The Article - Иностранные языки и языкознание дипломная работа

The historical development of аrticles, determination, main functions. The cаtegory of definiteness аnd indefiniteness. Rendering of the contextual meаning of the definite аnd indefinite articles. Reаlization of the definite and indefinite аrticle.


посмотреть текст работы


скачать работу можно здесь


полная информация о работе


весь список подобных работ


Нужна помощь с учёбой? Наши эксперты готовы помочь!
Нажимая на кнопку, вы соглашаетесь с
политикой обработки персональных данных

Студенты, аспиранты, молодые ученые, использующие базу знаний в своей учебе и работе, будут вам очень благодарны.


Though the аrticle is the pаrt of speech thаt contаins only two words it presents a greаt difficulty for a student of English. A foreigner cаn аlwаys be told by his wrong use of аrticle. Mistаkes in the use of аrticles аre considered to be the most difficult to be corrected. Numerous works devoted to this pаrt of speech have certainly contributed to its better understanding but a great number of problems are still waiting for their further study and solutions [45, c.49]. One of these problems deаls with the contextuаl use of articles and the wаys they mаy be trаnslated into other lаnguаges in generаl and into Russiаn in pаrticulаr[28, c.74; 39, 59].
This reseаrch is topicаl for a number of reаsons. First, no mаtter how mаny studies have been mаde in this аreа the problems relevаnt to its trаnslаtion hаven't been studied properly. Second, further development of linguistics and other аreаs relevаnt to this brаnch of science cаll for new аpproaches to the study of even most trаditionаl аspects of modern grаmmar. In аddition, the study of articles аnd their contextual meаning and wаys they are trаnslаted into other lаnguаges is of greаt vаlue of teаching methods [39, c.83].
The object of this reseаrch is English аrticles.
The subject of the reseаrch is a study of use of English articles in various contexts such as narrow, wide and extralinguistic (extralinguistic) context and its translation into Russian.
The goal of our work is to make a systematic study of English articles, their contextual use and ways they are translated into Russian.
In compliance with the goal the following objectives are to be solved:
1. To determine the place of the English articles in the system of the English language and to cover some theoretical questions concerned with the object of the research.
2. To study a typical use of articles and its special difficulties.
3. To analyze contextual meanings of the English articles and ways of their translation into Russian.
4. To develop a set of exercises aimed at improving students' skills in the use of the English articles.
The goal and the objectives of the research determine the structure of our work.
It consists of an introduction, 3 parts, conclusion and a list of literature.
More than 52 manuals, articles and other types of educational and research papers served as the material for our analyses. Besides, the use of articles in the works of W.S. Maugham, J. London and their translation served for our analyses in the practical part of the work.
A set of linguistic methods including a descriptive, analytical, contextual analysis was used in the course of our study. In addition a translational method was intensively used while analyzing the contextual peculiarities of the article and determining typical ways of their translation into Russian.
The results obtained in the course of our research were practical and theoretical techniques which were widely used in the course of my practice at the company in Karaganda.
The first part of the work deals with the general theoretical principles relevant to the English article and to the description of its traditional difficulties. Part II is devoted to the study of contextual semantic characteristics of English articles and the ways they are trаnslated into Russian.
1. Article as a part of speech. Theoretical and practical aspects
The issues relevant to the nature of the English article have been the focus of attention of early descriptive English Grammar books since the 16th century and it is intensively studied nowadays.
In the 16th -18th centuries the article was considered as a noun determiner. There was, however, a different point of view when the article was included into the adjective. Besides, there existed different approaches to English articles. According to G. Mironets, the article was considered as part of the Noun, as a separate part of speech and as a particle. The terms ”definite” and ”indefinite” were first used by J.Howell in 1662 [45, c.56].
