7. Situational assessment of the article

Passing to the situational assessment of the article uses, we must point out that the basic principle of their differentiation here is not a direct consideration of their meanings, but disclosing the informational char­acteristics that the article conveys to its noun in concrete contextual con­ditions. Examined from this angle, the definite article serves as an indica­tor of the type of nounal information which is presented as the "facts already known", i.e. as the starting point of the communication. In con­trast to this, the indefinite article or the meaningful absence of the article introduces the central communicative nounal part of the sentence, i.e. the part rendering the immediate informative data to be conveyed from the speaker to the listener. In the situational study of syntax the starting point of the communication is called its "theme", while the central informative part is called its "rheme".

In accord with the said situational functions, the typical syntactic position of the noun modified by the definite article is the "thematic" subject, while the typical syntactic position of the noun modified by the indefinite article or by the meaningful absence of the article is the "rhe-matic" predicative. Cf:

The day (subject) was drawing to a close, the busy noises of the city (subject) were dying down.

How to handle the situation was a big question (predicative).

The sky was pure gold (predicative) above the setting sun.

It should be noted that in many other cases of syntactic use, i.e. non-subjective or non-predicative, the articles reflect the same situa­tional functions. This can be probed by reducing the constructions in question on re-arrangement lines to the logically "canonized" link-type constructions. Cf:

If you would care to verify the incident (object), pray do so. -» If you would care the incident (subject) to be verified, pray have it verified.

I am going to make a rather strange request (object) to you. -> What I am going to make is a rather strange request (predicative) to you.

You are talking nonsense (object), lad. ~> What you are talking, lad, is nonsense (predicative).

Another essential contextual-situational characteristic of the articles is their immediate connection with the two types of attributes to the noun. The first type is a "limiting" attribute, which requires the definite article before the noun; the second type is a "descriptive" attribute, which re­quires the indefinite article or the meaningful absence of the article be­fore the noun. Cf:

The events chronicled in this narrative took place some four years ago. (a limiting attribute)

She was a person of strong will and iron self-control, (a descriptive attribute)

He listened to her story with grave and kindly attention, (a descriptive attribute)

The role of descriptive attributes in the situational aspect of articles is particularly worthy of note in the constructions of syntactic "conver-gencies", i.e. chained attributive-repetitional phrases modifying the same referent from different angles. Cf:

My longing for a house, a fine and beautiful house, such a house I could never hope to have, flowered into life again