Realization of Contextual Meanings of the Indefinite Article

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 502.

The indefinite article is endowed in speech with lexical meanings, which may coincide with those of different pronouns. The only excep­tion 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 quite unexpected. The most frequent and common of these meanings can be expressed in one of the following ways:

1) by the cardinal numeral один (одна, одне): He said something about а schooner that's gettin' ready to go off. - Він тут розповідав щось про одну шхуну, яка готується відпливати.

2) in some contexts 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): It was only for a moment. - Це тривало тільки одну/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 aisle, with Arthur and a strange young man. - Він бачив, як вона пройшла партером у супроводі Артура і ще якогось незнайомого молодика.

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: Here was a manwho could do anything, was the message she read there. - Ця людина здатна на все- ось що вона прочитала в його погляді.

5) as one of the possessive pronouns (according to their con­textual meaning): When she returned with the grammar, she drew a chair near his. - Коли вона повернулася з граматикою, вона присунула свій стілець до його стільця.

6) as the negative pronoun жоден or the negative particle ані (when the determined noun is preceded by the negative particle not): Не hadn't a penny. - Він не мав жодного пенні.

7) as the relative adjective цілий which is lexically equivalent in the sentences below to the Ukrainian identifying pronoun весь (вся, все): Martin rented a type writer and spent a day mastering the machine. - Мартін узяв напрокат друкарську машинку і цілий день вчився друкувати на ній.

8) more common in Ukrainian contextual substitutes for the lexically meaningful indefinite article are, however, different relative adjectives, the most often used being справжній: This small sum seemed a fortune. - Ця маленька сума здалася справжнім (цілим) скарбом.

9) the contextual meaning of the indefinite article may sometimes be expressed in Ukrainian through different adverbs: There is a great difference. - Це зовсім різні речі/зовсім інша річ.

10) the contextual meaning 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 asailor. -Бо ж він не буде простимматросом.

11) the contextual meaning of the indefinite article may be expressed through the interrogative or indefinite pronoun also enforced by some emphatic particles: What a lovely day! -Який жегарний день!

The picture of contextual realizations of meanings pertained to the determining and identifying articles would be incomplete without some illustrations of their «deep», as one might call them, or interphrasal and superphrasal meanings, which the articles may acquire in some contexts. The interphrasal meaning of the definite or indefinite article may be elicited already from its contextual meaning at the level of the sentence: I looked at her mouth for an expressionthat could give me а clue to what she felt. - Я позирав на її вуста - чи не майне там бодайтінь їїдушевного стану.