Being aware of numerous points of view regarding the status of the article in the English language we share the view presented by B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya who considered the article a separate part of speech. They consider that the two words a(an), the form a separate group or class characterized by:
a) the lexico-grammatical meaning of ”(in)definiteness”,
b) the right-hand combinability with nouns,
c) the function of noun specifiers [52, c.214]
The lexical meaning of a(n) in Modern English is a very weak reminder of its original meaning (OE. an=one). In spite of the long process of weakening there remains enough of the original meaning in a(n) to exclude the possibility of its being attached to a ”plural” noun.
The lexical meaning of the in Modern English is a pale shadow of its original demonstrative meaning.
The general lexico-grammatical meaning of these words, as usual, is not identical with their individual lexical meanings. It abstracts itself from the meaning of ”oneness” in a(n) and the ”demonstrative” meaning in the. Perhaps, the names of the articles (”definite”, ”indefinite”) denote the nearest approach to this lexico-grammatical meaning, which, for lack of a better term, might be defined as that of ”definiteness-indefiniteness” [52, c.215].
The article is a form word that serves as a noun determiner. It is one of the main means of conveying the idea of definiteness and indefiniteness.
Definiteness suggests that the object presented by the following noun is individualized and singled out from all the other objects of the same kind, whereas indefiniteness means a more general reference to an object [20, c.75].
The lexical meaning of the English articles is determined by its historical development. That is why after considering the historical development of the English articles their rendering into Russian becomes obvious. Under the influence of the historical processes that took place both in phonetical and grammatical structure of the English language the article as a part of speech has undergone major changes. Its origin goes deep into the history of the English language both definite and indefinite articles. This explains the fact that when translating articles we get equivalents (in other languages) of various types. That is why we consider it necessary to present all stages of the historical formation of the English article.
1.2 The historical development of the English articles. The definite article
The infinitive in Northumbrian often loses its final -n and ends in -a: drinca 'drink', sinza 'sing'. The 1st person singular present indicative ends in -u, -o (for West-Saxon -e): ic drincu 'I drink', ic sinzo 'I sing'. The 2nd person singular present indicative and the 2nd person singular past indicative of weak verbs often ends in -s (for West-Saxon -si): pu drinces 'thou drinkest', pu lufodes 'thou lo-vedst'. This means that the initial consonant of the pronoun 'pu did not join on to the verb forms. The 3rd person singular present indicative also, often ends in -s: he drinces 'he drinks'. The plural indicative present often takes the ending -as for West-Saxon -ap: hia drincas 'they drink'.
The cause of this spread of the -s-ending is not clear. It may have been partly influenced by the form is of the verb wsan.
The 1st participle sometimes has the suffix -ande (for West-Saxon -ende). This is due to Scandinavian influence.
The plural present indicative of the verb wesan is arun (for West-Saxon sind).
Some strong verbs become weak in Northumbrian. Thus class I verbs: stizan 'ascend' has stizede; zripan 'catch' zripede, hrinan 'touch' hrinade; class II verbs: reocan 'smell' has reohte, supan 'taste' supede; class III: bindan 'bind' has binde, drinzan 'insist' drinzde, swinzan an 'swing' swinzde, war pan 'throw' worpade, strxz-dan 'sow' strx^de, frejnan 'ask' fre^nade; class VI verbs: hebban 'lift' has hefde; class VII verbs: slsepan 'sleep' has slsepte, ondrsedan 'dread' ondnedde, sceadan 'divide' sccadade.
All these phenomena show that in Northumbrian a reduction of inflections was taking place in the ОС period already. This was probably partly due to Scandinavian influence.
An attribute usually precedes its head word, e. g. enzlisc zewrit 'English text', onzemanz oрurum mistlicum and manizfealdum bisum 'among other various and manifold affairs', hu zesжlizlica tida 'what happy times', se foresprecena hunzur 'the above-mentioned famine', ealle орrе bec 'all other books', жfter forрyrnendre tide 'after the passing time'. However, a numeral attribute may follow its head word, e. g. his suna twezen 'his two sons', рone naman anne 'the name alone'; also рa bee ealle 'all the books'.
