Sydorovych L. Grammaticalization Paths of the Category of Definiteness / Indefiniteness in the English Language of the VII - XVII centuries

This dissertation focuses on revealing the ways of grammaticalization of the category of definiteness / indefiniteness in the English language of the VII - XVII centuries. In the course of the investigation it is determined that there exists an intermediate link between demonstrative pronoun / numeral and definite / indefinite articles, which in this paper is labelled as protoarticle. The transformation of the demonstrative pronoun into the definite protoarticle dates back to the IX - Х centuries and is caused by the substitution of the deictic seme in the semantic kernel of the pronoun with the definiteness seme. In the XII century the numeral changes into the indefinite protoarticle. This transformation is brought about by the replacement of the unicity seme with the indefiniteness seme in the semantic structure of the numeral. After the inclusion of the semes 'given' and 'new' into the semantic fields of the definite and indefinite protoarticles, they undergo transformation into articles in the XIV - XV centuries. This process leads to the extension of usage of both articles. The definite article becomes a regular modifier of concrete nouns in generalized reference, abstract and uncountable nouns and the so-called Unica nouns. The indefinite article is used to define zero or generalized reference of concrete nouns and abstract nouns which are modified by a complement. Key Words: grammaticalization, definite article, indefinite article, definite protoarticle, indefinite protoarticle, demonstrative pronoun with bleached deictic meaning, numeral with indefiniteness seme prevailing over unicity seme, seme 'given', seme 'new', reinterpretation.