Lecture 5: The Article as a Noun Determiner. Outline

1. The Problem of the article in contemporary grammar

2. The functions of the article

1. The Problem of the article in contemporary grammar.

As we know from practical grammar, the English noun is used with the definite or indefinite article or it can be used without any article. The article is a morphological sign of the noun. The theoretical problem connected with the article can be reduced to the following:

1. the status of the article in the hierarchical language structure;

2. the number of articles;

3. the meaning and functions of the article.

The first problem has two principal theoretical interpretations. Some scholars treat the word-group “an article + a noun” as a special analytical form of the noun in which the article is treated as a special auxiliary element or a functional word. To prove their opinion, these scholars put forward the following arguments:

1. the article is a morphological sign of the noun;

2. the article has no lexical meaning of its own;

3. in some languages which have articles, the article may have the form of a grammatical inflexion, which is not separated from the stem of the noun.

For ex, in Bulgarian: селото, линията.

Other scholars treat the article as a special functional part of speech and the word combination “an article + a noun”, according to this point of view, is not an analytical form of the noun but a word group.

These authors say that the article is really a sign of a noun but it does not make up an analytical form of the noun. In analytical forms the auxiliary component should express the basic morphological categories, while the article does not express the basic morphological category of the noun, that is the category of number.

This category is expressed by the noun itself with the help of its own formal means. The article is treated by these authors as a determiner and so there are syntactic relations of attributive nature between the article and the noun it determines. But we know that there can be no syntactic relations between the components of n analytical form.

The article can be replaced by some other part of speech in the same determining function without changing the meaning of the whole word-group, what is impossible for analytical forms.

A book = some books

A book = this (that) book.

But has given is not equal to have given and not equal to is given.

Finally if we should treat “the book” as an analytical form of the noun, then why not treat likewise “this book” as an analytical form. Nobody has ever done it so far.

Besides, the noun can change its form expressing the category of number without affecting the definite article (the book – the books).

So it seems more convincing to share the 2^nd approach and treat the article asa functional part of speech which can make a word-group with the noun determining the meaning of the latter.

When speaking of the number of articles in English, some scholars speak of 2 articles – the definite and indefinite, while others speak of 3 articles (+ zero article).

As we can see, nobody denies the existence of the definite and indefinite articles, but the difference in opinions appears when treating nouns not modified by any article.

Some scholars speak of the omission of the article in such cases. But omission presupposes elliptical forms. In cases of absence of the article with the noun no omission takes place and we do not deal with ellipsis, because in elliptical forms the omitted element can be easily restored without affecting the meaning of the word-group, but in the cases under analysis no article can be restored or if we try to restore the indefinite or definite article, we’ll change the meaning of the word-group.

e.g. Will you join us? – Oh, yes, we’d be only glad to.

Here “to” represents the word-group “to join you”, which is omitted, but the meaning of “we’d be only glad to” is equal to that of “we’d be only glad to join you”.

On the other hand, in the sentence: “I like to read books” no article can be restored with the noun “books”, because the indefinite article can’t be used as the noun is used in the plural. And if we try to restore the definite article which can be used here we shall change the meaning of the sentence because we shall speak of some definite books and not books at large.

However, we should say that the article can be omitted though in some special stylistically or grammatically marked cases (in telegrams, newspaper headings, homogeneous coordinative groups).e.g. At the lesson both _ teacher and _ pupil should try to understand each other.

Thus, we can say that we can hardly speak of any omission of the article. We should sooner speak of the meaningful absence of the article in such cases.

Of late the idea of the meaningful absence of the article has developed into the notion of the zero article which is treated as the third article. This notion is closely connected with the notion of the zero morpheme. However, we have already agreed that the morpheme is a segmental part of the word which can’t be zero. Moreover, we treat the article as a word and a word can’t be zero. The word is a self-dependent language unit which can be used or not used in the sentence or phrase but it can’t be zero.

Hence, we reject the notion of the zero article. So we shall recognize the definite article, the indefinite article and the cases of meaningful or conventional absence of the article.