An attribute often follows its head word when used in direct address: wine mm 'my friend', fre-drihten min 'my lord', Beowulf leofa 'dear Beowulf. An attribute consisting of the pronoun se and an adjective also follows its head word: Sidroc eorl se alda 'earl Sidroc senior'.
A genitive attribute usually precedes its head word: para cyninza zetruman 'the kings' troops', Norрmanna land 'the Northmen's land', Seaxna peod 'the Saxons' people', monizra manna mod 'many people's mood'. But sometimes it comes after its head word: on oрre healfe pжre ea 'on the oilier side of the river
In studying the declension of substantives in ME, we have to consider the Southern dialects, on the one hand, and the Midland and Northern, on the other.
In the Southern dialects, distinction between genders and between strong and weak declensions was to some extent preserved, but differences between various types of strong declension were obliterated. Later, distinction of genders was weakened in connection with the development of the definite article, which lost its declension altogether.
Parenthesis means that the sound in question could drop. A second form coming after a comma means that alongside of the first form due to phonetic development a second one appeared, due to analogy.
With feminine substantives, weak declension endings (-en, -ene) spread from the weak to other declension types; in the singular the -ii-cnding was dropped, and all eases of the singular number had the endmg -e. The -e was also joined on to substantives with a long root syllable, which had no ending in Hie nominative singular, such as iir 'honour', synn 'sin'. Only a few substantives remain outside this tendency, such as hond 'hand', might 'might', cow 'cow'.
As a result of these changes the following system of declension arose:
The -en-ending of the plural was also extended to two neuter substantives which had in OE belonged to the -es-stems, viz., child 'child' and el 'egg'. In OE the nominative plural of these substantives had been cildru and жzru; now they were changed into children and eiren.
The declension of substantives with a root stem, which had mutation in the dative singular and in the nominative and accusative plural, developed in ME Southern dialects in the following way:
The substantive boc 'book' lost its mutated forms: its plural is boken, bakes. The substantive burh 'borough' lost mutation in the dative singular and in the nominative and accusative plural. The dative singular form byriz > buri, biri, beri survived only as the second component of compound nouns -- names of towns, which originally had the form of the dative case, such as Canterbury havkes > haukes and on the analogy of the genitive haukes a new nominative hauk was derived; nafozar > navgar > nauger 'auger'.
This word eventually lost its initial n- as a result of what is called metanalysis: the phrase a nauger was, as it were, reinterpreted as an auger, with the intial n- of the substantive apprehended as a final n of the indefinite article.
There are more examples of this kind of metanalysis. A substantive might either lose or acquire an initial n-. Thus OE ejete 'newt' acquired an initial n- owing to a reinterpretation of an ewte as a newte in ME. The ME substantive ekename 'additional name', 'nickname' also acquired an initial n-: an ekename > a nekename. The ME substantive naperon (from French naperon), on the other hand, lost its initial n-: a naperon > an apron.
A similar phenomenon is also found in some substantives whose final -s, originally belonging to the stem, was apprehended as a plural ending. Thus, OE жlmesse 'alms' (from Lat. alimosina from Greek eleemosyne 'pity') yielded ME alines > MnE alms; ME richesse (from French richesse) yielded MnE riches, apprehended as a plural form; OE byrzels 'grave' -- ME buriel, MnE burial (it was also influenced by its synonym funeral, of French origin); French cerise, cherise yielded ME and MnE cherry.
In ME an indefinite article arose. As in many other languages, it had its origin in the numeral an 'one'. First signs of such development were already seen in OE. Then long a in an unstressed position was shortened, and there appeared an unstressed variant an. When the long ”a” changed into long open 9 the numeral became on; the divergence in sound between the stressed and the unstressed form furthered the separation of the article from the numeral.
When on or an was followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the -n was dropped, and there arose the variants o, a. With the numeral, this alternation was later abandoned, and the form ”on” came to be used in all environments. With the indefinite article, the alternation of an and a depending on the initial sound of the following word has been preserved until today.
Now that the word the has its counterpart in the word a(n) it is possible to say that English has an article system represented by two words: a/an and the.
