Grammar is the branch of linguistics which deals with the rules that govern the language. It is, according to the Larousse dictionary, defined as a set of phonetic, morphologic and syntax rules written or spoken. It may roughly be defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words or bits of words in order to form longer units of meaning. There is a set of rules which govern how units of meaning may be constructed in any language. They bring to a language uniformity that is necessary for effective communication and universal understanding. It then may furnish the basis for a set of classroom activities during which it becomes temporarily the main learning objective. The learning of grammar should be seen in the long term as one of the means of acquiring or mastering the language as a whole, not as an end itself. 

Grammar is used to refer to a number of different things: it can be used to refer to books that contain descriptions of the structure of a language; it can be used to refer to the knowledge that a native speaker has of his or her language and to descriptions of that knowledge. It can also refer to a set of rules developed to control certain aspects of the usage of native speakers and to a set of rules typically taught in school about “appropriate usage” and about writing. However, through this grammar, English native speakers or learners express a lot of ideas some of which the definiteness. The notion of definiteness is a semantic feature of a noun phrase which distinguishes between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context and entities which are not.

Thus, this notion is expressed through determiners. A determiner is currently used by linguists to label a class of words which includes the definite and indefinite articles, the demonstrative adjectives and variety of other words that have much the same distribution as the definite article in sentences of English and certain other languages. This statement is not intended to serve as a definition, but merely as a rough-and-ready indication of the way in which the term “determiner” has come to be employed recently. In addition, it can be defined as any element whose function is to enter into the structure of referring expressions and to determine their reference as definite rather than non-definite. Given that, in such a language, there are forms or lexemes that would be classified as determiners by virtue of this criterion. However, there are several determiners some of which the articles, the demonstrative and possessive adjectives, the quantifiers etc. 

But as far as this work is concerned, only articles (definite article), expressing definiteness, are in focus. The definite article and the demonstrative adjective are historically linked. According to some scholars, the definite article in English comes from the demonstrative adjective. An article is a limiting word, not descriptive, which cannot be used alone, but always joined to a substantive word to indicate a particular thing or a group or class   of things   or any   individual of a   class or group.

Thus, a lot of work has been done in the field of articles and demonstrative adjectives. But whatever these works may be, some research can still be done in this field. For a lot of native speakers or students or learners of English still face difficulties when they want to express definiteness, mainly through the use of these operators. Some of them misuse articles or make confusion between the zero article and the definite. That is why this article has been written in order to shed light on this misunderstanding and to contribute to the explanation of definiteness through English grammar operators. 

Thus, to write this paper, a lot of research has been made in some libraries, books and net sources. So, the theoretical framework on which this study will be based is the theory of the enunciative operators elaborated by Antoine Culiolie. So, we will deal with the definite article “THE” and its different uses when it expresses definiteness in modern English grammar. 

Definite Article “THE”

The Definite article is an operator used to express definiteness in English grammar. It indicates that its noun is a particular one identifiable to the listener. It may be the same thing that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be something uniquely specified. The article is used to restrict the meaning of a noun to make it refer to something that is known by both the speaker or writer and the listener or reader. It is composed of two morphemes: “TH” which is an anaphoric segment showing that what is being talked about is presupposed to exist or to be seen or known or heard or touched or smelt etc. by both the enunciator and the co-enunciator; and “E” which confirms the acquired segment. 

The definite article “THE” comes from the old demonstrative adjective “THAT” which was also an article in Old English. In Middle English “THE” became article and “THAT” remains demonstrative. This filiation is still perceptible to the brute state in a reduced number of uses when these two determiners seem interchangeable. Besides, the primitive idea of showing and designating requires, in a considerable way, a less literary reading. According to some analysis of the function and meaning of the definite article, it is neither a pronoun nor an adjective, but a form which amalgamates both a pronominal component and predicative component used as adjective; and each of these is to be understood as being unmarked for the deictic distinction of proximity and remoteness. 

When expressions containing the definite article are used non-deictically, the adverbial component used as adjective with the definite article will inform the addressee that he or she will find satisfying the description somewhere. The presumption is that the addressee has all the information he or she needs in order to find it. It might appear that the derivation of the definite article would have the effect of making:

• I do not care about THE past; I want to see some of the leading minds of THE present. I will not say THE future because I do not believe much in your future (by an American journalist who goes to write a series of articles on England) 

In this example above, it seems rash to give the definite article some virtues of showing. It confers to the lexemes past, present and future the status of institutional subdivision of time. THE past, THE present and THE future are some acquired cultural notions which are part of the common mental patrimony. The enunciator immediately resorts to this operator, being assured that the hearer knows about what he or she means.

