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37
* Different aspects of the discussion about the English article are very well shown by A Ilyish in the cited book (p 49 ff.).
To arrive at a definite decision, we propose to consider the properties of the English articles at four
successive stages, beginning with their semantic evaluation as such, then adding to the obtained data a
situational estimation of their uses, thereafter analysing their categorial features in the light of the oppositional
theory, and finally concluding the investigation by a paradigmatic generalization.
§ 2. A mere semantic observation of the articles in English, i.e. the definite article the and the indefinite
article a/an, at once discloses not two but three meaningful characterizations of the nounal referent achieved by
their correlative functioning, namely: one rendered by the definite article, one rendered by the indefinite article,
and one rendered by the absence (or non-use) of the article. Let us examine them separately.
The definite article expresses the identification or individualization of the referent of the noun: the use of
this article shows that the object denoted is taken in its concrete, individual quality. This meaning can be
brought to explicit exposition by a substitution test. The test consists in replacing the article used in a
construction by a demonstrative word, e.g. a demonstrative determiner, without causing a principal change in
the general implication of the construction. Of course, such an "equivalent" substitution should be understood
in fact as nothing else but analogy: the difference in meaning between a determiner and an article admits of no
argument, and we pointed it out in the above passages. Still, the replacements of words as a special diagnostic
procedure, which is applied with the necessary reservations and according to a planned scheme of research, is
quite permissible. In our case it undoubtedly shows a direct relationship in the meanings of the determiner and
the article, the relationship in which the determiner is semantically the more explicit element of the two. Cf.:
But look at the apple-tree! > But look at this apple-tree! The town lay still in the Indian summer sun. >
That town lay still in the Indian summer sun. The water is horribly hot. > This water is horribly hot. It's the
girls who are to blame. > It's those girls who are to blame.
The justification of the applied substitution, as well as its explanatory character, may be proved by a
counter-test, namely, by the change of the definite article into the indefinite article, or by omitting the article
altogether. The replacement either produces a radical, i.e. "non-equivalent" shift in the meaning of the
construction, or else results in a grammatically unacceptable construction. Cf.: ... > Look at an apple-tree! >
'Look at apple-tree! ... > 'A water is horribly hot. > 'Water is horribly hot.
The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as referring the object
denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words, the indefinite article expresses a
classifying generalization of the nounal referent, or lakes it in a relatively general sense. To prove its relatively
generalizing functional meaning, we may use the diagnostic insertions of specifying-classilying phrases into the
construction in question; we may also employ the transformation of implicit comparative constructions with the
indefinite article into the corresponding explicit comparative constructions. Cf.:
We passed a water-mill. > We passed a certain water-mill. It is a very young country, isn't it? > It is a
very young kind of country, isn't it? What an arrangement! > What sort of arrangement! This child is a
positive nightmare. > This child is positively like a nightmare.
The procedure of a classifying contrast employed in practical textbooks exposes the generalizing nature of
the indefinite article most clearly in many cases of its use. E.g.:
A door opened in the wall. > A door (not a window) opened in the wall. We saw a flower under the bush.
> We saw a flower (not a strawberry) under the bush.
As for the various uses of nouns without an article, from the semantic point of view they all should be
divided into two types. In the first place, there are uses where the articles are deliberately omitted out of
stylistical considerations. We see such uses, for instance, in telegraphic speech, in titles and headlines, in
various notices. E.g.:
Telegram received room reserved for week-end. (The text of a telegram.) Conference adjourned until further
notice. (The text of an announcement.) Big red bus rushes food to strikers. (The title of a newspaper article.)
The purposeful elliptical omission of the article in cases like that is quite obvious, and the omitted articles
may easily be restored in the constructions in the simplest "back-directed" refilling procedures. Cf.:
... > The telegram is received, a room is reserved for the weekend. ... > The conference is adjourned until
further notice. ... > A big red bus rushes food to the strikers.
Alongside free elliptical constructions, there are cases of the semantically unspecified non-use of the article