In OE, as we have seen, an article appeared when the meaning of the demonstrative pronoun was weakened. In this way a new grammatical category within the system of substantives came into being: the category of determination, represented by the opposition: article/absence of article.
In ME we see a further development in this field: a second article appears here from the OE numeral an. This development must be interpreted as a split in the category of determination, its marked member now splits into two varieties: the definite represented by the article the (from OE se, with substitution of initial s- by th- influenced by other case forms, which were derived from the root p-in OE already). Thus, the whole system of determination may be represented in the following way: 1st opposition: no article (unmarked) vs. article (marked); 2nd opposition: within the second item of the 1st opposition: definite article the vs. indefinite article a(n). The difference between OE and ME in this respect can well be illustrated by comparing the OE examples given above with the following example from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with the same substantive man:
He was an esy man to yive penaunce 'He was an easy man to absolve sins'.
Here the indefinite article a was used in a context in which in OE there had been no article at all.
The 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].
The 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.
This becomes obvious when we take the simplest examples ready at hand. Cf.: Will you give me this pen, Willy? (i.e. the pen that I am pointing out, not one of your choice.) - Will you give me the pen, please? (i.e. 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. (i.e. any blade of the stock, however blunt it -may be.) - Have you got something sharp? I need a penknife of' a blade. (i.e. simply a blade, if not a knife, without additional implications.) Some woman called in your absence, she didn't give her name (i.e. a woman strange to me). - A woman called while you were out, she left a message (i.e. simply a woman, without a further connotation.)
Another 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.
Taking 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, i.e. a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.
The 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.
To 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.
A mere semantic observation of the articles in English, i.e. the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an, at once discloses not two but three meaningful characterizations of the nounal referent achieved by their correlative functioning, namely: one rendered by the definite article, one rendered by the indefinite article, and one rendered by the absence (or non-use) of the article. Let us examine them separately.
The definite article expresses the identification or individualization of the referent of the noun: the use of this article shows that the object denoted is taken in its concrete, individual quality. This meaning can be brought to explicit exposition by a substitution test. The test consists in replacing the article used in a construction by a demonstrative word, e.g. a demonstrative determiner, without causing a principal change in the general implication of the construction. Of course, such an "equivalent" substitution should be understood in fact as nothing else but analogy: the difference in meaning between a determiner and an article admits of no argument, and we pointed it out in the above passages. Still, the replacements of words as a special diagnostic procedure, which is applied with the necessary reservations and according to a planned scheme of research, is quite permissible. In our case it undoubtedly shows a direct relationship in the meanings of the determiner and the article, the relationship in which the determiner is semantically the more explicit element of the two. Cf.:
But look at the apple-tree! - But look at this apple-tree! The town lay still in the Indian summer sun. - That town lay still in the Indian summer sun. The water is horribly hot. - This water is horribly hot. It's the girls who are to blame. - It's those girls who are to blame.
The justification of the applied substitution, as well as its explanatory character, may be proved by a counter-test, namely, by the change of the definite article into the indefinite article, or by omitting the article altogether [50, c.181] The replacement either produces a radical, i.e. "non-equivalent" shift in the meaning of the construction, or else results in a grammatically unacceptable construction. Cf.:... - Look at an apple-tree! - Look at apple-tree!... - A water is horribly hot. - Water is horribly hot.
The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as referring the object denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words, the indefinite article expresses a classifying generalization of the nounal referent, or takes it in a relatively general sense. To prove its relatively generalizing functional meaning, we may use the diagnostic insertions of specifying-classifying phrases into the construction in question; we may also employ the transformation of implicit comparative constructions with the indefinite article into the corresponding explicit coparative constructions. Cf.:
We passed a water-mill. - We passed a certain water-mill. It is a very young country, isn't it? - It is a very young kind of country, isn't it? What an arrangement! - What sort of arrangement! This child is a positive nightmare. - This child is positively like a nightmare.
