A Historical Overview of the Indefinite Article Studies in Spanish Grammar

Introduction

The modern grammar of the Spanish language quite clearly describes the forms and functions of the indefinite article. Over the long history of Spanish studies, various works have been published that cover this issue in more or less detail. Nevertheless, many issues remained controversial and poorly understood.

The purpose of this article is to reveal the versatility of the process of formation and evolution of the indefinite article system from its Latin predecessors qunus and quidam to the current state. This is necessary both to understand the initial skepticism of grammarians who did not recognize the forms un, una as articular and did not distinguish the indefinite article in Spanish as a separate grammatical category, and the reasons for the controversial description of this phenomenon in the modern grammatical tradition.

Unlike the definite article (el, la, los, las), which arose from demonstrative pronouns and was studied in sufficient detail by historians of the Spanish language, the formation of the indefinite article remained insufficiently studied for a long time. Meanwhile, the appearance of articles in the process of forming the Spanish language led to drastic changes in the structure of the nominal group: if articles did not exist as a separate class in Latin, then in modern Spanish they are an integral part of the language system.

The relevance and novelty of this article are determined by the fact that, firstly, it presents a critical analysis of the accumulated experience of studying the history of the indefinite article by both Russian and foreign scientists, and secondly, it takes into account various aspects of the grammaticalization process of the Latin numeral unus "one" into a service element, i.e. the indefinite article. Such an analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the general mechanisms of linguistic change, the peculiarities of the formation of the grammatical system of the Spanish language and the different status of the indefinite article at different stages of the evolution of the Spanish language.

1. Etymology and grammatical functions of unus in folk Latin

The Latin language had an extensive system of indefinite pronouns, including, in particular, quis, aliquis and quidam. In comparison with languages that have articles, the contrast of specificity and (non)definiteness in Latin was expressed not by articles, but by using these three types of indefinite pronouns ^{[19; p. 25]}.

At the same time, the following separation occurred:

(1) quidam — "certain, definite", designates a specific object known to the speaker;

(2) aliquis — "some kind", an indefinite object unknown to the speaker;

(3) quis — "anyone, anyone", is used in conditional or interrogative contexts to denote an arbitrary, unidentified object ^[23].

In the speeches of Plautus and Cicero, and later in the Late Latin monuments, for example, in the text of the Vulgate, the ognus can be found in an "article-like" function. However, this usage was not the general norm of the Latin language; it reflects an early semantic revision of the original quantitative meaning of the word ainus as the numeral "one" towards an individualizing, presentational determinative.

An outstanding researcher in the field of the Spanish indefinite article X. Posado points to these cases as the preliminary stages of grammaticalization of the article. At the same time, she emphasizes that in Latin, the numeral qunus has not acquired a stable grammatical meaning of the article, only occasionally approaching the role of the indefinite pronoun quidam ^{[19; p. 134]}.

Thus, there were no articles in classical Latin, although during the transition from classical to vulgar Latin, the transition from the category of numerals to the category of "article-like" determinants is planned. Already in the monuments of late vulgar Latin (III-VII centuries), Latin and the early Romance languages (IX-X centuries), the vernus is regularly used as an indefinite article. It was from this initial grammatical form that the indefinite article subsequently developed in Romance languages, including modern Spanish un, una.

2. The formation of the indefinite article paradigm in Spanish

In the Old Spanish language (the period of the early Middle Ages, X-XIII centuries. ^{[3; p. 158]}) the process of desemantization of unus into a full-fledged article has not yet been completed. Medieval texts demonstrate a much more free use of nouns without any determinative than modern language.

Thus, in the 12th-century literary monument "The Song of My Side", only about 59% of nominal groups have an article or other determinative with them, while the remaining ~ 41% are used without it ^{[18; p. 447]}. Moreover, even in those groups where there is a determinative, the vast majority contains a definite article: the ratio of the use of forms of definite and indefinite articles in this text is about 26:1 ^{[18; p. 455]}. In other words, for every use of the indefinite article un in the Song of Sid, there are more than two dozen cases of the use of the definite article el.