2. The functions of the article.

As for the meaning, the article has no lexical meaning of its own, but it can express a number of grammatical or semantic meanings. The articles are means of the category of determination which expresses definiteness as opposed to indefiniteness.

This category is not morphological. It is a semantico-syntactic category, because it deals with the meaning of a word-group “the article + a noun”, which influences the meaning of the utterance when actualizing the communicative aim of the speaker.

This category can be represented by 2 hierarchically organized oppositions. The higher opposition contrasts the definite article against the indefinite article and the cases of absence of the article with the nouns. On the plane of content it is marked by the seme “identification”. The unmarked member of the opposition is devoid of this seme.

The lower opposition functions within the unmarked member of the higher opposition and contrasts the indefinite article and the meaningful absence of the article with countable nouns in the plural against the cases of the absolute absence of articles with nouns. The semantic meaning and function of the article is to determine the mraning of the noun in actual for the speaker aspect.

e.g. They met on _Friday.

They met on a Friday.

They met on the Friday.

Determining the noun in actual for the speaker aspect, the articles can render the following meanings:

1) The indefinite article (it originates from the Old English numeral “one” and it influences its meanings):

a) classification. It means that the object is referred to a class of similar objects as one of the class: e.g. She is a talented young scientist.

b) quantification. It means that the speaker wants to stress that only one object is meant: e.g. She didn’t say a word. He will return in a week.

c) generalization. The speaker means any object of a class or group of similar objects: e.g. A grey suit will do for the occasion.

d) specification. We have it with a lexico-semantic variant of a noun which denotes a material or an abstract notion which is usually used without any article. It happens when the noun gets some additional explicit or implicit description and is presented in one of its possible forms of existence. It means that the speaker begins treating this noun as a countable one and the indefinite article in such cases renders the meaning close to that of classification or generalization.

The same happens when we deal with proper names. They become generalized losing their unique nature. When proper nouns are used to name objects belonging to or created by a person, the proper noun is treated by a common countable noun.

e.g. This book aroused an unusual interest with us.

He felt a passionate love of her.

Asilk will do for your blouse.

She must be playing a Shopen.

I would like to buy a Repin.

The child asked for an ice-cream.

2) The definite article originates from the OE demonstrative pronoun and it influences its meanings which are:

a) identification. It means that the speaker points to a definite object picking it out from the class or group of similar objects.

e.g. The book is rather interesting.

I don’t like the ice-cream.

b) generic class identification. It means that the speaker names a class of objects without a particular reference to any of its constituents (exceptions “man” and “woman”).

e.g. The noun denotes substance.

Thecar is a domestic animal.

The dog is a true friend of man.

3) The meaningful absence of the article with the nounimplies the following meanings:

a) classification with countable nouns in the Plural.

e.g. My parents are __ teachers.

b) generalization with countable nouns in the meaning of “any”.

e.g. I am fond of __ cats.

c) generic identification with names of materials, abstract notions and the nouns “man” and “woman”.

e.g. This dress is made of __ silk.

__ Love and __ devotion helped her to save their marriage.

Commenting on the meaning and functions of the article as a noun determiner we should say that its usage is significative in most cases and rather subjective because the article can change the meaning of the noun or the utterance the way the speaker wants it.

e.g. Would you like a / the / __ tea?

However we can’t help admitting that in some cases the usage of the article or the absence of it doesn’t imply any special meaning, that is the usage of the article is purely conventional.

e.g. in the original, at a glance, in a hurry, at dawn, in the morning, in detail.

Compare: To go to bed – лечь спать;

to go to the bed – подойти к кровати.

The usage of the article with geographical names is mostly conventional: Trafalgar square, the British Isles (группа островов), the United Kingdom (обозначение государства), The Baikal, Lake Baikal, Elbrus but the Caucasus.

Thus, the article, marking the left boundary of an attributive noun-phrase is a special functional part of speech, a noun determiner which conveys some specific, situationally significant meaning, ascribed by the speaker to the noun in an actual utterance.

The article makes up the nucleus of the functional semantic field of the category of determination.