Functions of the Indefinite Article a/an

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Abstract: There are two articles in English, the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an. This paper deals with the indefinite article a/an as it is especially complicated and multi-functional in use. Focus will be put on the major functions of the indefinite article from different angles: its lexical meaning, its grammatical function, its rhetoric meaning and its interpretation in communication with the purpose of providing a relatively full account of its usage.

Key words: the indefinite article;lexical meaning;grammatical function;rhetoric meaning;communication

【中图分类号】G640

Introduction: Sometimes short words are the most interesting and the most troublesome like the English articles. They are difficult for non-English speakers to acquire for most of the world languages do not have a form identical grammatically and semantically with the English article.

Articles can be defined as the “determiner whose basic role is to mark noun phrases as either definite and indefinite.” (The oxford concise dictionary of linguistics.) The indefinite article a/an introduces an unspecified noun or the name of a general category: a dog, an apple, an orange. The indefinite article a/an has the same origin as English one. What happened was that the final “n” sound dropped out of pronunciation before consonants after English came to use the word as an article rather than just a number. Now, we have the impression that the basic word is "a", and that "an" is a variation of it. Historically, it is just the opposite. In modern English, we use a before an initial consonant, as in a book, a car while an is used when the next word begins with a vowel sound, as in an egg or an hour.

To give an explicit description of the functions of the indefinite article, this paper will first focus on the lexical meaning of a/an, in the second part deal with its grammatical function, in the third part its rhetorical use and in order to have a full understanding of the usage of the indefinite article, the fourth part will look at its use in daily communication. In the conclusion section, the complicatedness of the functions of the indefinite article will be emphasized with some suggestions in language learning.

Lexical meaning

The lexical meaning of a/an can be first sought in its original meaning. A/an comes from the English numeral one, that is why it still has the meaning of one till today as in in an hour or two/ in a word/ wait a minute…. This is the basic meaning of a/an, though it becomes less important in modern English usage. The following paragraphs will look at different meanings of a/an in different cases.

In modern English, a/an is used as a weak form of one, as in the example: Rome was not built in a day. /There was now not a minute to lose. A/an and one are often interchangeable: she was silent for a moment / He never for one moment felt remotely attracted by her; the latter often has a more exact value. However they are not identical and in some cases one cannot replace the other especially when emphasizing number. For example, we say There is one not two. rather than There is a not two. And in some fixed expressions such as One man one vote. a cannot be used. There are other differences between a/an and one, which cannot be explained in detail here.

A/an, in some cases, can have the meaning of “one and the same”: Birds of a feather flock together. / The two girls are of an age. In others, a/an can have the meaning of “each” when stating prices, rates, or speeds, as in the sentences She goes downtown only twice a year. / The eggs cost $2 a dozen. The numeral meaning of the indefinite article can also be found in some expressions of quantity as in a dozen, a hundred, a quarter of a kilo etc.

Besides, the indefinite article a/an sometimes means “a certain”, as in I took my things to a hotel in New Street. / I went into a stationer’s to buy a picture. In this situation, we use indefinite article but mean something definite in our mind. This use of indefinite article will be further analyzed later.

As is said above, in modern English, a/an is mainly used as an article but not a word indicating number, especially from a grammatical point of view, which will be examined in detail in the following part.

Grammatical function

The definite and indefinite articles are always defined in terms of their grammatical function. In a grammatical approach, the English indefinite article is just considered as a determiner. It is a function word with no lexical meaning. Grammatically speaking, a/an is used before a singular countable noun. The major grammatical functions of the indefinite article a/an can be defined as follows.

Generic reference

Generic reference means that the indefinite article can be used before a noun to refer to any person or thing of that class or kind. We can easily find examples of this kind in English.

An ox is a useful animal.

Dose a dog have a keen sense of hearing?

A man can die but once.

In these sentences an ox, a dog, or a man is not a particular thing or person, but any of the type. This kind of usage of a/an is called generic reference, and can also be realized by the definite article the and the zero article, which will not be stated in detail here.