Actually, it can be said that “THE” article, qualified as the weaker form of THAT by O. Jespersen [1], has maintained the double idea of rapport to an anterior mental activity, that is to say that before designating there is location, record of a certain number of given things and phenomena. It has also maintained the idea of presupposition and existence. The enunciator treats this operator as a real asset in which he or she personally bet that his or her partner should be in a position to know the result of his or her work. This central functioning is exploded in several ways, whether it is about the collective usage that seems to require the presence of “THE” before certain nouns and its exclusion before others, or it is about the individual usage of the abstract properties to some semantic and modal ends.

• For nearly forty years Vinnie has suffered from the peculiar disadvantage of THE woman born without physical charms

In this example, “THE” allows the enunciator to create the effect of the well-known kind of woman by giving the impression that he or she refers to a pre-established category analyzed and considered by the whole society. So, there is also a strategy of determination peculiar to “THE”. This latter invariably uses the anaphoric dimension of this operator whatever the ultimate aim may be. Thus, in the following example, the definite article heavily contributes to support the inevitability ideas [2].

• The fading light on the pages of her book tells Vinie that it is time to leave if she wants to avoid THE homebound crowds        

In addition, sometimes, the definite article is used with singular countable noun. In this case, the writer or speaker uses a singular noun with a definite article to refer to a specific entity that has not been identified. This entity is an exemplar, that is, a hypothetical item used as a typical example, rather than a specific entity that one has in mind. For example, in a text about wildcats, one might read: 

• THE cheetah  is THE fastest land animal, capable of running bursts of up to 120 km, and can accelerate from 0 to 100 km in three seconds

The writer has no specific cat in mind, but uses the cheetah as a rhetorical or descriptive device, where the reader pictures in his/her mind a hypothetical or typical cheetah. This serves as a hypothetical example, as a representation of all cheetahs or of typical, every day, normal cheetah. This is similar to generic nouns but is more vivid. 

The use of this definite operator can indicate a shift in narrative point of view, or even the narrator’s point of view without regarding the reader’s understanding. This may be used to push the reader identify or empathize more with the writer’s point of view. This is a fairly common narrative technique, as in the following opening of a famous novel, and in the next example, a famous poem [3]. 

• Ah, distinctly I remember it was in THE bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought1 its ghost upon THE floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow(Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven) 

Even so, in the invectives resorting to “THE”, the judgment takes a turning that is whether obvious or depends on a series of anterior experiences or thoughts. Finally, the anaphoric dimension of the definite article makes it the excellent instrument of memory. The memorizing of the facts and the one of the psycho-grammatical operations of evaluation, localization, and identification collaborate in a narrow way. 

The English definite article “THE” is sometimes used as a tool of resumption, as an emphasis. For many grammarians and manual writers, “THE” is only used when the noun was presented by the zero or indefinite article. In so doing, “THE” is used to determine a noun which has become definite as a result of being mentioned a second time. 

• His car struck a tree; you can see THE mark on THE true 

A noun with the definite article can be easily identified by the reader for various reasons. It is often identifiable if it refers to a specific item that has been mentioned before, or if it can be easily identified from the context. A noun can be made identifiable in other ways, for example, when an enunciator implies that it is identifiable, and the co-enunciator can easily make the necessary connections by drawing from his or her background knowledge. Sometimes this article is used for special rhetorical or literary effects, as well as for highlighting new topics that are being introduced. When an enunciator uses a specific noun, previously mentioned, the co-enunciator has one specific, unique item or member in mind, which has been mentioned before, or is easily recognized from the context. For example, when one says the dog is hungry, they have a specific dog in mind, rather than dogs in general; the dog was mentioned before, or is physically present [4]. 

Actually, the definite article can be used as a tool of resumption. But this is not its own role; it can also be used to recap the anterior operations of presentation, introduction, characterization etc. in which the noun is involved or in which its presence in the text is linked. Thus, “THE” recapitulates in a very concise way the information that is contained in the anterior segments, tightening up the extra- textual links between what is anteriorly expressed and what is posteriorly expressed.

• Second Wind of Cuckold was about two married couples who have an affair each person in the foursome is physically handicapped. One of THE men is blind. THE other man has a stutter of such monstrous proportions that his dialogue is infuriatingly difficult to read. One of THE women has muscle spasms in her right arm. THE other woman suffers unpredictable, unstoppable flatulence [5]

This example constitutes the most concrete demonstration of the principals that have been seen for the moment. At first, there is a confirmation of the idea according to which the noun is not only “resumed” but the operations and the relations in which it has been involved. Secondly, this evocation of something already set touches its synthetic and cohesive character: “THE” recapitulates, in a very concise way, the information contained in the enlightened anterior segments. Even though, it tightens up the intra-textual relationships between what is anteriorly expressed and what is posteriorly expressed. 

