Realization of contextual meanings of the indefinite article

Yellow houseon Fielding Avenue стояв старий двоповерховий

that year. (W. Saroyan) жовтий будинок.

A dog growled in one of the Коли чоловіки проходили

yards as the men went by. (J. повз один з будинків, у його

Steinbeck) дворі загарчав собака.

A light fog began to drift У повітрі потяглися

through the air, and the stars were легенькі пасма туману, / вони

swallowed in it. (Ibid.) заволокли й поглинули зірки.

A train hooted mournfully, and Тужно загув поїзд, і, обігнув-

in a moment it rounded a bend ши за якусь мить округлий вигін,

and pushed its terrible light down кинув свої страхітливі сліпучі

the track. (Ibid.) пасма світла на колії.

A correct selection of thematic and rhematic nouns, identified by the definite and indefinite articles and by their respective place­ment in the sentence, facilitates the faithful conveying of the logical sentence perspective in the target language.

Strange as it may seem but very often, almost predominantly,
the indefinite article is endowed in speech/text with lexical meanings,
which may coincide with those of different pronouns. The only excep­
tion is made for the meaning of the cardinal numeral «one» from which
the indefinite article historically originates. No wonder that the
contextual meanings of the lexically charged indefinite article can
sometimes be, as will be seen further on, quite unexpected. The most
frequent and common of these meanings can be expressed, as has
been mentioned already, in one of the following ways:
1) by the cardinal numeral один (одна, одне):
He said something about а Він тут розповідав щось про

The rheme, the new notional element in the utterance, is more frequently indicated in English by the indefinite article determining the

' See: Бархударов Л.С. Структура простого предложения современного английского язьїка. - М.: «Вьісш. шк.», 1966, p.p. 192-195.

5) As one of the possessive "pronouns (according to their con­textual meaning):

6) As the negative pronoun жоден or the negative perticle ані (when the determined noun is preceded by the negative particle not): You were not following а Ви не чули жодного слова/ word.ані слова. Не hadn't a penny.Він не мав жодного пенні (S. Maugham) (аніпенні). 7) as the relative adjective цілий which is lexically equivalent in the sentences below to the Ukrainian identifying pronoun весь (вся, все):

8) More common in Ukrainian contextual substitutes for the lexically meaningful indefinite article are, however, different relative adjectives, the most often used being справжній:

9) The contextual meaning of the indefinite article may some-

schooner that's gettin' ready to go одну шхуну, яка готується
off. (O. Wilde) відпливати.

2) In some contexts, however, the indefinite article may acquire
a lexical meaning which corresponds either to the Ukrainian cardinal
numeral один, to the ordinal numeral перший or to the indefinite pronoun
якийсь (якась, якесь). The indefinite article may also mark the rheme
of the utterance as in the sentence: Only for an instant he hesitated,
then his head went up and his hand came off. (J. London) In this
sentence any of the above-given substitutes may be quite faithful,
since the cardinal or ordinal numeral and the indefinite pronoun are
equally fitting in the utterance, which in Ukrainian will have another
position:

Він був у нерішучості (вагався) тільки якусь мить...
Він був у нерішучості (вагався) тільки першу мить...
Він був у нерішучості (вагався) тільки одну мить...
Similarly in the following sentences:
It was only for a moment. Це тривало тільки одну/

(J. London) якусь мить.

3) By the indefinite pronoun якийсь only, without the attendant
meanings of the cardinal or ordinal numerals:

He saw her come down the Він бачив, як вона пройшла

aisle, with Arthur and a strange партером у супроводі Артура і

young man. (J.London) ще якогось незнайомого

молодика.

Sometimes, when with her, Часом, коли він бував з нею,

she noted an unusual bright- вона помічала якийсь

ness in his eyes, and she liked особливий блиск в його очах,

it. (Ibid.) що подобався їй.

4) when the lexically meaningful indefinite article precedes the
noun under logical stress, it functions as the demonstrative pronoun,
which is translated into Ukrainian as цей, ця, це:

This was his programme for а Це була його програма на

week. (J. London) цей тиждень.

Here was a man who could Ця людина здатна на все -

do anything, was the message ось що вона прочитала в його

she readthere. (Ibid.) погляді.

How can a man write so Як може ця людина (цей

badly?.. (E. Hemingway) чоловік) писати так погано?..