At the same time, the absence of the article in the texts in Old Spanish was not chaotic. Researchers note that the zero mark of determination, i.e. the non-use of the article, was more common in certain semantic and syntactic positions, for example, in the names of positions and social roles, as well as before nouns denoting gender, class, species ^{[18; p. 453]}. Consider a line from the "Song of Sid": "Piden a sus fijas a mio Çid... por seer reynas de Navarra i de Aragon" (v. 3398) – (the ambassadors) ask the daughters of the Cid to become queens of Navarre and Aragon (translated by N. Lyubimova), where the addition reynas ("queens") expresses social status in a general sense and is used without the article in the nominal part of the predicate. In such cases, the absence of the article indicates a generic meaning or class of objects.

Nevertheless, already in the Old Spanish period, the beginnings of the modern use of the indefinite article can be traced. The forms u n, una begin to appear before nouns denoting a single referent not yet known to the addressee, especially when the speaker introduces a new character or subject into the narrative. Although such uses are infrequently recorded, it was in this era that the function of "presenting" a new participant in communication using un was consolidated.

For example, in the Chronica de Pedro López de Ayala (Crónica de Pedro López de Ayala)There is a phrase equivalent to "one man came," where un omne is used to refer to a certain person who was not mentioned before. [Cronicas de los Reyes de Castilla Don Pedro, Don Enrique II, Don Juan I, Don Enrique III (1779) - López de Ayala, Pedro]. Such contexts indicate that the meaning of un is gradually shifting from the purely quantitative "one" to the vaguely personal "some, some".

However, it is important to emphasize that in Old Spanish the forms un, una, unos, unas did not yet have the status of a mandatory grammatical means of expressing particularization. At this stage of language development, it was impossible to assert the consistency of this grammatical category; speakers often resorted to the null article or using other means of grammatical actualization of the referent. It was premature to talk about the formation of a clear opposition of the extensive and antiextensive articles. Thus, the system of means of expressing the category of certainty/uncertainty remained insufficiently formed and was characterized by the variability of the use of the article or its absence.

A characteristic feature of the Spanish language is the difference between the form of the numerals uno, una and their truncated version for the masculine gender un. The masculine form of the Latin ūnus in the position before the noun, having lost the final -o, turned into the old Spanish un. This can be clearly seen already in the most ancient monuments: in medieval texts, the masculine gender of the indefinite article was usually written as un (for example, un omne – "one person"). The noun uno was preserved only in its absolute position, most often when expressing the role of a number: Tienes caballo? – Tengo uno. ("Do you have a horse? – There is one (horse)").

The feminine form did not encounter the truncation of the final vowel, not only in terms of semantic function (gender expression), but the phonological rule of apocopa, which developed in late folk Latin and Old Spanish, was crucial: the final unstressed ‑o was regularly omitted in the proclitic positions before the next word — hence uno > un, bueno > buen, primero > primer and etc. The unstressed ‑a in these positions did not disappear (a similar phenomenon is seen in the adjectives buena, primera, etc.)

The form unos (plural of uno) originally did not have its own quantitative meaning "several" and was used only with nouns that did not have a singular form (the so-called pluralia tantum).

In classical Latin, there was no full-fledged plural form of the numeral "one", since it was impossible to say "two units" in the meaning of "several". Therefore, other lexemes were used to express the idea of "a few, some", for example, nonnulli or quidam in the plural.

In colloquial late Latin, a construction with the forms una, unae could arise in relation to nouns used only in the plural, for example, unae scalae – "some scales", cf. Spanish unas escalas.

At the stage of transition from vulgar Latin to Proto-Roman languages, the forms unos and unas gradually became fixed to convey the indefinite plural meaning of "some, several". Initially, their use was very limited: the plural forms unos/unas were more often found with nouns that do not have a singular like unas tijeras – "scissors", or were tracing paper from Latin models. In the grammar of the Spanish language in 1492, A. de Nebrija specifically emphasized that the form uno ("one") does not form a plural, as this contradicts its original meaning of the uniqueness of the subject. The only exceptions are cases when this form is used with nouns that do not have a singular number. As an example, Nebrikha cited the phrase unas tijeras (lit. "one pair of scissors"), clarifying that it is equivalent in meaning to the construction of un par de tijeras ("pair of scissors") ^[15].