New items are connected with previously mentioned items in the context, and the writer or speaker can assume that they are easily identifiable. For example, in the following wording about a particular computer, the noun phrases are marked with “THE”, because they are typical computer components, and thus are easily identifiable in the context. 

• THE computer has been constantly malfunctioning. THE hard drive had a corrupted boot sector, and THE MBR had to be reinstalled. Then THE BIOS settings somehow reverted to the factory settings

In topic highlighting or prominence, a writer or speaker may introduce a new topic; a new noun with this operator, if it is an important topic or item that he or she will continue discussing. This draws the reader’s attention to the item, and is a common narrative technique in writing and speaking. 

• Did you hear about THE fight last night? Fight? What fight? THE fight between the Mayor Quimby and Mr. Brockman, the reporter

The English definite article is also used before words designating the institutions such as the Police, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force etc:

• THE police are looking for the robber

• THE Senegalese army went to Mali last month for negotiations 

The nouns of nationalities, whether they are similar to adjectives or not, are used in plural with the definite article to refer to the whole nation or people that represent them.

• The Brazilians are likely to win THE world cup

• THE Ethiopians won the race of the Olympic Games 

According to Grevisse, the definite article individualizes the being or the nominated object and as to Zandvoort the definite article indicates that the substantive that follows designs in particular a person, an animal, or a thing distinct from the other species. With the English definite article, the speaker does not aim the extra linguistic anymore because the existence of an element is no more in question, it is presupposed [6]. 

• Types of table service: when is THE coffee served

• In university THE strike takes place every end of the month

Here the coffee is already involved in table service; the thematisation is from what is already said and not from what is real. The marks are in a kind of unhooking in relation to the real. “THE” shows that the nominal group is in the second group. The relation is presented as thematical by the enunciator.

• Look, THE ice is floating on the water. Mind THE step

• Be careful THE train is coming 

The enunciator shows that he or she has become the subjective testimony of the situation he or she is resuming. What is necessary here is his or her testimony. In this example, mind and look are some releasers of the nominal group thematic. If somebody is asked to mind something, it is because this is presupposed to exist. 

“THE” is sometimes used as a mark of reflexive operation to express definiteness. In this case it permits to the enunciator to stress on the fact that the elements are sparkling in this predication. It also indicates that, somehow or other, the speaker intervenes on the semantic program of the notion. There is no longer a faithful image of the reality; but an image that is filtrated. There is an interval related to the extra linguistics. This relative alteration of the program of sense is inflected by the context of the situation. 

• I blew my horn. THE lion roared 

• Beats of prey such as THE lion or tiger 

Here, roared comes and limits the lion to a particular lion. In other words, there is resumption, hence the use of “THE”. In the wake of beast of prey the lion falls over a generic interpretation. With the definite article, the enunciator can alter the noun extension. In this present case, this operator permits to effectuate a generalization and an obvious metalinguistic operation. In other words, the alteration permits to effectuate a particularization. The definite article comes from the second phase and permits to play on the extension according to the intensions of the enunciator and the context demands. The distance in relation to the extra-linguistics offers a certain liberty. Hence, this variety of meaningful effects that first seems inconceivable.     

In other cases, the alteration permits to complete a particularization. “THE” comes under the second phase and makes it easy to play on the extensions about the intensions of the speaker and the demands of the context. The distance linked to the extra linguistic offers a certain liberty related to the enunciator; hence this effect varieties of sense which, at first can be incompatible. Furthermore, the nominalized adjectives permit, with “THE” to refer to some official groups. This operation is linked to the generic interpretation. In some expressions called distributives the operator “THE” can also be used. It is institutionally about some given reference marks. On the other hand, it is not about a particular and concrete measure. It is only about a link. The thematisation is also linked by the iteration that involves the use of the unit. 

Sometimes, it can often be said that the enunciative anterior work that the enunciator has when they use the definite article plus a noun, includes a supplementary stage that the co-enunciator can perfectly grasp for him/herself. 

