Descriptive attributes and restricting/limiting/particularizing attributes

A descriptive attribute is used to describe an object or to give some additional information about it. It refers the object to a class of objects with the same quality or property: I got a long letter which I considered odd. (classifying function)

A restricting attribute is used to single out an object from all the objects of the class. This object implies the idea of “тот, который”, “именно тот, этот”: The letters that I have received lately are all here.

All semantic groups of nouns take the definite article if they are modified by the restricting (limiting, particularizing) attribute:

• common nouns, countable: I met him in the principal street of the village. The storm we had yesterday was awful. The years we knew each other were the happiest in all my life.

• common nouns uncountable: He gulped down the water which his wife had brought him from the kitchen. The meat White Fang had stolen was very good. He was the courage and force of his father, the spirit and opportunity of his brothers, the hope of his children, the dignity and significance of the Cowper wood name. (Dreiser)

• collective nouns: The new furniture we have bought recently is very trendy and stylish. The people present were all very well dressed.

• Proper names: She was not the Mary of our youth. It was not the France of his youth.

As for the descriptive attribute, the nouns modified by it are used either with the indefinite article or zero article. That depends on the grammatical form of the noun and its semantic peculiarities: It is an exciting novel which is very suitable for staging. He was a man I would be glad to spend half my time in hell with. I hate stale bread. She put down the mirror with a feeling of hopelessness. I prefer cool weather to heat.

Special difficulties in the use of articles

1. with names of seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring.

Summer is my favourite season. We stayed with them until spring. It was a rainy autumn.

When I met him it was late autumn. Early spring is not the most beautiful part of the season. Last year we had a late winter though they had promised an early winter. It was the autumn of 1942, and most men in London were in military uniforms. He won’t last through the summer.

2. with names of times of the day and night: day, night, evening, morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, twilight, midnight, daytime, sunrise, sunset.

Dusk fell without my noticing it. The sun set behind the hills and night came. It was a spring night, a warm night. By late afternoon the guests began to arrive. The rain had stopped and the night was starry. The morning of his departure was raw.

Note: after the prepositions at, after, by, till, until, towards, past no article s used: Towards evening they went along to the restaurant. All her life she got up at dawn.

After the prepositions in, during, through the definite article is used: It snowed all through the night. Somebody came during the night.

3. with names of meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, tea, high tea.

He had lunch at his club. Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper. Do you remember the breakfast in the park?

4. with names of diseases: He was certain it was not scarlet fever. I’m subject to flu.

5. With the noun “sea”: We saw a blue sparkling sea dotted with white sails. The sea was calm within the reef. He went to sea when he was a boy of thirteen. They found no men in the village, they all were at sea.

6. with the nouns “school”, “college”, “university”, “hospital”, “church”, “prison”: He is planning to go to university after he finishes school. The school is right behind the corner. I went to the hospital to visit my sick friend. He has been in hospital for a weak already. He goes to church regularly, he is very religious. The tourists stopped before a very beautiful church. He is in prison for murder.

7. with the nouns “bed”, “table”: They don’t need much: a bed and a table. All the family were sitting at table when the police entered the house. I go to bed very late.

8. with nouns denoting means of transport: to go by train, plane, boat, bus, bicycle. But: We went there in his car. I met him on the train.

9. with numerals (ordinal and cardinal) : He was the first to enter the room. The boy took a third helping of the apple pie. Have you read chapter 5? All the five brothers were very talented people.

10. before some adjectives that have a limiting force because of their lexical meaning. The most common of them are: same, very, main, principal, left, right, central, following, present, former, latter.

11. the word-form most has some peculiarities: the choice of the article depends on the part of speech the word belongs to:

• the auxiliary word before the superlative degree-form of many-syllabled adjectives (the most beautiful)

• the adverb = very (This is a most difficult profession)

• the adjective, a quantifier in the meaning “большинство, в большом количестве”: In most cases you are right. Most people dislike him. We play tennis most weekends.

• The noun in the meaning “большинство, большая часть: Most of his friends are students. I have read most of these books/

Exercise. Insert articles where necessary. Define the part of speech of most.

1. … most children in this school are members of the school library. … most diligent pupils help the librarian in her work. They choose … most interesting books in the library and recommend them to their friends. 2. I want to read “A Farewell to Arms” by E.Hemingway in the original. They say it is … most interesting book. 3. The encyclopedia is … most useful book. … most people consult it on occasion. 4. The rose is … most beautiful flower. 5. This is … most beautiful picture in the book. … most pictures in the book are indistinct. 6. … most important books of reference are on this shelf. 7. This is … most popular play. 8. He is ...most popular playwright in this country. 9. … most novels by Russian writers are about our motherland. 10. For over a hundred years “Jane Eyre” has been amongst … most widely-read of English novels.