22. Noun determiners. The article.The problem of the zero article.

An article is a word that is put next to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles can have various functions:

a definite article (English the) is used before singular and plural nouns that refer to a particular member of a group. (The cat on the mat is black.)

an indefinite article (English a, an) is used before singular nouns that refer to any member of a group. (A cat is a mammal).

a partitive article indicates an indefinite quantity of a mass noun; there is no partitive article in English, though the words some or any often have that function

a zero article is the absence of an article (e.g. English indefinite plural), used in some languages in contrast with the presence of one. Linguists hypothesize the absence as a zero article based on the X-bar theory

The category of article determination shows, or, determines the relations of the referent of the noun to the other referents of the same class. The article is a determiner, a unit which determines a noun, but unlike other determiners (the lexical means of determination: this, that, some, any, very, certain, kind of, etc.), it is so general, that it has become a grammatical means of determination in modern English. When no lexical determiner is used, a noun is obligatorily modified either by a definite article ‘the’, or an indefinite article ‘a/an’, or by a meaningful absence of such, otherwise defined as a “zero article”.

The idea of a “zero article” has been challenged by different scholars on the grounds that only morphemes can be distinguished as “zero marks” in oppositional correlations of words. Still, the following semantic and paradigmatic presentation of the category of article determination makes it possible to distinguish three, rather than just two, “article + noun” forms.

The definite article expresses the identification or individualization of the referent of the noun. The object that the noun denotes is taken as concrete and individual, or definite. The identificational meaning of the definite article can be explicitly demonstrated in a substitution test, when ‘the’ is substituted by the so-called demonstrative lexical determiners, e.g.: the man à this man, the very man (I saw yesterday), etc.

The indefinite article expresses classification, or relative, classifying generalization of the referent, which means that this article refers the object denoted to a certain class. The classifying meaning of the indefinite article can be explicitly demonstrated by substitution with classifying words and phrases, e.g.: a man à some man, a certain man, some kind of a man, etc.

The semantic difference between the identifying definite article and the classifying indefinite article can be demonstrated by a contrast test, e.g.: the man – this very man, not other men (contrasted with other objects of the same class); a man – a certain man, not a woman (contrasted with other classes of objects).

The zero article, or, the meaningful non-use of the article, expresses absolute generalization, abstraction of the referent denoted by the noun. It renders the idea of the highest degree of generalization and abstraction. This meaning can be demonstrated by the insertion test, where the generalizing expressions “in general, in the abstract, in the broadest sense” are inserted into the construction to explicitly show the abstraction, e.g.: Home should be a safe and comfortable place. – Home (in the abstract, in general) should be a safe and comfortable place.

One should bear in mind that with uncountable nouns the absence of the article expresses not only abstract generalization, but also classifying generalization, because the uncountable nouns cannot be used with the indefinite article, which is still semantically connected with its etymological base, the numeral “one”. So, the difference between the classifying absence of the article and the abstract generalized absence of the article with an uncountable noun can be stated only on the basis of either the substitution or the insertion tests offered above. E.g.: Knowledge (in general) is power (absolute generalization). – He demonstrated (some, some kind of) knowledge in the field (relative generalization, classification). The same applies to countable nouns in the plural, because the indefinite article, unlike the definite article, is used only in the singular (due to the same etymological reasons). Cf.: I like flowers (in general) (abstract, absolute generalization). – There are flowers (some, several) on the table (classifying, relative generalization).

The problem of article determination has given rise to much controversy; there is much dispute about the status of the article itself and the status of its combination with the noun. The question is: is the article an independent word like other determiners, does it form a word-combination with the noun which it determines, or is it a purely grammatical, dependable, morpheme-like auxiliary word used to build an analytical form of the noun? There are pros and cons to sustain each of these two approaches, but it seems more plausible to interpret the article in terms of the general linguistic field approach as a lingual unit of intermediary status between the word and the morpheme, as a special type of grammatical auxiliary, and its combination with the noun as an intermediary phenomenon between the word and the word-combination.