• We pulled up in front of THE Mack house, and I lifted Jeanine down up to Harrison, who waved from THE porch

• In this example, THE porch is interpreted by the reference to THE Mack house anteriorly enounced. The acquired segment, on which the enunciator leans, is simultaneously textual and cultural. In this analysis there is a referral to the notion of cultural implicit. The term implicit, which is devoted by the usage and is not one of the happiest for the collective knowledge on which the enunciator focuses, is explicitly marked by “TH” even if the exact composition and the elaboration stages of this knowledge are not specified. Consider the following example

• It was wrong to be mean, to be jealous, to be false, to be cruel; she had seen very little of THE evil of THE world, but she had seen women who lied and who tried to hurt each other

In this example, the universal reign of the evil (THE evil of the world) is a received idea which belongs to the system of collective metaphysic reference. The preliminary stage “the world is evil” is really acquired by the enunciator. 

Besides, it is believable that “THE evil of the world” is primitively created in the speech but if there is a deeper study of the language, it can be said that it can function like many compound lexemes.  In this example, the use of the definite article intends to crystallize something that is already set and collectively thought. It is where the identification, opposition and association operations and even a judgment on which the noun is involved, form a pre-constitute program out of which the noun would envisage. 

The definite article can also be used to express some collective representations, values and myths. The following examples can show it.

• But my dear Sebastien, you cannot seriously believe it all; can’t I? I mean about Christmas and THE star and THE three kings and THE ox and THE ass

In this example, THE star and THE three kings and THE ox and THE ass do not constitute an analytic decomposition of Christmas but they constitute a paraphrastic expansion. This latter does not have an exploration value but a reminder. It is not for the enunciator to start an investigation in speech about what Christmas covers; investigation which would be destined to fulfill an informational deficit in his partner, but to question a pre-constituted scenario that any Christian took during his or her childhood.

Consequently, the way the nominal group is treated and thought when the definite article is used is not the same if this nominal group is used with another operator. “THE” can also be used if one wants to deal with some personal truths presented as universal. In this case, this operator, setting an acquired of something already instituted and evaluated, gives the possibility to deal with ideas, something peculiar to an individual as if it were about some established facts in front of everyone.

• Projects such as hers, the article stated, are a prime example of THE waste of public funds, THE proliferation of petty and useless scholarship, THE general weakness and folly of THE humanities in America today

The author of this wording goes from the principal that the university research is nothing but a complete failure, a growing source of wasting. This opinion can be regarded as partial, and it is presented, thanks to “THE”, as an acquired truth to which the most part of American people would be supposed to adhere. In addition, the definite article can be used to mark a perceptive and evaluative work in the extra linguistics. The referrer of the nominal group can be generally localized and identified by the enunciator. This latter can estimate that his/her partner is able to interpret the nature and the well-founded of the preliminary activity. 

The English definite article “THE”, used with an emphasis stress or not, functions sometimes as a tool of maximization, intensification or reinforcement; notions that will be gathered under the term of “amplification”.

• To all of them this world is really and truly a place of exile. Life is a cross which they willingly bear, but in their hearts all the time is THE desire; oh it is so much stronger that desire, it is a long, an eager passionate longing for the death which will lead them to life everlasting

In this example, THE desire is explicitly defined as being much more than desire. The role that this English definite article has to itself requires a complementary lexicalization during the analytic definition of the enunciator. The level, the nature and the interpretation of the amplification vary in function according to the context. The appreciative position of the enunciator is also potential and can be explained in several different ways.

So, some items are part of everyone’s knowledge of the world, and do not need to be identified, as they can be readily identified with little context. For example, it is always said the sun or the moon, because these are readily identifiable; there is only one sun and one moon. However, if there is a planet with two moons (like Mars) or two suns (like a planet in a binary star system), it would have to be specified which one it is. 

There is also with this definite article a functioning that can be qualified as intermediary and which corresponds, according to Guillaume, to the value of impressive extension or to the non-strict situational anaphor. Once the situation is set, there is automatically an evocation of a series of notions and/or of referrers that belong, in some normal conditions, to this situation. 

• Dorothy had had a letter from him, and he had said all manner of things about her devoted work at the convent, about her courage and self-control. Of course he was skillfully pulling her leg: THE dirty dog

• I realized that Harry had edged nearer to me on the sofa and was holding my hand. My main feeling on discovering this was one of irritation. THE silly old thing, I thought; but then I felt flattered and little guilty

• In these two statements (THE dirty dog; THE silly old thing), it is easy to reconstruct the psycho-grammatical stage which logically precedes the enunciation of the sentence. The definite article, in an authoritarian way, imposes this anterior stage in putting it in the acquired character

After legitimating the anaphoric dimension of the definite article, and putting out that this operator shows the existence of a psycho grammatical asset in which the enunciator leans, the most signifying exploitation of this abstract process has been examined: textual anaphor, cultural anaphor, situational anaphor and appreciative intervention. 

R. Quirk, Comprehensive 265 said that the definite article “THE” is used to mark the phrase it introduces as definite, example as referring to something which can be identified uniquely in the contextual or general knowledge shared by the speaker and hearer. 

