ext in which in OE there had been no article at all.conclusion, the article a (n) has become a part of the system having the same position as the article the , is confirmed by the fact such sentences as he was easy man have become impossible by Chaucer »s time [1, c.174].
1.3 Article determination
Article is a determining unit of a specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative collocation. Its special character is clearly seen against the background of determining words of half-notional semantics [50, c. 179]. Whereas the function of the determiners such as this, any, some is to explicitly interpret the referent of the noun in relation to other objects or phenomena of a like kind, the semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, as it were , altogether unostentatiously, to define it in the most general way, without any explicitly expressed contrasts.becomes obvious when we take the simplest examples ready at hand. Cf.: Will you give me this pen, Willy? (Ie the pen that I am pointing out, not one of your choice.) - Will you give me the pen, please? (Ie simply the pen from the desk, you understand which). Any blade will do, I only want it for scratching out the wrong word from the type-script. (Ie any blade of the stock, however blunt it-may be.) - Have you got something sharp? I need a penknife of « a blade. (Ie simply a blade, if not a knife, without additional implications.) Some woman called in your absence, she didn »t give her name (ie a woman strange to me).- A woman called while you were out, she left a message (ie simply a woman, without a further connotation.) Peculiarity of the article, as different from the determiners in question, is that, in the absence of a determiner, the use of the article with the noun is quite obligatory, in so far as the cases of non-use of the article are subject to no less definite rules than the use of it.into consideration these peculiar features of the article, the linguist is called upon to make a sound statement about its segmental status in the system of morphology. Namely, his task is to decide whether the article is a purely auxiliary element of a special grammatical form of the noun which functions as a component of a definite morphological category, or it is a separate word, ie a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.problem is a vexed one; it has inspired an intensive research activity in the field, as well as an animated discussion with various pros and cons affirmed, refuted and re-affirmed. In the course of these investigations, however, many positive facts about articles have been established, which at present enables an observer, proceeding from the systemic principle in its paradigmatic interpretation, to expose the status of the article with an attempt at demonstrative conviction.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.mere semantic observation of the articles in English, ie the definite article the and the indefinite article a / an, at once disclose...
