual plays an important part here, but not only this opposition is in concern. It's necessary to determine what's marked and what's unmarked. The indefinite article indicates an unidentified particular term, whereas the definite article indicates a particular or general term,

E.g. dog (as a class) means generalness

The dog (as a definite individual) means particularness.

3. The category of determinedness and indeterminedness

Speaking about the article we can't omit such a notion as the categories of determinedness and indeterminedness.

By the term 'determinedness' we understand the fact nouns are classified according to whether the content expressed by the noun is clear and identifiable in a concrete way or not.

Usually this category is realized in the positive case by determinedness and in the negative case by 'indeterminedness'. And the principal of the functional sentence articulation to through light on the problem of the nature of the category 'determinedness vs. indeterminedness'. By functional sentence articulation V. Mathesius meant the division of the sentence into theme and rheme.

The theme is that about which we affirm something, the rheme is that which we affirm about the same.

It was Ilyish who pointed out the possibility of explaining the category of determination on dependence on the functional sentence perspective. Ilyish gives two classes:

e.g. The door opened and the young girl came in.

The door opened and a young girl came in.

In the first clause the rheme is the fact that the young girl came in, whereas in the other clause with the indefinite article the theme is presented as new, the fact that it was a young girl who came in.

13.12.12

Ilyish attributes the difference to the work of articles. He sees in the definite and indefinite articles the means of functional sentence. According to Reznik, the articles may indicate the followings:

1) The place of the given word within the system of the part of speech;

The material articles definite and indefinite show that the word with which they co-occur belongs to the part of speech called 'noun'. The absence of the article does not indicate whether the word is a noun or not. Not every noun is always preceded by an article, but generally the form of the word (genitive ending or plural ending), the presence of other modifiers or the semantics of the noun clearly marks a word as a noun.

2) The place of the noun within the part of speech called noun, i.e. its countability or non-countability and its number singular or plural.

The indefinite article generally shows that the word belongs to the group of countable nouns and is used here in the singular. The absence of the article before a noun indicates that a noun is either non-countable and is used here in plural,

E.g. This is a boy (countable, singular).

This is butter (uncountable).

The definite article does not indicate either the group of the noun (countable and uncountable) or its number (singular and plural),

E.g. This is the boy (countable, singular).

These are the boys (countable, plural)

This is matter (uncountable, singular).

3) Relationship between the specific object and all other objects that may be denoted by the same word (the boy, the butter).

The definite article shows that the same denoted by the word with which the article co-occurs is presented here as in some way unique (under the circumstances, in general or specifically known to the speaker or to the listener),

E.g. The butter on the table has melted (but the butter in the fridge was OK).

The sky is blue (the same is unique in general).

This is the boy we spoke about yesterday (the object is specifically known to the listener or the speaker).

The indefinite or the absence of the article do not indicate whether the thing or person is presented here as unique or not, or as specifically known or unknown to the listener,

E.g. This is a boy I spoke about yesterday (possibly I spoke about more than one boy).

Peter and John are young boys (there may be other young boys).

4) Relationship between the idea or concept (boy, butter) denoted by the noun to the other concepts expressed in the same sentence.

The indefinite article or the absence of the article shows that the noun denotes 'this centre of communication', something which is brought forward for future discussion and comment, something new,

E.g. Yesterday I met a boy.

The boy was very young.

The definite article does not indicate whether the object is the centre of communication or not,

E.g. The boy I spoke about was there at my absence.

Thus, each article has its own set of features.