41. The article: number and meaning of articles.
Article is a determining unit of a specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative collocation.
A(n)/the form a separate group or class characterized by:
1.the lexico-grammatical meaning of definiteness/indefiniteness;
The lexical meaning of a(n) in ME is a very weak reminder of its original meaning (one), though it is not used with “plural” nouns. The lexical meaning of the in ME is a pale shadow of its original demonstrative meaning à the meaning of articles abstracts form the meaning of oneness in a(n) and demonstrative meaning in the.
The names of the articles (definite/indefinite) denote the nearest approach to this lexico-grammatical meaning (definiteness/indefiniteness).
-the right-hand combinability with nouns;-the function of noun specifiers.
Status of the article in Modern English.
??? Is the article a word or a morpheme?
The article is usually a separate unit which may be divided from its noun by other words, chiefly adjectives. However, in certain languages the article may also be a morpheme attached to the noun as a kind of suffix (in Bulgarian, Rumanian, Swedish).
If we interpret the article as a morpheme, the idea of a zero article would make no difficulty. If we take the article as a word, the idea of a ‘zero word’ would entail (cause) some difficulty (zero form). The notion ‘zero article’ is only possible if the article is not a word.
2 views:
1.the article is a word and the collocation “article + noun” is a phrase.
2.the article is a form element in the system of the noun. It is a morpheme or an auxiliary word, the phrase “article + noun” is a morphological formation.
Meanings:
The definite article:
-an object is singled out from all objects of the same class
-the whole class of objects, as distinct from other classes, is referred to.
Another view:
The dog has come home./The dog is a domestic animal.
à the meaning of the definite article is the same in both sentences, and their difference proceeds from the peculiarities of the predicatives and the words expressing them.
Number of articles.
??? How many articles are there in English?
There are only 2 material articles, the and a(n).+ “zero” article à there are 3 articles.
The idea of a zero article takes its origin in the notion ‘zero morpheme’.
Absence or omission of the article?
??? How the 3rd variant of the article is to be treated?
Traditional grammar: “omission of the article”, which is inadequate since there is not the slightest reason to believe that the article in such cases was ever omitted.
“Absence of the article” à “meaningful absence of the article” à “zero article” è there are 3 articles.
The category of article determination.
Blokh:The semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, to define it in the most general way, without any explicitly expressed contrasts.
In the absence of a determiner, the use of the article with the noun is quite obligatory, in so far as the cases of non-use of the article are subject to no less definite rules than the use of it.
??? Is article a purely auxiliary element of a special grammatical form of the noun which functions as a component of a definite morphological category, or is it a separate word, i.e. a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.
??? Can “article + noun” be a form of the noun?
If we agree that the group “article + noun” is an analytical form of the verb we shall have to set up a grammatical category in the noun which is expresses by one or the other article or by its absence. That category might be called DETERMINATION. In this case we could also find a “zero article”.If we stick to the view that the group is a peculiar type of phrase, no “zero article” is possible.
