Using the indefinite articles

[Melissa Smith]

I'm reproducing here my "private" message to the inquirer:

Dear Konstantin:

As a native speaker of English, in my translation practice, I would
probably use "one SINGLE", "LONE", "a CERTAIN man, firm, etc." I don't
think the indefinite article alone has sufficient weight in English to
convey the singularity of the person, etc. in question, and would use
some lexical variant. So I would describe the difference as one of
EMPHASIS, rather than formal or informal. But maybe linguists will
explain it differently.

Melissa
 
On 2/19/10 9:33 AM, Robert Orr wrote:
> could we have this discussion in p;ublic?  looks very worthwhile!
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Goloviznin Konstantin" <kottcoos at mail.ru>
> To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
> Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 6:53 AM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Using the indefinite articles
> 
> 
> > Hi, all.
> >
> > I was a bit suprisied to discover the indefinite article in ... 
Russian. 
> > But it really exists (in spite of the Official Grammar being blind 
on 
> > this). Just compare:
> >
> > Есть у нас ОДИН(= количество) мужик в деревне ... нам бы еще одного.
> >
> > И
> >
> > Жил был ОДИН (= какой-то, некоторый) старик со своею старухой у 
самого 
> > синего моря.
> >
> > According the "iron-made" grammar rule the indefinite article must 
be 
> > always used with singular countable nouns. From another hand live 
speech 
> > trespasses this rule any time when a possibility appears: just to 
keep 
> > words in fluency I have to use the indefinite article otherwisely I 
don't 
> > use it. So we have two rules on using the article in English: formal 
and 
> > informal.
> >
> > According the informal rule the following sentence in Russian works: 
зашел 
> > я как-то в ОДНУ фирму. Speaking - зашел я как-то в фирму - is not 
> > convinient.
> >
> > What do you think about those two rules? Let me know!
> >
> > With respect,
> > Konstantin.
> >
> > 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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