In other words, at the end of the 15th century it was considered normative to use unos, unas only with paired or multiple objects, where unos actually means "one pair/unit (of a composite object)".

A. de Nebrija also noted another use of the form uno: it can be used not in a quantitative sense, but as a pointer to a separate, specific, though not completely defined object, like the Latin quidam. In such cases, Nebrikha emphasizes, the word uno acquires the meaning of "some" (cierto) and can be used in the plural ^[15].

By doing so, he actually recognized the existence of forms like un and uno that have a function other than the quantitative one, i.e., a function of the indefinite article, similar to the Latin quidam.

Thus, by the end of the medieval period, the forms un and uno acquired the meaning of a marker for the introduction of a new referent (what would later be called the "article of novelty"), although it was not yet widely used. The forms of the determinant of the plural unos, unas are beginning to be used not only in the literal sense of "couple", but also in the meaning of "some" in relation to countable nouns. This process reflects the gradual folding of the indefinite article singular and plural paradigms in Spanish ^[17].

3. Grammatization of un and recognition of the status of the indefinite article in the grammatical tradition

Until the turn of the XV-XVI centuries, the Castilian grammatical tradition did not have its own conceptual apparatus for describing the forms un, una, unos, unas, since it relied on Latin textbooks in which the article category was absent. Therefore, medieval authors interpreted un and una either as the quantitative numeral uno, or as an indefinite pronoun, and the forms of the definite article as a kind of indicative adjective. In other words, the grammatical category of the indefinite article did not yet exist: there were only word forms whose new official meaning of name particularization had not yet been described. Thus, a dilemma arose: to describe the Castilian language through the framework of the Latin scheme, without the article category, or to create your own classification reflecting the actual determinative functions of Spanish word forms.

In 1492, A. de Nebrija, in his Grammar of the Castilian Language, introduced the concept of the article into the Spanish grammatical tradition for the first time, but interpreted it specifically. According to A. de Nebrija, the article is an official part of speech that attaches itself to a noun and expresses the grammatical category of the genus ^[15].

In other words, he perceived el, la primarily as an indicator of grammatical gender (masculino/femenino).

The understanding of the indefinite article as a special unit had not yet been formed, and the un form continued to be perceived by grammarians as the numeral uno. In the following centuries, views on un as an article began to appear. Thus, G. de Correas, in The Art of the Castilian Language (1626), called this word form an "indefinite name" ("nombre indefinido") and actually described its use as an indefinite article. In the grammar of Gonzalo de Correas, published in 1627 under the title Trilingue de tres artes de las tres lenguas castellana, latina y griega, the indefinite article forms were directly named "artículo indefinido" in contrast to el, which is designated as "artículo demonstrativo". In fact, this is the first direct recognition of the un article recorded in the history of learning Spanish.

Thus, by the 17th century. In the Spanish grammatical tradition, the idea of the indefinite article as an independent grammatical category is finally formed. The grammatical forms of the article un begin to be functionally opposed to the forms of the definite article el on the basis of the expression of uncertainty or definiteness of the referent, although the terminological designation of this grammatical category was not definitively fixed and differed from one author to another.

In parallel, the concept of the article category as an independent part of speech was being formed in European grammatical science. A significant contribution to the development of theoretical understanding of the grammatical status of the article was made by the French Grammar of Port Royal (1660), which proposed a systematic logical and grammatical analysis of the article as an independent part of speech, which had a significant impact on the Spanish grammatical tradition. Already by the age of Enlightenment, an approach was established in Spanish grammatical thought, according to which articles are divided into two types: definite and indefinite, differing in their expressed grammatical meanings and functional and communicative role in a sentence. For example, the grammar of Benito San Pedro (1769) already demonstrates an approach to the indefinite article forms un, una as full-fledged grammatical units that express the category of uncertainty in its modern understanding.

Despite the gradual formation and consolidation of a new grammatical category of the article in Spanish, the question of its status as an independent part of speech remained controversial for a long period. Up to the XX century. In the Spanish grammatical tradition, doubts remained about the independent grammatical status of the indefinite article forms. In a number of grammatical descriptions, these forms were considered as varieties of adjectives or quantitative numerals. Only gradually, as a result of the development of theoretical research, the grammatical forms of the indefinite article were finally fixed as an independent official part of speech, realizing the grammatical function of expressing the category of uncertainty.

