The most difficult point of English grammar is the article because it is completely strange to Russian speaking pupils. The use of the articles and other determines comes first in the list of the most frequent errors. The chief difficulty in learning new language is that of changing from a grammatical mechanism of the native language to that of the new language. Indeed every language has its own way fitting words together to form sentence. In English word order is more important than in Russian, the inversion of subject and a finite verb in “Are you…? indicates the question form. In speaking English, Russian pupils often violate the word order which results in bad mistakes in expressing their thoughts.
Grammarians are not always agreed as to the grammatical status of the article in Modern English. In structural grammars the article is often dispensed with as a separate part of speech and absorbed into the adjective class. The name "determiners" is then given to closed system items, which, functioning as adjuncts, show their head-words to be nouns. The most central type of "determiner" is that to which we traditionally give the name article.
Some grammarians consider the article to be a kind of morpheme. The absence of the article is accordingly referred to as "zero-morpheme" applied in inflected languages to certain forms having no grammatical endings and thus differing from such forms of the same word as have their own endings. This statement is open to question and not in every sense valid. It seems more in accordance with the nature of the language to identify the English article as a typical morphological category, a special function-word used as an overt marker of the noun and contributing to its meaning.17 The practice prevalent in English grammars is to describe the multifarious use of the article with different classes of nouns. Reference is generally made to its particularising, generalising, defining, descriptive and other functions as well as traditional idiomatic use. Important treatments of the subject, with absence of article also included as a term in the article system, will be found in the grammar books and work-papers given in our reference list. Students of English will always find it helpful to consult such sources for the study of the articles in English as Oxford English Dictionary and Christophersen's monograph The Articles: a Study of Their Theory and Use.
The definite and the indefinite article as mutually exclusive stand in obvious contrast. Their use is built around contrasting definiteness and indefiniteness, generalisation and concretisation. With absence of article functioning as a term in the article system (sometimes referred to as the zero-form) distinction must also be made between such contrastive uses based on the category of number as: Singular (the indefinite article) :: Plural (absence of article) Countable (the indefinite article) :: Uncountable (absence of article)
With regard to the criteria employed in our analysis we have certain observations which are pertinent to a summary statement. In the first place, it is important to be clear about the grammatical meaning of each article, finding out whether it has one or several meanings, each of them signalled by the context. We cannot describe, for instance, the meanings of one article only in terms of how it contrasts with the other, but must take account of contextual indications; we have to look at contrasting patterns rather than contrasting forms. And here the question naturally arises about the invariable meaning of the article, by which we mean, taking the view put forward by A. Isachenko 1, a stable element in its grammatical meaning that is always preserved irrespective of the context in which it occurs.
It seems perfectly reasonable to say, for instance, that the invariable grammatical meaning of the indefinite article is that of generalisation. As a matter of fact, this element of meaning, i. e. referring an object to a whole class of similar ones without its individual peculiarities, is preserved in all the variety of its uses. Examples are:
a) A stitch in time saves nine. b) A little bird perched on the tree. c) A bird may be known by its song. d) Birds of a feather flock together. e) They were talking to a boy I know well. f) I consider this picture a masterpiece of art.
As can be seen from the above examples, the invariable element of indefiniteness is preserved in all the patterns. The difference in meaning will be sought in the particular type of predication in which the article appears.
(Observe the difference in meaning if we replace a by the in the above sentences; consider that it is not always the same difference). The indefinite article in its full range stands in contrast to the definite article. The invariable meaning of the latter is that of restriction and concretisation. The definite article the is an unstressed variant of the demonstrative that. From the point of view of meaning it functions as a less forceful equivalent of this as well as that.
The distinctive feature of the definite article in such parallel uses is that the element of pointing is normally weaker with the than with the demonstrative pronoun. There is similar direction of the attention; but there is more dependence on obviousness and less on selection by means of pointing of one kind or another. Viewed from this angle, the definite article is a great deal like he and it. Characteristically the indicates that identification seems complete on the basis of conspicuousness in the particular situation or context.
"How did you do it, this rotten thing?" he asked. "Let me see the plates. Yes. Yes. That's it. You look healthy as a goat. Who's the pretty girl?" (Hemingway)
