The status of the Article in language str-re. The number of Articles. The meanings and functions

The status

The ground is that the Article isn't inflected (e/g in German Article is a word).Some Grammarians speak of the morphemic character of the Eng Article. By them, the Article is a structural element building morphemes. The article can change its position in reference to a Noun (e/g a dog; a black dog; a lovely black dog) The A can be substituted by other Ws (the dog = this/ my dog) => such features aren't characteristic of the morphemes. Most linguists say that Article is a separate word.

Several points of view: Place Article among other Ps of speech:

1. Classical Eng Grammar - Article = adj or more often a pronoun. It reminds of a pronoun b/c "the" has originated from the Old Eng. Pronoun "se"

2. The grammarian Kruisinga include indef A - indefinite pronoun, definite - demonstrative pronoun

3. Jesperson & Sweet Article = pronoun

4. Curme A = pronominal attribute

5. Structural Gr Article = function W (determiners)

6. Soviet Linguists A= functional P of Sp

The number of Articles

The older Grammatical Tradition spoke about 2 As. BUT: e.g Language is a means of communication, we use the term ZERO ARTICLE. The idea of a zero article originates from the notion "zero morpheme".

Modem Eng = 3 Articles ( Бархударов, Штеллинг)

The notion of a zero morpheme has been applied to the Article on the grounds that, when there's no Ab4 a noun- reminds of the absence of inflexion in such forms as cat-cats. This point of view is opposed by some Grammarians. They argue that we can speak about a zero Art if we treat the A as a morpheme. Meaningful absence of the Article - significant meaningful absence of the article. But the omition of the A but this term describes a different phenomenon typical of newspapers, acts, etc. (winner gets prize)

Functions of the Article

Whether the Article has meanings or functions?

Barhudarov => The M of the A is highly abstract, it's more proper to speak about functions. Different spheres of Grammar - different functions

• Morphologically - to serve as the formal indicator of a Noun. Ильиш: to indicate substantivity. The presence of the A signals that what follows is a noun or what has acquired some nominal characteristics. (e/g black - a black ( 1 человек), the black (раса)

• From the syntactic point of view - a) to separate the noun phrase from other members of the sentence. What stands btw the A and the noun is one and the same member of the sentence( e/g I bought a think English book)

b) to connect different Sentences

e/g We saw a man. The man was approaching us.

• Semantic role consists in relating a given utterance to a given speech situation. (=actualization). Ws denote many things, they have different meanings but when speaking, people choose one aspect of the thing.

* Barmina, Verkhovskaya "The Eng Article": A has category of definiiteness / indefmiteness A = the determiner of the N or a noun-phrase. Determiners=formal means of expressing this category. This category presents the object as known/unknown, general/individual, identifiable/ non-identifiable. In Eng article is the main means of expressing this category, besides

possessive, demonstrative, indefinite pronouns, Ws denoting place,. numerals and some others.

5. The art (A), № of A, def & indef A.

The noun is usually preceded by the A.

Problems:

~the number of As; ~the status of the A; ~meanings/functions

The status of the A in modern Eng. 2 aspect of the question:

1) Is the A a morpheme or is it a separate word?

If we compare Eng to German→in German the A is a word, it has different forms, each form will find reflection of the categories of gender, number and case. Every form of the A in German contains the root morpheme and the inflexion morpheme.

Some grammarians mentioned morphemic character of the Eng A. They term the Eng A a structural element of the noun. They say that the indefinite A with the noun “cat” signals singularity (as the morpheme “s”[cats] signals pluraliry). The A can change its position in reference to the noun (a cat, a blafck cat, a lovely black cat). A-s can be substituted by other words (the cat→this cat, my cat). Such features are not characteristic of morphemes → most Eng grammarians treat the A as a separate word.

2) If the A is a separate word, is it a separate p.of sp. or is it not such? If not, the A is to be described among other p-s of sp.

Class-cal Eng grammars treat the A is an Adj; or more often as a pronoun. The idea that the A is sort of a pronoun originates from the fact that in Old Eng, the As were derived from pronouns. This is true only of “the” (se→the).

Круизинга includes “a” among the indefinite pronouns and “the” – among the demonstrative pronouns.

Jesperson and Sweet also treat As as pronouns.

Kerm → a pronominal attribute.

Representatives of structural grammar (Freeze) treated the A among the structural words called the determiners.

Russian linguists treated the A as a functional p.of sp. because different A-s have specific meanings and functions.

The number of Eng A-s

The older grammatical tradition spoke of 2 A-s(the, a). But practical use of language showa that in speech nouns can be used in 3 different ways:

~(1)Language is a means of communication.

~(2)Everone ahould learn a foreign language.

~(3)She speaks English. Do you know the langage?

In the 3 cases the word “language” has different meanings:

(1) the zero A.

This term was introduced by Смирницкий and Штелинг.

→the, a, 0.

The idea of the zero article originates from the notion of the zero morpheme. Sometimes the absence of the grammatical marker is meaningful, and it doesn’t necessarily happen in the analytical language (руки, рук – no case marker). We can speak about zero A-s if we accept the point of view that an A is a morpheme. Ильишь argues that we can’t stick to this term for it’s essentially incorrect. We can prove it easily that an A is a word, and no word can be a zero. He proposes to interprete the phenomenon of the absence of the A as meaningful, and he introduces another terminological interpretation – significant meaningful absence of the article. He also notes that such cases are very different from the cases when the A is omitted. Omition of the A is a stylistic phenomenon found in newspapers, telegrams, advertisments, printing.