Under the influence of French treatises from the middle of the 18th century, the article is recognized as an official part of speech. The term determinante appears. Bello notes that the morphological unit un "restricts the extension of the concept, actualizing an arbitrary single referent," thereby approaching the concept of particularization, but the term antiextension is absent ^[24].

In the 20th century, Spanish grammatical research significantly deepened the study of the nature and functional and semantic features of the indefinite article, while various and sometimes contradictory points of view were put forward on the degree of grammaticalization of the article forms un, una. Thus, Amado Alonso was one of the first (1933) to consider the un article form as an independent grammatical unit denoting ambiguity, separating it from the initial quantitative value of the numeral ^{[10; p. 104]}. Lapesa introduces the artículo de novedad (un) / de continuidad (el) opposition ^[13].

At the same time, E. Alarcos Llorac emphasized the incomplete desemanization of the indefinite article form un, pointing out a number of its features that distinguish it from the fully grammaticalized definite article el. In his grammar, Alarcos Llorac identified two key features: first, the form of the indefinite article un supposedly retains independence (has its own stress), while the form of the definite article el most often appears proclitically and loses phonetic independence. Secondly, the un form retains elements of the original quantitative meaning ("uniqueness") and thus approaches numerals, while the el form is completely semanticized and expresses only the grammatical category of certainty. As Alarcos Llorac notes, "the form of the indefinite article un never reaches full grammaticalization to the extent that the form of the definite article el reaches it" ^{[12; p. 66]}.

4. The indefinite article in the writings of Russian Spaniards

The Russian grammatical tradition of the Spanish language pays special attention to the description of the grammatical category of uncertainty, the central means of expression of which are the forms of the indefinite article. Russian researchers have made a significant contribution to the study of this category by offering original functional, semantic and typological approaches.

One of the fundamental studies is the work of O. K. Vasilyeva-Shved and G. V. Stepanov (1980), in which the grammatical plural forms unos, unas are interpreted not as articles, but as pronominal forms with an indefinite quantitative meaning "several". The authors introduce the concept of "indefinite correlation", which denotes the representation of an object as one of an indefinite set of homogeneous objects. In particular, it is emphasized that the category of uncertainty can be expressed not only by the presence of the article in the singular (un libro), but also by its absence in plural nouns (libros) ^{[2; p. 32]}. This approach demonstrates the need to take typological differences into account when describing the article category, since unos-type forms in Spanish have a special functional status that is not completely analogous to all other Romance languages.

Modern works present a broader functional and semantic analysis of the grammatical category of uncertainty. Thus, V. B. Popova (2021) interprets the indefinite article as a deictic grammatical unit that implements a typical (categorical) meaning and allows for variability of the object's features. In her opinion, the indefinite article designates an object as a representative of a class without specifying its individual characteristics, which allows the speaker to point to an indefinite representative of a set of homogeneous objects (un perro – "a certain/some kind of dog") ^{[6; p. 21]}.

In the educational grammar of the Spanish language by N. I. Popova (2019), the indefinite article is described within the framework of its historical development from the numeral uno to a full-fledged grammatical form. It is noted that the main function of the indefinite article is to introduce a new referent into the speech context, as well as to designate a single object as a representative of a class of objects ^{[7; p. 25]}. Thus, the continuity of the historical significance and the modern function of the indefinite article is emphasized.

In the typological monograph by V. B. Kashkina (2001), the indefinite article is considered as an element of the functional and semantic field of uncertainty, while the author focuses on the typologically determined features of its functioning in different languages, including Spanish. This approach allows us to correlate the Spanish indefinite article with similar grammatical means of other languages and identify universal and specific features of expressing the category of uncertainty ^{[4; p. 11]}.

Russians Russian and Spanish, E. F. Kero analyzes the grammatical form of the indefinite article in Spanish and the means of expressing similar meanings in Russian (lexemes "one", "some", as well as the absence of a special marker) in his dissertation research (1999) on the comparison of the category of certainty/uncertainty in Russian and Spanish. The author notes the systematic grammatical nature of the category of ambiguity in Spanish, unlike in Russian, where such meanings are realized mainly lexically or using intonational means ^{[5; p. 18]}.

