1. The Article. The general notion.

The Article is a structural part of speech which is used with the noun. As a rule the article expresses no lexical meaning and it is not translated into Ukrainian. The article usually performs some grammatical functions:

1. It can identify a word showing that it is a noun but not the other part of speech.

E.g. There is a book on the table.

2. The article determines the noun singling out a certain person or thing differing from the other similar nouns.

E.g. Give me the book which is on the table.

3. The article shows the superlative degree of the quality of the noun. The definite article is usually used in this function if the noun is modified by an adjective in the superlative degree.

E.g. This is the most interesting book I’ve ever read. Це найцікавіша книга, яку я будь-коли читала.

NOTE. The indefinite article can be used with a noun modified be an adjective in the superlative degree but in this case it has the meaning ‘very’.

E.g. It’s a most interesting book. Це дуже цікава книга.

4. The article can be used to show the order of a noun in a row of similar nouns.

E.g. I need the first book, not the second one.

Sometimes the article is lexicalized and it acquires a certain lexico-grammatical meaning. As a result it may serve as

• a particle (E.g. the more, the better – чим більше, тим краще. She would call him an odd man – Вона назвала б його просто диваком);

• a pronoun (E.g. He never sold a picture – Він так і не продав жодної картини);

• an adjective (E.g. She had acquired a reputation – Вона здобула солідну репутацію).

In some cases the article can show some lexical meaning and it can be translated into Ukrainian as a noun.

E.g. the Browns – родина Браунів, the Alps - гори Альпи, at the baker’s – в хлібному магазині.

2. Factors that influence the translation of articles. The influence of origin on translation.

As it has been mentioned the article is a structural part of speech which has no lexical meaning and is not translated into Ukrainian. It is explained by the fact that our language has no articles at all and we can’t find any equivalent part of speech in it. On the other hand, there are cases when the article is to be translated as its use becomes quite meaningful. So we can speak about some factors which influence the necessity of searching for the appropriate variant in Ukrainian. They are:

1. the origin of the article;

2. its lexico-grammatical meaning;

3. the contextual environment.

It’s common knowledge that the indefinite article is derived from the old English numeral ‘an’ which means ‘one’. It usually implies ‘one of many’ which equals to ‘any’. As a result of its origin the indefinite article is used only with countable nouns in the singular usually preserving the indefinite meaning. When we have the first reference to an object, we present it as one of many similar objects of the same kind and there’s no need translating the indefinite article into Ukrainian.

E.g. This is a book. (one of many books of the same kind) – Це книга.

But sometimes it’s necessary to emphasize the indefinite meaning of the article in Ukrainian translation and we use the corresponding pronouns ‘якийсь, будь-який’.

E.g. A man is waiting for you. – Якийсь чоловік чекає на вас.

The definite article is derived from the old English pronoun ‘se’ which means ‘this’. As a result of its origin the definite article often preserves its demonstrative meaning and it usually determines this particular noun being translated into Ukrainian by means of demonstrative pronouns ‘цей, той, такий’.

E.g. I need the book badly.- Мені дуже потрібна ця книга.