Pragmatics of article choice as a mathematical formula (based on the material of abstract value-oriented vocabulary)

Abstract

The target of this study is to identify the degree of freedom of the speaker when choosing the type of article. Using the method of continuous sampling, we analyzed the article combinations with the same lexeme in the “opinionating” text format. Several topics are presented, in accordance with the abstract lexemes titling each text. Some methods and categories of border disciplines – mathematical logic and philosophy – are used: the general and particular, singular, element-set. The study revealed that the choice of the type of article can be described by a mathematical formula and is fully determined. The parameters that determine the choice of the article are the degree of generaliza-tion of the abstract lexeme, determined by the variability of the correlated denotative series considered as a type of set; the manifestation/awareness of the external and essential internal features of the referent; the paradigmatic connections of thesaurus.