Indefinite specific reference

The indefinite article has the function of indefinite specific reference compared to the function of the definite article the. In the sentence I met an old man in the street, the noun preceded by a/an is actually rather specific to the speaker, but not definite to the listener or sometimes the speaker dose not want the listener or reader to know which particular thing or person he is referring to. More examples of this kind of usage can be found:

Our teacher said a girl student was hurt in a car accident.

I lost a button this morning.

I have bought a car. (Compared to I have bought the car.)

Introductory function

A/an can be used before nouns to introduce something or someone that have not been mentioned before: A lamp hangs from the ceiling. And the lamp is a chandelier. In this sentence, the first lamp is preceded by the indefinite article a for it is mentioned in the context for the first time while the second lamp is preceded by the definite article the, for it has already been mentioned in the previous part. This is one of the differences between the indefinite article and the definite article.

Or a/an is used to state what type of thing or person something or someone is. Examples are as follows:

She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Language is a means of intercourse between people.

The above three functions mentioned are the major grammatical functions of the indefinite article a/an, however, in actual language use, grammatical rules are sometimes violated to achieve certain stylistic effect. This comes to the next part, the indefinite article a/an used in a rhetorical way.

Rhetoric meaning

The rhetorical use of the indefinite article a/an is quite common and therefore a great source of difficulty of learning it. A/an used in this way dose not accord with the grammatical rule that it should be used before a singular countable noun. The indefinite article can be added to the uncountable noun to make it quite different from what it means originally. Here, some important rhetorical use of the indefinite article will be illustrated.

A/an used with material nouns

When the indefinite article is used with a material noun, it limits its meaning and makes the noun countable and concrete as in It was a wonderful tea. Sometimes, it describes the nouns more completely or refers to one example of them: a bitter cold wind /a new wine. We can also see a/an used to refer to a unit or container of something to make it an individual noun; especially something you eat or drink, as in I’d like a coffee. / All I had for lunch was a yogurt.

A/an used with abstract nouns

When the indefinite article is used with an abstract noun, it often makes the noun specific. There are several cases of this kind. First, it is used before some abstract nouns to refer to one type of a concept or an exact example of what the abstract noun refers to. Examples are as follows:

Linguistics is a science.

I only have a limited knowledge of Spanish.

The play was an instant success.

He has done me a good kindness.

Second, it can be used before some nouns of action to make the action concrete or refer to one example of the action:

Before we begin to solve the problem, we should make a thorough investigation of it first.

A knocking at the door was heard.

Take a look at this, Jez.

Third, the indefinite article can also be seen before some nouns of emotion to indicate something that causes the emotion as in:

War is a disgrace to humanity.

It’s a shame to behave like that.

It was no longer an embarrassment to face Christmas.

A/an used with proper nouns

Normally, proper nouns do not take an article. But in a rhetorical way, the indefinite article used with proper nouns can be found in many cases with different connotations. Here, some typical examples will be shown.

Used in front of a person’s name when referring to someone you don’t know.

A Mr. Richard called you up when you were out.

There’s a Ms. Evans to see you.

Here, we may also use one or a certain, which remind us that in some cases where we use the grammatically “indefinite” article we have really something very definite in our mind.

Used in front of a person’s family name when he or she is a member of the family.

Is that a Wilson over there?

Used before a proper name to refer to a piece of work, a design or an invention of the person.

He bought a Shakespeare yesterday.

He found a Qi Bai-shi among the exhibits.

He bought a Remington last week.

Used before a proper noun when someone or something referred to has the same quality with the noun it precedes.

He has the humor of a Dickens.

She wishes her son to be an Edison or a Washington.

The old Asia is no more. A new Asia has arisen.

Used to refer to the condition of someone or something in a certain period or a place.

He is now an entirely new John Smith from what he was years ago.

What a strange London they saw!

