The theory denying the existence of the category of case in Modern Eng.(Postpositional)

The theory was advanced by Prof. Воронцова and is shared by Мухин, Ильиш, Маслова. Acc to this view the Eng noun has lost the category of case in the historic development. All cases, including genitive, are considered extinct. The following arguments are given to substantiate this theory: 1. the use of the s-sign is optional because it can be replaced by an of-phrase. 2. it is used with a limited group of nouns (animate nouns and some other nouns, denoting distance, time and money). 3. it occurs with very few plurals, only with such plurals as men (men's). As to the other it is impossible to distinguish the sg genitive from the pl genitive by ear. 4. The s-signs is only loosely connected with the noun. It can be used not only with sg nouns but also with whole phrases, e.g.: John and Tom's room. The Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech. The man I saw yesterday's son. (the s-signs belongs to the whole phrase, not to a single word). So Воронцова makes the following conclusion: the s-signs is not a case inflexion, it is a syntactical element, resembling a preposition. She calls it a postposition or a format. This is why Блох calls this theory the Possessive Postposition Theory. The strong points of this theory is that it is based on careful observation of linguistic data. Yet, it can hardly be accepted, because it disregards the fact that the genitive form of the noun is systematically contrasted to the unmarked form of the noun. The oppositional nature of this correlation cannot be denied. So, if there is an opposition, there is a category. For that reason most linguists stick to the theory which is called the Limited Case Theory. Блох gives other arguments in favor of the LCT. 1. He emphasizes the fact that the phrasal uses of s-sign are stylistically colored. For that reason these cases can hardly be used as arguments against the existence of the category of case. 2. The s-sign differs from ordinary functional words, like prepositions, because it is morpheme-like in its phonetic properties and also because it is strictly postpositional unlike prepositions and it is far more bound element than a preposition. So Блох suggests that the s-sign has a particle nature and he compares it with the Russian particle бы. Блох believes that the solution of the problem of the category of case is to be sought by combining the LCT with the Possessive Postposition Theory. His conclusion is that a peculiar case system has developed instead of the former inflectional case of nouns. It is based on the particle expression of the Genitive and falls into 2 subtypes, which are the word-genitive and the phrase-genitive.

9. The category of article determination (definiteness\indefiniteness)

There are various approaches. The main are the theory of definiteness-indefiniteness, the contextual theory, logical theory referential theory. In some languages the category of article determination is expressed morphologically through special forms of the word.

Lexically: there are numbers of definiteness-indefiniteness. There are 2 articles in E. The ind A has 2 meanings: indefiniteness & oneness.

The def A has 2 meanings: definiteness & demonstrativeness. The absence of the article can also be meaningful: for counts & uncounts it has the classif N. For this reason it often cno article.

If the A in general is treated as a morpheme. So the meaning of the absence of the A is 1 of the articles

Allomorph of the def A as opposed. Bloch suggests the following binary opposition Article spell separately, it possess its own wage & wide lexical meaning. If we assume that there is the morphological category of article determination in E The combinations: a boy & the boy are analytical forms which enter some oppositions. Hence a & the are not independent words & not constitute a special part of speech. The article in E doesn’t change grammatically as a real auxiliary. The articles differ in theprocess of structuring information. The def. A indicates the facts familiar the starting point of communication (the theme). The indefinite A signals the new element of info – the rheme.

The Problem of Number of Articles in ME – There is no unanimity of views on this problem.

Only 2 material articles: the def. & the indef. But the distinction betw. the “A (the)speech” is incomplete. It must be completed by 1 more member: “speech” without any article. (“The divine gift of speech”)

The 3d member of this opposition is treated differently:

- Traditional gr. – the absence of article is described as the omission of the article. It’s wrong to use the word “omis-n”, as the A. is omitted only in certain styles. (telegrams, announcements, newspaper headlines).

- Sometimes the phenomenon is described as the meaningful absence of the A.

- Acc. to another point/o/v there exist a special zero A. This idea is not shared by all

a) Иванова, Почерцова - find this idea shaky, as the existence of a Z.A. can be recorded only if we interpret the A. as a morpheme. We can’t do so as the A. can be separated from the N. (an urgent question) & because A-s. can be replaced by pron-s. Acc. to Иванова, Почепицова there is no such thing as a zero article

This statement is not very convincing, because there are various kinds of words. In Russian there is a zero copula: Он здоров and it is contrasted Он был, будет здоров. The copula быть has 3 forms: был, будет, zero form for the Present.

So there is every reason to believe that the zero-form of the copula and the zero article are similar phenomena.

b) Ильиш is also very cautious. He does not recognize the zero article, he recognizes the zero form of the article.

c) As to Блох; he does recognize the existence of the zero article and defines it as a special kind of grammatical auxiliary. He treats the combination of an article with a noun as an analytical form and, remaining true to himself, he sets up a separate grammatical category, the category of determination of the noun.

It is based on a 3-member opposition, where the definite article is opposed to the indefinite article and to the zero article.

The noun. then, has 3 grammatical categories: number, case, determination.