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18
Introduction
apparentlylitle-motivateduses,oftentimessidesteppedassimplyidiomatic
orconventional.WhileIdonotnegatetheexistenceofconvention,Iclaimthat
itisalltooeasilyresortedtoastheultimateanswer.Onthecontrary,inthe
presentworkIatempttoseekcognitivemotivationforwhat,havingsprung
upfromcognition,laterbecameconventionalized.
Secondly,theEnglisharticlesconstituteaverydemandingaspectofusage
fornativespeakers.Itisprobablyaregularexperienceofthousandsofnon-
nativeEnglishteachers,translators,writersandscholarstoinquirewithnative
speakersaboutthisorthatusageandreceivediferent,oftencontradictory
answersfromdiferentcompetentinformants.Moreover,thesamespeaker
mayprovidediversesolutionstothesameproblemsondiferentoccasions.
Thisshowsnotonlythatspeakersadoptvariousviewpointsonthesamepor-
tionofreality,butalsothattheydonotalwayscontroltheseviewpointsatthe
consciouslevel.Buttheyneednot:themechanismofcategorizationdescribed
inVTasvantageconstructiondoesnotrequirethatthatthespeakerbeaware
ofwhathappensincognitionandlanguageuseandwhy.
Itisthereforeespeciallyappropriatethattheuseofarticlesbealsosub-
jectedtoananalysisbasedonthenotionofpointofview.Becausethearticles
aresmallinnumberandformasystemofoppositions,itisverytempting
todescribetheminsystemicterms,andindeedsuchdescriptionshavebeen
frequentlyproposed.Yet,despitetheirneatnessandpartialappropriateness,
theyarewoefullyinsufcient.Thepresentaccountproposestoatleastpartially
amendthatinsufciencybysearchingforthecognitivegroundingofboththe
systemicoppositionsandtheusesthatgobeyondthem.Iflanguageisasys-
tem(aviewnotalwayssharedbythemoreradicalthinkers,suchasŁozowski
2008),itisdefinitelymorethanasystem.Whateveritis,itsnatureandshape
must,Ibelieve,beatributedtocognitivegrounding,bothintheareaswhich
doandthosethatdonotexhibitsystemicfeatures.
Thereaderisthusinvitedtoembarkonthistwo-directionaljourney:into
theintricaciesofVantageTheoryandintothevastbutnavigableseasofthe
Englisharticleusage.Thetwopathseventuallymergeintoone,hopefully
coherent,account.