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and what kind of pet animal the boy has.
The notion of definiteness/indefiniteness determines the important role of the article in the process of
communication. The definite article usually presents the notion as something already known, whereas the
indefinite article introduces a new item of information. The presentation of objects as definite or indefinite, as
already known or as new, depends on the speaker or the writer, who by using articles establishes mutual
understanding between the speaker and the listener, the writer and the reader.
Since the article is a noun determiner and the noun is the headword in a noun phrase, the syntactical role of
the article consists in marking off a noun or a noun phrase as part of the sentence.
The morphological value of the article lies in indicating the substantivization of other parts of speech,
mainly adjectives or participles (see examples 1 and 2 below), also pronouns (examples 3 and 4), adverbs
(example 5), numerals (example 6):
1. More nurses were required to tend the sick and the wounded.
2. Her hair was a bright brown.
3. It wasn’t a he.
4. He is such a nothing.
5 . There is a Beyond.
6. She was only just fifty and looked a handsome thirty-five.
Both articles have originated from notional parts of speech, whose influence may be traced in their meaning
and use.
The definite article developed from a demonstrative pronoun, which accounts for its meaning of
definiteness. The demonstrative force remains in many phrases, such as at the time, of the kind, in its use before
restrictive attributes, and in some situational uses.
The indefinite article developed from the cardinal numeral one, The numerical meaning is
evident in such phrases and sentences as at a time, in a moment, wait a minute, not a sound was heard.
The pronunciation of the articles and the spelling of the indefinite article depend upon the initial sound of the
following word. The indefinite article is spelled as a before consonant and as an before vowel sounds. When
stressed it is pronounced respectively as [e?] or [?n]. However, since the articles are usually unstressed, the
pronunciation of the indefinite article is generally reduced to the neutral vowel [?] before consonants, and to
[?n] before vowel sounds, which depends entirely on the pronunciation and not the spelling of the following
word, as can be seen in the table below.
The definite article is pronounced as [?i:] when stressed. When unstressed, it is pronounced as [?
?
] before
consonants and [?
?
] before vowels:
[?
?
]
[?
?
]
the dog
the house
the European
the unit
the manuscript
the apple
the hour
the x-ray
the uncle
the MP
Since the article is the opening element of a noun phrase, it is placed before the noun it refers to or before all