Used in fixed phrases

The rhetorical use of the indefinite article can also be found in some fixed phrases as in a brute of a man, an angel of a girl, his genius of a son, a hell of a life, a mountain of a wave, etc.

To conclude, the rhetorical use of the indefinite article a/an is rather complicated. Therefore, it cannot be explained fully within this article but needs our special concern in actual language use. The next section will turn to the use of the indefinite article in daily communication as it is gaining greater and greater focus these years.

Interpretation in communication

The interpretations and uses of English articles seem not to be simple; they vary in different contexts. That is why the following section will take pragmatic factors into consideration. In the previous pages, we have already mentioned various uses of the indefinite article, yet, we have not consider its use and interpretation in actual communication, which is of great importance to understand the variable uses of the indefinite article as well as to promote language communication.

Indefiniteness is the key concept of the indefinite article. But this notion sometimes seems sophisticated in that sometimes a/an NP does not seem to be indefinite in someway. For example, in I bought a book yesterday, the indefinite article does not refer to something indefinite to the speaker, but unidentifiable to the hearer. To make it clearer, a book here is actually very definite to the speaker. And in other cases, what is introduced by the indefinite article can be inferred by the hearer. Then, the indefinite article is definite to both the speaker and the hearer. In Mrs. Brown adopted three children, and a four-year-old girl is from Vietnam, the hearer can infer who a four-year –old girl is from the context of the conversation even though the indefinite article a is used by the speaker. Thus when choosing articles, context and situation should be taken into consideration. By using the indefinite article, the speaker at least assumes that a definite entity does not exist in the mutual cognitive environment shared by the hearer, or at least the speaker may not want to mention it as a definite one. Consider the following example, I visited a professor. By using a here, the speaker intends that the hearer does not have enough knowledge to infer a definite professor he is talking about, because the mentioned professor (a professor) exists is indefinite or unidentified as far as the hearer is concerned. Further more, in certain cases, both the definite and the indefinite articles can be used, which cannot be explained adequately by grammatical rules but a matter of the speaker’s intention. Look at the two sentences, (1) A gift on the table is for you. (2) The gift on the table is for you. Grammatically, the is required here but sentence (1) is acceptable in communication where the indefinite article a is used. By saying so, the speaker intends to convey new information to the hearer, which is not definite to him or her. Sometimes, when the indefinite article adds to the adjective superlatives it has the function of description without indicating superlative degree. Compare the following pair: This is a most interesting book about jungle life and This is the most interesting book about jungle life. In the first sentence, a is used to realize the function of description, which has the same meaning as “very”, and which is also quite different from the meaning of the second sentence where the definite article the is used to refer to something definite and unique.

So far, we have seen that the actual usage of the indefinite article is more complex than the simple rules may lead us to expect. Since grammatical rules are far from enough for the appropriate use of English articles, we have to search for “right” answers in daily communication. Only by considering this factor, can we have a full understanding of the usage of the indefinite article and guide our communication.

Conclusion

This article deals with functions of the English indefinite article a/an. It does not only take it as a determiner with its grammatical functions as the generic reference and indefinite specific reference but also as a word with lexical meanings, among which the meaning of “one” is basic, although it becomes less important as the English language develops. Besides, the paper gives much attention to its rhetoric functions and its interpretation in communication as well. From the analysis in the previous four parts we can see that the usage of the indefinite article is rather complicated and multi-functional. And its complicated use can also be found in some fixed expressions: make a bed, bring to an end, on an average, as a matter of fact, etc, which cannot be illustrated in detail within this paper.

All the above analysis shows that to have a proper use of the indefinite article a/an dose not only require our knowledge of certain grammatical rules but also require us to take the speaker and the hearer in actual communication into account. This gives some implications in learning the indefinite article. First, some basic rules are needed, which is necessary for the understanding of the basic notions of it. Second, and the most important, pay enough attention to the context and situation in daily communication when using the indefinite article. Choose the appropriate article according to the requirements of communication, as communication is the utmost purpose of language learning.

References

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