Theoretical grammar of english

Functions of the article
The number of meanings and functions ascribed to the Eng A is great. It’s next to impossible to enumerate all the existing points of view. → We mention only those that are widely accepted both in Rissian and foreign linguistics. Conserning the meanngs of the A, we can say that it is abstract and hard to define.
Бархударов: the best term to describe it as identification. We identify whether the object is presented as definite or indefinite. We can also consider meanings of the A form the point of view of morphology, syntacs, semantics: 1)morphologically, A-s serve as formal indicators of nouns;as Ильшь puts it, A-s indicate substantivity. The presense of an A shows that the W that follows it is a N or it accuires features of a noun (black – Adj, but a black = nigger). In some lang-s the motphological role of the A is to show the gender, number; German – gender, number, case 2)Syntactically, the role of the A is to separate a N phrase from other members of the sentence. What stands between an A and a noun is one and the same member of the sentence.
~A book
~I bought a thick black book.
~I bought a thick book.
~I shall never forget the one fourth serious and three fourth comical astonishment.
The syntactic role of the A is also manifested in its use as a connecting element between 2 or more sentences.
~We saw a man. The man was approaching us.
3) Semantically, the role of the A is to relate a given utterance to a given speech situation. This approach is called actuialisation. Words are signs of language. And potentially, they can denote a variety of things. When speaking, people consentrate on the meaning or one aspect of the notion described by the chosen noun. Thus the object we speak about can be represented as an abstract notion (“Language is a means of communication”), as an object belonging to a class of similar objects (“Everyone should learn a foreign language”), we can also treat the object in particular(3). → Actualisation is achieved by using proper A-s, though some other means are employed. The A-s or their absence have particular meanings. The main ones are as follows:
The :1) the individualizing, or particularizing meaning. We present a noun as individual, besides the use of the definite A, there exist other means of individualization.
~The use of limiting attributes
~Previous mention of the object
~The uniqueness of the object
~and some others
2) the generic meaning
The object is described as having the common features of the qhole class. Thus this noun stands for all the genus.
~The rose is the queen of the flowers.
A: 1) the nominating function
~A gerl enters the room
2) the classifying function
~She is a student.
The object is presented as belonging to the whole class, as one of many. The noun accompanied by “a” iin the classifying function is used predicatively.
3) the generic function
~A cow is a domestic animal.
The object represents the whole class because it is like any othe object within the class.
4) the uneric function
It can be substituted by the numeral “one”.
~a thousand=one thousand
0: 1) the nominating function
What is presented by the object is viewed in its widest sense as a notion
(см. также Актуальное членение предложения. Категория определенности/неопределенности)
(indefine definite reference look seminar 8 supplementary 1).

6 General characteristics of the noun as a part of speech. The problem of

gender. Means of expressing gender.
Noun is regarded as a part of speech by all grammarians. It is distinct semantically,
morphologically and syntactically.
1.The noun denotes substance
2.It is characterized by the categories of number and case.
3.It performs the function of the Subject
Object
Attribute
Adverbial modifier
Predicative
Combinability of noun can be modified by adjectives, nouns, articles and other.
Nouns can be either preceded of followed by prepositions or other nouns.

The category of gender in English disappeared completely by the end of Middleenglish period. So only lexical and derivational means are used to express gender:

E.g. boy - girl lion - lioness he-goat - she-goat
Cock - hen waiter - waitress
Bull-cow
And the same tendency can be seen in some Indo-European languages
E.g. учитель - учительница
Lehrer-Lehrerin
B, Strang, the author of the book "Modern English Structure", and some other grammarians consider that the category of gender exists in English as a noun can be substituted by a pronoun that can express gender: he, she it. But this point of view is considered to be wrong as in this case we speak of the substitution of a noun by another part of speech and thus we transfer the feature of another part of speech to the noun which doesn't have this feature. And even in this case the meaning of gender of the pronoun is purely lexical but not grammatical.