This determinative and definitory problematic are not incompatible with the analysis that is just made. The precision, the high level of determination, the definiteness are some mental elaborations which all require a consequent anterior work that the enunciator has. The noun that the definite article determines is supposed to be particularized, precise and identified. In the appreciative uses of this definite article for example, the notion of referential precision can lead to some nonsense. 

Besides, the determinative approach encourages the illusion that any adjunction to a noun precision, under a pre-modification or post-modification form is sufficient to define and to use the definite article. From, a rhematic status of the nominal group, some effects of surprise or non-integrated information, with the absence of the enunciator’s stand, this latter can refer to the use of the definite article. Hence, there are some reject or off-breaking effects during the speech:

• On turning a corner he came upon a scene of some activity. A representative of THE law was making notes in pocket-book

• Suddenly he stopped dead and listened intently. He had heard a certain sound. It might have been THE bursting of a tyre or it might have been a shot

Furthermore, sometimes the definite article can stand for the homologue of will. According to the enunciator, the existence of a person or thing is compatible with the context. It is a kind of prejudice of existences. In this case, the acquired segment permits to predict.

• If you leave THE car lights on all night you will run THE battery down

• A thermometer registers the temperature, when THE mercury expands or contracts to a certain mark in degrees

The definite article can also permit the enunciator to stress on the fact that in this predication the elements are shedding light on the context. In this case, it is used as the reflexive operation mark. The following examples enlighten this idea [7].

• Cheddar is THE place for strawberries

• That war that for me would always be THE war

In these examples, the stress aims at this implication relation that it reinforces. There is a homologue with the stress called emphatic. These elements, which can be considered to be mirror, exclude any refer to the extra-linguistics. In other contexts, this definite article can only be used for its restrictive potentialities [8]. 

The distance in relation to the person can be shown thanks to the use of “THE” plus proper noun. That being so it can be said to be a reminder. This English definite article can also be used to indicate that the noun it determines is no longer an individual that held this noun in the origin; the distance becomes deletion. Some comparisons involve some gaps towards the individual that serves as a landmark.

The question of definiteness traditionally constitutes the kernel of grammatical representations. Thus, this work has shown that it (definiteness) can be expressed through the definite article. This operator specifies the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. It then appears as a real mental work on the referential holding of the noun to which it refers.

Thus, although the abstract and invariant properties of the English definite article are enlightened, it can be supposed that the appreciation using the schema of the determination “THE” plus noun exploits the concept of the operational acquired character. The enunciator focuses on something already thought, recorded or analyzed on which (s)he imposes the result. This always confers, to some value judgment given with the aid of “THE”, a verdict character: the preliminary questioned by “TH” and closed by “E”. It can be thought that the definite article gives a very particular status to the enunciator’s stand and status that would be confused with the one of the zero or indefinite article. 

Once the enunciator admits the idea by referring to the use of the definite article, (s)he establishes a rapport to a psychic anteriority. In addition, the particular uses of “THE” in which the appreciative charge is manifest and afterwards continues with some less marked cases but also salutary can be examined. Furthermore, with the aid of this definite article, the enunciator can note the mark of the operation groups and the relations that he or she must have mentally linked to reach his or her verdict. Thus, contrary to the zero or indefinite article, with the definite article the appreciation takes a more complex, more intellectualized and frequently more distant way. However, the definite article is not the only operator used to express definiteness. This notion can also be expressed through the use of the demonstrative adjective.

1. Jespersen, Otto. A modern English grammar on historical principles, part II: Syntax (1st vol.). London: Allen and Unwin, 1970.

2. Adamczewski, Henri and Claude Delmas. Grammaire linguistique de l’anglais. Paris: Editions Armand Collins, 2004.

3. Adamczewski, Henri and Jean Pierre Gabilan. Les clés de la grammaire anglaise. Paris: Edition Armand Collins, 1993.

4. Bouscaren, Janine et al. Pratique raisonnée de la langue. Paris: Edition OPHRYS, 1996.

5. Gabilan, Jean-Pierre. Grammaire expliquée de l’anglais. Ellipses Edition Marketing, 2006.

6. Garnier, Georges, Guimier, Claude, and Dilys Rosalind. L’épreuve de linguistique à l’agrégation d’anglais. Armand Colin, 2004/2005.

7. Lapaire, Jean Rémi and Wilfrid Rotge. Linguistique et grammaire de l’anglais. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2000.

8. Larreya, Paul and Claude Rivière. Grammaire explicative de l’anglais. Edition: Pearson France, 2014.