Articles in Romance languages: contrastive and linguistic-cognitive approach

Aim. To analyze and describe the current state of the article category in Romance languages.

Methodology. The key research method was the contrastive method with elements of the linguisticcognitive approach. An analysis of article usage in Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and French was carried out. A typology of article use in four functioning formats has been identified: definite, indefinite, partitive, zero.

Results. It has been proven that the general Romance features of article usage in the languages under consideration include the use of the definite article. Particular features of the use of articles in Romance languages include the specific discourse functioning of the partitive article in French, and the linguistic-cognitive features of the absolution of the article (zero article) in Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian. It is shown that the article can perform several functions in a statement, for example, the role of a definite or indefinite determiner of a name, and also play the role of an actualizer, transforming a virtual noun into a realized noun, or it can introduce a noun phrase with a hyperonym that refers to the set of designated nouns. Emphasis is placed on the difference between its use in a "core" language such as French and in so-called "peripheral" languages such as Spanish and Portuguese on the one hand, and Romanian on the other. Comparing the use of the article in Romance languages, it is found that the zero article is more common in the so-called “peripheral” languages than in standard French. This fact is explained by the fact that the article zero is a kind of equivalent of the French partitive article, since from a formal point of view the first can correlate with the indefinite article un/une in a negative sentence and, to a certain extent, with the indefinite article of the plural des. Prospects for further linguistic-cognitive and contrastive studies of functional equivalents of the article category in distant languages are proposed.

Research implications. The theoretical and practical significance lies in revealing the linguistic-cognitive potential of article usage in Romance languages, as well as the constructive functions of the noun in a synergistic connection with the use of the article. The most significant theoretical results of the comparison concern the subject, direct object, subject attribute, and prepositional complement. The results of the study can be applied in university courses on theoretical and practical grammar of Romance languages.

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