2.4. The article

The other direction of the development of the demonstrative pronouns sē, sēo, þæt led to the formation of the definite article. This development is associated with a change in form and meaning.

In OE texts the pronouns sē, sēo, þæt were frequently used as noun-determiners with a weakened meaning, approaching that of the modern definite article.

In the course of ME there arose an important formal difference between the demonstrative pronoun and the definite article: as a demonstrative pronoun that preserved number distinctions whereas as a definite article – usually in the weakened form the [ə] – it was uninflected. In the 14th c. the article had lost all traces of inflection and became a short unaccented form-word.

The meaning and functions of the definite article became more specific when it came to be opposed to the indefinite article, which had developed from the OE numeral and indefinite pronoun ān.

In OE there existed two words, ān, a numeral, and sum, an indefinite pronoun, which were often used in functions approaching those of the modern indefinite article. Ān seems to have been a more colloquial word, while sum tended to assume a literary character, particularly towards the end of the period, and soon fell into disuse in this function.

In Early ME the indefinite pronoun ān which had a five-case declension in OE lost its inflection. In the 12th c. the inflectional forms of ān reveal a state of confusion; in the 13^th c. the uninflected oon/one and their reduced forms an/a are firmly established in all regions. The use of articles at the age of Chaucer is often similar to what we find in English today.

3. Conclusions

The system of the declinable parts of speech underwent considerable simplification, at the same time developing new analytical features. The peculiarities of the nominal system in ME and Early NE can be summed up in the following way:

1. Reduction in the number of the declinable parts of speech.

2. Reduction in the number of declensions (whatever is preserved follows the a-stem masculine).

3. Reduction in the number of grammatical categories.

4. Reduction in the number of the categorial forms (the category of number of personal pronouns and case – of all nominal parts of speech).

5. Formation of a new class of words – the article.