Transpositions in use of articles

Transposition of the category of case

Transposition of the category of person

The next type of transposition can be seen on the example of personification. This is a device in which metaphor appears due to the classifying transposition of a noun, because nouns are divided into animate and inanimate and only animate nouns have the category of person.

Personification transposes a common noun into the class of proper names by attributing to it thoughts or qualities of a human being. As a result the syntactical, morphological and lexical valency of this noun changes:

England’s mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year her trading rivals the Dutch had pushed out of several colonies… (Rutherfurd)

Normally, the genitive case form is a form of animate nouns. When inanimate nouns are used in this form, their initial meaning of inanimateness is transposed. In such cases they render the meanings of time or distance (mile’s walk, hour’s time), part of a whole (book’s page, table’s leg), or qualitative characteris­tics (plan’s failure, winter’s snowdrifts, music’s voice).

When the constructions Double Genitive, i.e. an of-phase in which the noun is in the genitive case, is used attributively to a noun de­noting some kind of human relationship (e.g. friend, cousin, niece, etc.), the geni­tive is interchangeable with the common case, but the double genitive is more infor­mal: He's a good friend of my husband's. I.V. Arnold quotes some examples of Group Genitive with expressly colloquial facetious colouring: She's the boy I used to go with's mother (i.e. She is the mother of the boy I used to go with.), He is the niece I told you about's husband.

The category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper nouns, since it denotes possession becomes a mark of personification in cases like the following one:

Love’s first snowdrop

Virgin kiss! (Burns)

Cases of transposition emerge, in particular, when concrete nouns are used according to the rules of proper nouns usage, or vice versa. It results in creation of stylistic devises named antonomasia or personification: The Pacific Ocean has a cruel soul or John will never be a Shakespeare.

Stylistic potential of nouns is significantly reinforced by transpositions in the usage of articles as noun-determiners. Such transpositions occur against generally accepted normative postulates that run: articles are not used with names of persons and animals, some classes of geographical names, abstract nouns and names of material. Uncommon usage of articles aims at importing specific shades of meaning into speech.

Thus, the indefinite article combined with names of persons may denote:

- one representative of a family (Mary will never be a Brown),

- a person unknown to the communicants (Jack was robbed by a Smith)

- a temporary feature of character (That day Jane was different. It was a silly Jane).

Not less expressive are cases when the name of a person is used as a common noun preceded by the indefinite article: Mike has the makings of a Byron.

Stylistic usage of the definite article takes place when names of persons are modified by limiting attributes (You are not the John whom I married), when a proper name denotes the whole family (The Browns are good people), or when a name of a person is mod­ified by a descriptive attribute denoting a permanent feature of character (I entered the room. There she was - the clever Polly). Suchlike deviations in the usage of articles are possible with other semantic classes of nouns: geo­graphical names, abstract and material nouns.

Informal Use of Articles with Proper Nouns

Personal names when preceded by a descriptive attribute are used either with the definite article or without an article. The variant without an article is generally supposed to be more emotional and more personal

E.g.: That new dispenser at Dr Earle's isn't bad. She hasn't got lovely eyelashes like marvellous Monica.

I.V.Arnold notes the following cases of the colloquial use of articles with per­sonal names:

(1) Family names in the plural are used with the definite article: The Hardys were rather late.

(2) The indefinite article is used colloquially with a name in its introductory function: He was engaged to be married to a Miss Hubbard.

(3) Here also belongs the metonymic use of proper names with the indefinite article to denote creative works: Have you a Rosetti? (=a picture by Rosetti).

(4) The indefinite article before a personal name may create a colloquial case of antonomasia: I do not claim to be a Caruso (=I do not claim that I sing well).

(5) The definite article with a name may perform an expressive function by in­dicating that the person enjoys fame or notoriety: Know my partner? Old Robin­son. Yes, the Robinson. Don't you know? The notorious Robinson.

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