A functional approach to the analysis of the indefinite article is also presented in the work of N. V. Boronnikova (2002). The dissertation emphasizes that the indefinite article expresses not only the grammatical category of uncertainty, but also carries a special grammatical form, indicating either the uniqueness of the indefinite object or its presentative function of the whole class. Thus, the grammatical form of the article implements both the grammatical and pragmatically determined meaning of uncertainty ^{[1; p. 3]}.

Russian researchers have significantly expanded and supplemented their understanding of the category of uncertainty by developing original terms and approaches. Their contribution lies in the typological substantiation of the grammatical status of the indefinite article, as well as in the systematic functional, semantic and pragmatic analysis of this grammatical unit, which made it possible to clarify its role and meaning in the Spanish grammatical system.

5. The current state of the indefinite article in Spanish

In 1980-2000. In Spanish studies, there has been a transition from a predominantly descriptive and structural-functional analysis of the indefinite article to approaches that actively use the conceptual apparatus of formal semantics and generative grammar. Among the leading researchers who have made significant contributions to the study of the uncertainty category are I. Bosque, M. Leonetti, L. Laca, A. Escandell, M. R. Picallo, and E. Contreras.

In Sobre la diferencia entre determinación y especificidad (1989), I. Bosque draws an important distinction between two aspects of the meaning of the indefinite article: determination (the syntactic obligation of the article to a noun in a noun group) and specificity (the semantic operator indicating the speaker's acquaintance with the referent). Bosque emphasizes that the indefinite article acts as a determinant of uncertainty, characterized by existential quantification, in which one arbitrary instance is selected from a set of potential elements of a class, without requiring its uniqueness. In fact, this corresponds to the concept of antiextension, previously formulated in the framework of Guillaume's psychosystematics.

M. Leonetti, in his article "Los determinantes" (1999), published in the authoritative Gramatica descriptiva de la lengua española, develops a functional and semantic approach to the indefinite article, highlighting three main functions of the indefinite article in Spanish: presentative (introducing a new object), classifying (assigning an object to a certain class) and quantifying (designation of an indefinite quantity). Leonetti clearly correlates these functions with the language-speech dichotomy, which means the translation of a name from a state of potency to a state of speech actant.

Generative researchers (Laca, Escandel, Piccalo, Contreras) transfer the study of the indefinite article to the plane of the nominal group hypothesis, according to which the article is syntactically the head element represented by the determinative. In this model, the indefinite article is interpreted as an element defining an existential variable, meaning the choice of one object from a set.

In modern Spanish, the grammatical forms of the indefinite article un, una have finally established themselves as the main means of grammatical expression of the category of uncertainty. Within the framework of the modern grammatical tradition of the Spanish language, the indefinite article is considered as an independent official part of speech, included in the paradigm of determinants along with the forms of the definite article, possessive, demonstrative and other determinative pronouns ^[20]. According to the academic description presented in grammar by RAE (2009), the indefinite article forms un and una are clearly distinguished from the numeral uno based on differences in their grammatical function ^{[21; p. 832]}.

Nevertheless, individual lexical constructions in which the un form or its plural unos is present retain certain features of the original quantitative meaning. For example, the combination of the form unos with numerals expresses an approximate quantitative value (unos veinte minutos – "about twenty minutes"). In a construction like un... otro ("one... the other"), the initial value of the quantitative distribution is also preserved ^{[21; p. 832]}. However, in typical cases of use (in combinations of the indefinite article form with a noun), the indefinite article form is completely devoid of quantitative meaning and implements exclusively the grammatical function of expressing uncertainty. In the minds of native Spanish speakers, the indefinite article forms are fully grammaticalized, and quantitative meanings are expressed by other grammatical means or lexical units.

Modern academic descriptions of the Spanish language clearly record the grammatical status of the indefinite article, characterizing it as an independent official part of speech, included in the paradigm of determinants ^[21]. In particular, the "New Grammar of the Spanish Language" notes the functional opposition of the forms of the indefinite article to the form of the numeral uno. It is clarified that the absence of indefinite article forms in stable expressions and in combinations with certain lexico-semantic groups (for example, with names of professions and nationalities) is not related to the expression of quantitative meaning, but is due to grammatically or pragmatically fixed rules ^[21].

