Optionality in english grammar

Abstract

© Medwell Journals, 2016.The main objective of the styudy is the analysis of the use of articles with common nouns in the English language in terms of optionality. Optionality here is observed as a linguistic phenomenon which involves an optional or free use of one of the grammar variants or language means conveying meaning in the particular linguistic and extralinguistic terms. The co-existence of parallel structures in the use of articles with a common noun is a widely spread phenomenon in modern English. As a result the study attempts to determine the obligatory and optional variants of the use of articles, based on the semantic and structural reasons. The researcher comes to the conclusion that the study of grammatical variants in the usage of articles has an extremely high theoretical and practical importance because the existing rules for the use of articles in modern English are not always circumstantial as they regulate the use of articles, restricting them to a limited number of language situations.