nite), while the room has the feature (+ Definite). In this opposition the definite article is the strong member and the indefinite article is the weak member. The same analysis can be extended to abstract and concrete countable nouns, eg courage: a courage vs. the courage. Consider: He has a courage equaled by few of his contemporaries vs. She would never have the courage to defy him. In contrast to countables, restricted uncountables are used with two indefinite articles: a/an and zero. The role of the indefinite article is to individuate a subamount of the entity which is presented here as an aspect (type, sort) of the entity. Consider also: Jim has a good knowledge of Greek, where a denotes a subamount of knowledge, Jim s knowledge of Greek. A certain difficulty arises when we analyze such sentences as The horse is an animal and I see a horse. Do these nouns also form the opposemes of the category of determination? We think that they do not: the horse is a subclass of the animal class; a horse is also restricted - it denotes an individual member of the horse subclass. Cf.horse is an animal vs. A horse is an animal. Unlike the nouns in the above examples, the nouns here exhibit determination at the same level: both the horse and a horse express a subclass of the animal class.
2. Noun: The Category of Determination
English grammars normally refer articles to determiners, words preceding nouns. They are often defined as: «a problem area in English for students even at advanced level, especially for those whose own language has a very different article system» [11; 272] «Article is a determining unit of specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative collocation» [1; 74]
«The articles of English serve the functions of determining or pointing out the particularized or generalized nature or aspect of the meaning of the nouns or words they modify» [2; 45] term determination, as used here, means the actualization of the functions (semantic, grammatical, informational, and pragmatic) of the noun. [15; 56] determination of the nounnouns, the noun presents a dialectical unity of genus (class) and individual. In the text, it may be actualized as a representative of the class or a subclass as a whole or as an individual member of the class or a subclass.the following sentences:
. The dog is an animal.
. A dog is an animal.
. Any dog ??is an animal.
. Dogs are animals.
. All dogs are animals.
. I see a dog.
. The dog is under the table.sentences illustrate different types of semantic determination (or restriction): in sentences (1-5) the noun dog refers to the subclass as a whole; in sentences (6 and 7) the noun dog refers to an individual member of the subclass. As for the subclass function, the sentences demonstrate different subtypes of determination: in sentence (1) the subclass is presented as an undifferentiated (indiscrete) unit, which reminds us of mass nouns (abstract or material); in sentences (2 and 3) the subclass is represented through a typical individual member; in sentences (4 and 5) the subclass is represented through individual members. As the said sentences describe a generalized situation, the nouns in them do not refer to a specific member or specific members of the subclass; they only denote a specific subclass. Only in sentences (6 and 7) do they refer to a specific (concrete) member. Specificity is of two types: particular and non-particular, or to put it in traditional terms, definite and indefinite. There is only one problem here: how should we treat the article used with the noun dog in the first sentence? Does it function as a particularizer? It does. To understand this we can consider the diagram:
Pic. 1
square in the section The dog subclass stands for an individual representative of the subclass. If we mean any representative of the subclass, we say, a dog; if we mean a particular (unique) representative of the subclass, we say the dog. It will be obvious that any member can be rendered particular. different situation is observed when we deal with the animal class as a whole. Here each big square stands for a subclass: dogs, cats, horses, cows, sheep, whales, dolphins, etc. Each subclass is unique, there is only one such subclass in the animal class. That is, we can not say any dog ??subclass. Cf. any dog. We can only say the dog subclass.
The constr uction the dog in The dog is an animal is then the result of the elision of the noun subclass (Cf. The river Thames the Thames vs. the subclass dog the dog), and the article the is a reminder of the elision. Functionally, subcla...