The procedure of a classifying contrast employed in practical textbooks exposes the generalizing nature of the indefinite article most clearly in many eases of its use. E.g.:
A door opened in the wall. - A door (not a window) opened in the wall. We saw a flower under the bush. - We saw a flower (not a strawberry) under the bush.
As for the various uses of nouns without an article, from the semantic point of view they all should be divided into two types. In the first place, there are uses where the articles are deliberately omitted out of stylistical considerations. We see such uses, for instance, in telegraphic speech, in titles and headlines, in various notices. E.g.:
Telegram received room reserved for week-end. (The text of a telegram.) Conference adjourned until further notice. (The text of an announcement.) Big red bus rushes food to strikers. (The title of a newspaper article.)
The purposeful elliptical omission of the article in cases like that is quite obvious, and the omitted articles may easily be restored in the constructions in the simplest "back-directed" refilling procedures.
Cf. - The telegram is received, a room is reserved for the weekend.... - The conference is adjourned until further notice.... - A big red bus rushes food to the strikers.
Alongside free elliptical constructions, there are cases of the semantically unspecified non-use of the article in various combinations of fixed type, such as prepositional- phrases (on fire, at hand, in debt, etc.), fixed verbal collocations (take place, make use, cast anchor, etc.), descriptive coordinative groups and repetition groups (man and wife, dog and gun, day by day, etc.), and the like. These cases of traditionally fixed absence of the article are quite similar to the cases of traditionally fixed uses of both indefinite and definite articles (cf.: in a hurry, at a loss, have a look, give a start, etc.; In the main, out of the question, on the look-out, etc.).
Outside the elliptical constructions and fixed uses, however, we know a really semantic absence of the article with the noun. It is this semantic absence of the article that stands in immediate meaningful correlation with the definite and indefinite articles as such.
As is widely acknowledged, the meaningful non-uses of the article are not homogeneous; nevertheless, they admit of a very explicit classification founded on the countability characteristics of the noun. Why countability characteristics? For the two reasons. The first reason is inherent in the nature of the noun itself: the abstract generalization reflected through the meaningful non-use of the article is connected with the suppression of the idea of the number in the noun. The second reason is inherent in the nature of the article: the indefinite article which plays the crucial role in the semantic correlation in question reveals the meaning of oneness within its semantic base, having originated from the indefinite pronoun one, and that is why the abstract use of the noun naturally goes with the absence of the article.
The essential points of the said classification are three in number.
First. The meaningful absence of the article before the countable noun in the singular signifies that the noun is taken in an abstract sense, expressing the most general idea of the object denoted. This meaning, which may be called the meaning of "absolute generalization", can be demo
The Article дипломная работа. Иностранные языки и языкознание.
Реферат по теме Либерально-демократическая партия России
Дипломная работа по теме Система контроля ООО 'Наоми'
Сказка В Моей Жизни Сочинение 5 Класс
Практическое задание по теме Маркетинговые исследования
Реферат На Тему Переломы И Вывихи Костей Запястья
Курсовая работа: Метод философии Гегеля и его учение о государстве. Скачать бесплатно и без регистрации
Забвению Не Подлежит Аргументы К Сочинению Война
Титульный Лист Для Курсовой Скачать
Курсовая работа по теме Анализ платежеспособности ООО 'АвтоТрейд'
Контрольная Работа Лексика 6 Класс
Реферат: Маркетинговая деятельность в розничном предприятии
Доклад по теме Батищев Генрих Степанович
Реферат по теме CRT-монітор
Контрольная Работа N 7
Проект Производства Работ Курсовая Работа
Курсовая работа по теме Государственное регулирование иностранных инвестиций в России
Контрольная работа: Криминология и профилактика преступлений
Реферат: Заслуженные деятели науки Узбекистана
Курсовая работа по теме Технология и организация строительства насосной станции второго подъема из кирпича
Реферат На Тему Политика Пятой Республики Во Франции
Методика расследования грабежей и разбоев - Государство и право дипломная работа
Метаморфические процессы минералообразования - Геология, гидрология и геодезия презентация
Изучение теодолита - Геология, гидрология и геодезия лабораторная работа