Лекция №4.The Article

Lecture #4. The Article

1. General characteristics.

2. The problem of the number.

3. The problem of the meaning of the article.

I. General characteristics

Meaning: The article is a functional part of speech which expresses definiteness and indefiniteness.

Form: It is unchangeable.

Function: the article is never a separate part of the sentence. In the sentence it is combined with the noun and it may be called a noun determiner. Its syntactical role consists in marking off a noun or a noun phrase as a part of a sentence. The article is placed before the noun it refers to and before all the words in a noun phrase.

E.g. It’s a book. It is a very interesting modern English book.

The article signals the substantivisation of other parts of speech: e. g. Her dress was a light brown. “A” refers to the word which is substantivised. In the example “He’s such a nothing” the article refers to the pronoun which is substantivised.

The use of the article with the noun is determined by the syntactical function of the given noun. As a rule the noun in the function of a subject is used with a definite article. A noun in the function of predicative is used with the indefinite article. The use of the article is also determined by the syntactical connection of the noun, namely by the type of attributes. There are two types (1) limitive (ограничивающее) and (2) descriptive (описательное).

The limitive attribute requires the definite article; the descriptive requires the indefinite article or the zero article.

E.g. This is not the book I asked you to bring. She is a person of a strong will.

The use of the article is also determined by the functional sentence, perspective or by the actual division of the sentence.

II. The problem of the number

Linguists argue about the number of articles in Modern English. Some linguists consider that there are three articles in Modern English: the definite, the indefinite and the zero article.

The definite article is used with a noun to show that the speaker means a definite object distinct from all other objects of the same class. That’s why the definite article is called the limiting article.

The definite article is a definite determiner and it may be substituted by other definite determiners (e.g. by possessive pronouns): Give me the (this, my, your) book.

The indefinite article refers a thing to a certain class of similar things. It is a classifying article. The indefinite article is an indefinite determiner of a noun and it may be substituted by other indefinite determiners. E.g. Give me a (any) book.

The zero article is the absence of the article which has a grammatical meaning. The zero article is used with material nouns, abstract nouns and nouns in the plural number when they are taken in a general sense.

This classification of the article may be found in the book “Morphology of English” by Prof. Smirnitsky and in many other books including school textbooks.

Besides in Modern English there are certain cases when the article is omitted –

1. In newspaper headings: “Bodyshop in__ good shape”.

2. in writer’s remarks in plays to show the difference between the main text in the play and the remarks. e.g. Opens window. Comes up to table.

3. (may be omitted) in explanations given in dictionaries. This is done form the sake of economy of space.

4. (usually omitted) in the text of a telegram e.g. “room reserved for week-end”.

5. In calendars and weather forecasts: E.g. Sun rises at six.

In all the cases where we have the omission of the article this omission does not influence the meaning expressed and can be easily restored.

Some linguists express the opinion that there are two articles in Modern English: the definite and the indefinite. The cases which are called the zero article they call the absence of the article or the meaningful (значимое) absence of the article.

Besides the two articles and the meaning of the article they also point out certain cases when the article is omitted for stylistic purposes. This point of view is stressed in the book of English grammar by Kobrina and in the textbook by Bloch “A course in theoretical grammar”.

The linguists who consider that there is no zero article in English prove their point of view in the following way: they say that the idea of zero article takes its origin in the notion of zero-morphemes (a book-books; a book is characterized by the zero morpheme). They say that if the article can be understood as a grammatical morpheme then it is possible to speak about the zero article, but the article is not a grammatical morpheme, it is a word and the idea of a zero word is doubtful.

The article can be analyzed from the point of view of the theory of binary privative opposition (which was done by Prof. Bloch in the book “A course in theoretical English grammar”).

He says that in the article as a part of speech we first of all find the opposition of the definite article on the one hand and two other forms of the article that is the zero article and a meaningful absence of it on the other hand. This is the opposition of the first level. In this opposition the definite article is the marked member of the opposition. It has an identifying function. It is characterized by identification. The indefinite article and the meaningful absence of the article form the unmarked member of the opposition. They do not denote the identification of the noun. They are characterized by non-identification.

The unmarked member of the opposition in its turn presents the opposition of two forms. This opposition of the second level contrasts two types of generalization: (1) relative generalization and (2) absolute generalization.

The relative generalization is the strong member of the opposition – it includes the indefinite article and the absence if the article with nouns in the plural. Absolute generalization is the unmarked member of the opposition. It is characterized by the meaning of abstraction and it includes the meaningful absence of the article.

The article

/ \

(unmarked member) (marked member)

The (+) (-) a, an, Ǿ

Identification: Non-identification:

The dog / \

The dogs a (an), Ǿ Ǿ (-)

The milk relative absolute

The information generalization generalization

(classification) (abstraction)

A dog milk

Dogs information

Milk

Information

In case of identification the definite article may be substituted by other different determiners (our dog, their dog, this milk, that information). In case of relative generalization the indefinite article or the meaningful absence of the article may be substituted by an indefinite determiner.

e.g. There is some dog in our garden. There are some dogs in our garden. There is some milk in the glass. We received some new information on the problem.

In case of absolute generalization an abstract noun is taken into general meaning. E.g. Milk is useful (in general).Scientific information is very important (in general).

III. The problem of the number of meanings of the article in English

Linguists are at issue about the problem of the numbers of the meaning of the article. Some linguists consider that each article has one meaning, others say that the article has at least two meanings. Then, for instance, the definite article may denote: 1) the object singled out from other objects of the same class and 2)it may also denote the whole class of objects as different from other classes

e. g. The dog has returned home. The dog is a domestic animal.

Other linguists say that the definite article always has only one and the same meaning and the difference (in meaning) between the sentences given above depends not on the article but on the other elements of the sentence, usually on the type of the predicate.

e. g The dog has come home. (come- simple, expressed by a verb, denoting a concrete physical action. The verb is used in the Present Perfect tense). The dog is a domestic animal (is…animal –compound nominal, the link verb is in the Present Indefinite tense and the predicative “an animal” denotes a zoological /u/ idea).

The same may be said about the indefinite article. E.g. There is a hill behind our house. A hill is the opposite of a valley.

Some linguists say that the indefinite article has two meanings: (1) it serves to denote an object without reference of its individual peculiarities; (2) the indefinite article denotes any object of a given class.

The second point of view is that the meanings of the article are the same in both sentences, and the difference in meanings depends on the type of the predicate and other words of the sentence.