He did not go home immedi­ately, and under the tree, where he kept his vigils, he looked up at a window and murmured. (J. London)

When she returned with the grammar, she drew a chair near his. (Ibid.)

Martin rented a typewriter and spent a day mastering the ma­chine. (J. London)

- (his) day's work was the equivalent to a week's work of the average succesful writer. (Ibid.)

It is sweet to feel that you are really and truly a woman. (Ibid.)

This small sum seemed a for­tune. (Ibid.)

Він (Мартін) не рушив зразу додому, а пішов до знайомого дерева, став на звичне місце проти її вікна і прошептав схвильовано.

Коли вона (Рут) повернулася з граматикою, вона присунула свій стілець до його стільця.

Мартін узяв напрокат друкарську машинку і цілий (весь) день вчився друкувати на ній.

...(його) доробок за день дорівнював доробкові якого-небудь модного письменника за цілий тиждень.

Приємно відчувати (себе), що ти є справжньою жінкою.

Ця маленька сума здалася (Мартіну) справжнім (цілим) скарбом.

times be expressed in Ukrainian through different adverbs:

He had the conviction that he У нього було таке переконання,

could sit in a draught if he що він міг сидіти навіть на про-

wanted to. (J. Galsworthy) тязі, якби того захотів...

There is a great difference. Це зовсім різні речі/зовсім

(O.Wilde) інша річ.

The above-given lexical realizations of the determining and iden­tifying functions of the definite and indefinite articles would be incomplete without the illustration of some other meanings, which they may acquire in contextual environment. The choice of the se-mantically fitting substitute for the definite or indefinite article then rests entirely with the translator, who is well acquainted with the text/ work under translation. Since the style of the text may often influ­ence or predetermine the choice of the necessary synonym, care should be taken in order not to neglect the possible ways of expres­sion in Ukrainian either. Thus, the lexical meaning of the indefinite article a in the sentence - I didn't dare show my face at Court for a month. (O. Wilde) - could be faithfully expressed in Ukrainian either through the identifying pronoun весь or by its lexical equivalent at sentence level, which is the relative adjective цілий. But the transla­tor of The Picture of Dorian Gray (R. Dotsenko) has suggested for this particular case a more acceptable contextual version: Я добрий місяць і носа не наважувався показати при дворі.

10) The broader context often predetermines the employment
of lexically equivalent variants which could scarcely ever be offered for
a narrow context. The kind of contextual substitutes can be seen in
the examples below, where Ukrainian demonstrative and other
pronouns, adjectives, numerals, etc., are contextually/semantically
enforced by emphatic or modal particles. Thus, the contextual mean­
ing of the indefinite article below is expressed through an adjective
enforced by an emphatic or some other particle or group of particles:

He was not to remain a sailor. Бо ж він не буде простим

(London) собі матросом..

Не seemed to think it a dis- Він вважав це чи не за

tinction. (Ibid.) особливу відзнаку.

11) The contextual meaning of the indefinite article may be ex­
pressed through the interrogative or indefinite pronoun also enforced
by some emphatic particles:

- a penniless young fellow, а...молодик без шеляга за

mere nobody, sir, a subaltern in а душею, - власне ніщо, сер,
foot regiment. усього лишень якийсь

піхотний офіцерик...
What a lovely day! (La Mure) Який же гарний день!

Note: Apart from the above-cited contextual meanings of the definite and the indefinite articles there may be some other (implicit) meanings of them. Thus, the definite article may sometimes have the following additional realizations in Ukrainian:

a) that of a pronominal word-group of an emphatic force:

I want you to get rid of the Я хочу, щоб ви врешті-решт

dreadful people you're associ- перестали спілкуватися з усіма
ated with. (O. Wilde) тими покидьками.

The identifying definite article may include in its semantic infor­mation some specifying function and meaning too:

The Chinamen were already Там уже метушились госпо-

busy in their shops. (Ibid.) дарі китайських крамничок.

Some implicit contextual meanings of the modifying and identi­fying definite article the can often be given a true and faithful explica­tion i.e. realization in translation only after a thorough study of the broader content as well. Cf.:

After a moment's hesitation, Стрікленд роздумував

Strickland scrambled to his feet, недовго. Випростав затерплі
and together they went to the ноги, і вони вдвох подалися до
Bonchee de Pain. (S. Maug- іншого благодійного

ham) закладу під назвою

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