Thus, the forms of the indefinite article in modern Spanish are fully semanticized and function as an obligatory grammatical indicator of the category of uncertainty. They act as the main means of expressing the particularization of the actor of speech action, being in opposition to a certain article, which, on the contrary, express the generalization and prominence of the referent. As a result of a long historical development, the indefinite article has finally established itself as a separate official part of speech, systematically involved in the design of the nominal group.

Conclusion

In the course of the research, the history of the formation of the grammatical category of uncertainty in the Spanish language was revealed and described in detail, the central means of expressing which are the grammatical forms of the indefinite article (un, una, unos, unas). The research is based on the materials of such reputable Spanish writers as A. Alonso, E. Alarcos Llorac, R. Lapesa, H. Pozas-Loyo, I. Bosque, as well as Russian researchers: O. K. Vasilyeva-Shved, G. V. Stepanova, V. B. Popova, N. I. Popova, V. B. Kashkina, E. F. Kero and N.. V. Boronnikova.

As a result of the analysis, it was possible to trace the process of historical development of the indefinite article from the initial morpheme of the Latin numeral unus to the modern status of a fully grammatized element acting as a referent particularization in Spanish. In accordance with the research methodology, this process has been characterized as a classic example of desementization – the transformation of an initial full-valued unit into a grammatical form, accompanied by the gradual neutralization of its original grammatical content and the acquisition of a new one.

The study allowed us to perform a number of tasks, which included a detailed analysis of each stage of the development of the indefinite article. Thus, the original word form unus, its etymology and the original function of the numeral in vernacular Latin were described. At the next stage, the first signs of neutralization of the initial quantitative meaning of unus were revealed, the appearance of new, "article-like" functions and the beginning of its grammatization at the stage of the Old Spanish language development. It was found that during this period the articular function of the unus form had not yet been fully formed and its use was not systematic, which was manifested in the predominance of non-articular constructions. Later, the formation and consolidation of the paradigm of indefinite article forms (un, una, unos, unas) were described in detail, while it was emphasized that morphological changes (in particular, the apocopulation of the word form uno to un in the masculine gender and the formation of plural forms) were accompanied by the consolidation of new grammatical meanings.

Special attention was paid to the process of gradual recognition of the status of the indefinite article as a grammatical category in the Spanish academic tradition. The works of leading linguists of the XVI-XVII centuries (A. de Nebrija, G. de Correas) were analyzed, demonstrating a gradual awareness of the need to separate the indefinite article into a separate grammatical category. It was found that for a long period, doubts remained in the grammatical tradition of the Spanish language regarding the approval of the grammatical status of the indefinite article forms. However, studies of the 20th century, primarily the work of A. Alonso and E. Alarcos Llorac, led to the assertion of the grammatical status of the indefinite article forms (un, una, unos, unas) as an independent official part of speech expressing the grammatical category of uncertainty and functionally opposed to the definite article forms ^{[10, 12]}.

An important part of the work was the study of the contribution of Russian researchers to the typological and functional-semantic description of the category of uncertainty. In particular, original concepts were highlighted, such as "indefinite correlation" proposed by O. K. Vasilyeva-Shved and G. V. Stepanov ^{[2; p. 32]}, as well as the functional and semantic approach of V. B. Kashkina and E. F. Kero, who emphasized the typological features of the Spanish indefinite article and its comparison with similar grammatical means in other languages ^[4-5]. The works of N. V. Boronnikova were particularly highlighted, describing in detail not only the grammatical proper, but also the pragmatically determined meaning of the indefinite article ^{[1; p. 3]}.

Thus, the grammatical forms of the indefinite article in modern Spanish, according to the theoretical provisions outlined, are completely desemantized elements that act as mandatory grammatical means of determining and introducing a new referent into speech. This process is a clear illustration of the mechanism of linguistic grammatization, reflects the general patterns of the evolution of grammatical forms and allows for a deeper understanding of the mechanism of adaptation of linguistic elements to changing communicative conditions. The results of this study can be used as the basis for further scientific developments in the field of diachronic linguistics, functional-semantic and typological approaches to the study of the category of certainty/uncertainty, both in Spanish and in other languages.

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