The conceptual analysis of article forms of nouns in speech

Follow-Up Work

1. Apply the conceptual analysis to the illustrative phraseology of dictionary entries for the nouns below and the concepts they may denote:

Bed, body, business, cold, company, courage, court, culture, death, distance, experience, fact, fear, flesh, ground, home, impression, knowledge, land, language, leisure, light, man, market, marriage, mind, moon, pain, part, rest, room, sky, sea, soul, speech, spirit, sun, space, theory, thought, threat, time, use, variety, whole, world.

So far the category of the noun expressed by article forms has been discussed on the basis of dictionary phraseology. The same principle, however, may be applied to nouns used in actual discourse.

We shall start by considering such nouns as sea, sky, sun, light and deck, which, according to the dictionary data as well as most of grammar books, infrequently find themselves in a limited number of contexts, rarely admitting of a varied use of the articles. In particular, it is suggested that sun and sky are mostly used in forms with the definite article, thus illustrating the so-called situationalreference [13]:

We could feel the hot sun on our backs.

She was sitting in the sun reading a book.

The sun was just setting.

At noon the sun is directly above us in the sky.

Air pollution is clearly visible in the skies over the city.

The sky went dark and it started to rain.

However, most dictionaries agree that sea and deck can take both forms and be used with the definite and the zero articles. Compare:

We are renting a house by the sea.

The sea was choppy.

Most of his belongings will be transported by sea.

A service was held to commemorate those lost at sea.

A lot of passengers were sitting up on deck.

He was sitting on the top deck, right at the front.

Indeed, the information is reliable in terms of high frequency the nouns have in the language, especially everyday, ordinary language. When it comes to imaginative writing, however, the picture becomes more involved, as all these nouns can be used in all the 3 categorial article forms.

The zero article indicates the highest degree of generalisation of the thing-meant, which, as has been shown in the preceding pages usually implies opposition of the thing-meant to some other concept. Thus, a ship’s deck is opposed to its cabins, light, naturally, is opposed to darkness. Sun is definitely opposed to cold, rain, bad weather, while sea is opposed to dry land, or, as it follows from the contexts below, in the eyes of the holidaymakers both sun and sea provide an interesting contrast to their ordinary working life.

Sometimes, however, it is not so easy to discover what the concept (e.g. sky) is opposed to. In the following context, the word finds itself in combination with sea to make up a beautiful, immense seascape, which is implicitly opposed to land, or shore:

Olivia gazed at the panorama of sky and sea, and the scatter of small islands apparently floating on the water… (E. Lemarchand)

As the small landing-craft approached the jetty she forgot to repine. The sapphire of sea and sky framed the dazzling white marble ruins and the enchanting little peak of Mount Cyntus. (E. Lemarchand)

The above examples show that to emphasize the implicit opposition the authors resort to parallel structures, which is typical of descriptive style in general. Consider more illustrations:

Pneumonia’s no joke, and Doctor Carmichael said you badly wanted sun and warmth. (E. Lemarchand)

…and the landscape seemed bathed in light and peace. (E. Lemarchand)

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.

Men were deceivers ever,

One foot on sea and one on shore,

To one thing constant never. (W. Shakespeare)

Besides, the nouns under consideration may form adverbial phrases like on sea, on shore, on deck, out to sea, etc., never taking an attribute:

For a time she gazed contentedly out to sea, and then began to read and became absorbed, only subconsciously aware of other arrivals in the area around her. (E. Lemarchand)

His romance is the romance of hunted men hiding in woods at night; of brigs standing out to sea… (V. Woolf)

Amused, Olivia thanked them and sat down. It was much nicer to stay on deck. (E. Lemarchand)

Presently someone reported that the weather was looking up, and before turning in the party went out on deck to look at the harbour lights and get a breath of fresh air. (E. Lemarchand)

Sun, sea, and sky may become countable and be used in the plural with the zero article without any change in meaning:

A splendid midsummer shone over England: skies so pure, suns so radiant as were then seen in long succession, seldom favoured, even singly, our wave-girt land. (Ch. Bronte)

We saw beautiful things, breathtaking, unforgettable; houses and mountains and gardens and palaces, seas and skies and churches and lakes…(S. Hill)

The forms of the same words with the indefinite article show that the referents have acquired some degree of certainty, for now they represent different aspects in which the sun, the sea, the sky, etc. may appear. Therefore, the indefinite article here suggests the idea of classification which may take various forms. As the contexts below reveal, on the one hand, the indefinite article signals that each referent (sun, sky, sea, etc.) is viewed once on some day, by some person, at a certain time. On the other hand, a certain state of sun or sea is likely to change and, therefore, the indefinite article suggests comparison:

The rays of a bright morning sun had a dazzling effect among the glittering foliage. (W. Irving) (Not a dim evening sun)

As the sun came up in a clear sky on the following morning the “Penelope” was progressing steadily down the Adriatic. (E. Lemarchand) (Not a cloudy sky)

… a pale crystalline sky arched over the valleys. (J. Cusack)

The monsoon was blowing hard and when they left the shelter of the land they found a heavy sea. (S. Maugham) (Not a calm sea)

