not treated as part of the shared environment; the use of the indefinite article, i.e. the zero article, suggests that the author speaks of some other two windows, not the windows of the shared environment. In other words, the zero article signals to the reader that two windows is new information.determination of the noun, the noun can function as the Theme and the Rheme. The Theme is what we are talking about, and the Rheme is what we are saying about the Theme. Naturally, an utterance containing only the Rheme will not be undersood, the same with utterences containing the Theme only.can consider following examples: ship (Theme) was glistening in the sun (Rheme) .are generally selected from Given while Rhemes from both New and Given entities. (Theme) wrote a novel (Rheme). vs. John (Theme) wrote the novel (Rheme) .Theme and the Rheme may be signalled by the article: the Theme by the definite article and the Rheme by both indefinite and definite.: Strange dog came to the porch. The dog seemed very friendly.reference of articlesis generic when a noun phrase refers to the whole class, rather than just one or more instances of the class. In the English language all three articles (the, a/an, zero article) can be used for generic reference. According to this we it is possible to distinguish such types of generic reference: Generic: the + Singular Nountiger is in danger of becoming extinct.Generic: 0 + Plural Noun [0=Zero, the number] are in danger of becoming extinct.Generic:a + Singular Nountiger is in danger of becoming extinct.are constructions, which means that the phrase itself, and its usage, have special grammar and special meanings. It s not that the articles the or a have special meaning, really - they hardly have any meaning; rather, their use in these generic constructions marks them as special.to use and meaning, while there are many, many special cases and idioms, one can roughly equate the three generic noun phrase constructions with three different functions. Each refers to some species (of plant, animal, thing, person, cathedral, or whatever; not just biological species), but there are several ways of doing this: Definite Generic refers to the Prototype of a species, roughly the image we associate with tiger. The tiger, as a prototype, has all the properties of anything we would call a tiger, except that it doesn t exist in an individual physical sense, like all real tigers do. This is a very abstract concept, and its use signals that the speaker is theorizing.tiger is big means the speaker believes that bigness raquo ;, in some comparative context, is a characteristic property of tigers, that we should expect this to be true of any tiger.Plural Generic refers to the Norm of a species over its individuals, as perceived, of course, by the speaker, who is unlikely to have conducted tiger surveys, so the statistics here are very vague and impressional.are big means the speaker believes that, on the average, any tiger is likely to be big raquo ;. This doesn t mean all tigers are big, though that s close. This is potentially a less abstract concept, since its use implies a generalization based on experience of several individuals.Indefinite Generic refers to the Definition of a species, that is, those properties that are absolutely necessary for anything to be a member. It doesn t work as the subject of any predicate that isn t definitional. But with a definitional property, it's certainly true for any member., The sentence A tiger is in danger of becoming extinct.
one is saying that being in danger of becoming extinct is one of the defining characteristics of tigerhood, which isn t true, after all. Tigers would still be tigers if they weren t endangered.
3. Indefinite meaning expressed by a/an
indefinite article expresses classification, or relative, classifying generalization of the referent, which means that this article refers the object denoted to a certain class.use of a/anindefinite article is often used while introducing a new specific entity into the discourse.example: 12- year old boy got mad on his parents Friday night because they refused to let him go fishing on the Colorado River with relatives. So, while his parents were distracted during a barbecue with eight adult friends, he slipped away from his sister and three brothers, snatched the keys to a Volkswagen Beetle and drove off in one of his parent s four cars, prompting fears that he had been kidnapped lt; ... .. gt; El Cajon police sent teletype descriptions of the curly haired, 90-pound sixth-grader to law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California and the Arizona border area. The boy was found unharmed - but scared and sleepy - at about noon yesterday by San Diego Country sheriff s deputies. (news) indefinite article a (12- year old boy) introduces a pecific, but unnamed and unknown boy; afterwards the...