‘Bring ‘er (the ship) up to the wind with a sealike this running ’? No, sir.’ (S. Maugham)

Mrs Gore had a way of waddling from side to side, as though on a deck in a rough sea, as she transported the food into the sitting-room. (F. King)

Promenade deck is an upper deck of a passenger ship, usually open at the sides, where people may walk. (Not a lower deck) (Longman)

They sailed out of the narrow arm between the two islands, and now found themselves in what locked like an island sea. (S. Maugham)

A hurricane lamp hanging from a beam gave a dim light. (S. Maugham) (Not a bright light)

In spite of the bright sunshine the world was bathed in a softly muted light tinted with aquamarine and gold. (E. Lemarchand)

The meanings of the nouns are much narrower as compared with their generalized uses. Syntactically, the descriptive attributes seem most appropriate to support the idea of classification in the form of comparison.

The definite article shows the highest degree of individualisation of the noun referents without any implicit opposition. The nouns sun, sky, sea, light and deck appear to be quite concrete in the given contexts, for such factors as time and space narrow down the meanings to an extreme degree. It should be noted that the illustrations from fiction are very much the same as those borrowed from the dictionaries. The only difference is the more extensive use of limiting attributes. For example:

The morning slipped away pleasantly, with a useful and entertaining lecture sandwiched between two spells of idling in the sun. (E. Lemarchand)

I really had to move over to this side, out of the sun. (E. Lemarchand

A pleasant cool breeze was clearing the sky. (E. Lemarchand)

It was a clear night, with the stars in their myriads twinkling brightly; the sea was rough, and in the darkness the waves looked enormous. (S. Maugham)

The flat sea was shining like polished steel. (S. Maugham)

They sang lustily with rich deep voices and the sound traveled over the peaceful sea. (S. Maugham)

There was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down on the shining sea. (S. Maugham)

Later, by changing boats at the Fondamenta, they returned to the “Penelope” by water in the magic of the evening light. (E. Lemarchand)

Passengers with cabins on the port side tended to wake first as the bright light filtered in. (E. Lemarchand)

Rather glad of the chance of some time on her own, Olivia prospected carefully and finally settled herself in a secluded spot on the Boat Deck with a copy of “Emma”. (E. Lemarchand)

The sailors were swabbing the upper deck. (S. Maugham)

Suddenly the noisy dragging of a chair across the deck to within a few feet of her own roused her. (E. Lemarchand)

So far the investigation has been conducted into the articles forms of common nouns, the largest of all nominal ckasses. It has been claimed, however, that the conceptual approach does not presuppose any categorization. Therefore, it is quite probable that the use of proper names in speech should be similar to common nouns in the sense that they may only confirm the assumptions made about common names.

Although proper names are generally said to co-occur with either the definite article or without it depending on their type, the analysis of their actual use shows that they admit of a much wider range of variation.

True, personal names, which by definition, are meant to identify people are most naturally used without any article. However, there are various factors involved that influence their use with both the definite and indefinite articles. Personal names turn out to be similar to common names, which may present ideas or objects either as undefined, or quite familiar. Therefore, in using them with the indefinite article, the speaker/writer seeks to stress the fact that they are absolutely unfamiliar to his addressee(s):

If a Mrs Hillier phones, say I’m away on a trip. (M.Vince)

The name of the firm, Ullswater and York, had no geographical connotation. There was a Mr Ullswater and a Mr York, partners. Mr Ullswater, by far the elder of the partners, had now almost retired. Martin York was a rounded-faced, square-cut man of about forty. (M. Spark)

In these cases the indefinite article, as usual, carries out its classifying function, pointing to singularity, i.e. one man or woman by a particular name.

Besides, personal names take the indefinite article when used to refer to an individual as a member of a family. Here classification takes the form of variety, the article being equivalent to the indefinite pronoun any:

And every now and then a Forsyte would come up, sidle round and take a look at him. (J. Galsworthy)

The use of the articles before proper names may indicate their much narrower meaning because of a change in their status, when they actually turn into common names. It is standard practice, for instance, to use a painter’s name to refer to his picture(s), i.e. metonymically. [14] It becomes countable like a common noun, and, consequently, may be specified by both the indefinite and the definite articles. Compare:

Amedeo Modigliani is an Italian painter and sculptor influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, Cesanne, and Picasso. (Longman)

The Steen, Dagliesh remembered had a Modigliani. It was not a well-known painting, not did it represent the artist at his best, but it was, undeniably, a Modigliani. It hung in the first-floor boardroom, the gift of a former grateful patient, and it represented much that the clinic stood for in the public eye.

The Modigliani was out of place in the Boardroom but not aggressively so. (P.D. James)

The comparative analysis of the dictionary data recorded for the nouns and their actual use in fiction convincingly shows a markedly wider variation in terms of article forms of nouns in the latter case. This especially involves the use of forms with the indefinite article and the meaningful absence of the article. However, all the article forms of nouns are equally significant, as they represent the three thought processes regularly going on in the English speaker’s mind. Each of them may take various forms, and, therefore, calls for a thorough investigation.

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