308 ____________________________________________________________ Articles

с) sometimes the change of meaning is quite considerable —

the noun comes to indicate an object made of a certain material,
e.g. A full glass of orange juice stood beside him.
There was a tin of sardines on the table.

The Use of Articles

with Some Semantic Groups of Nouns
§ 44. There are certain semantic groups of nouns which are
very common in English. These nouns are sometimes used as
countables and sometimes as uncountables. Besides, they are of-
ten found as part of set phrases. They include the following se-
mantic groups:

Names of Parts of the Day

§ 45. To this group of nouns belong: day, night, morning,

evening, noon, afternoon, midnight, dawn, twilight, dusk, sun-
rise, sunset, daytime, nightfall and the like.
1) When the speaker uses these nouns he often means a par-
ticular day, night, etc. and then naturally the definite article is
used. The limitation is very often clear from the situation or the
context but it may also be expressed with the help of a limiting
attribute.
e.g. The night was warm and beautifully still.
He decided to spend the afternoon with his friends.
The weather was very cold on the day of his arrival.
Sometimes we find a descriptive attribute with nouns denoting
parts of the day, but the definite article will still be used if the
above mentioned limitation holds good.
e.g. I could see a few faint stars in the clear night.
I was not in a hurry, and walked along, basking in the warm
evening.
The definite article is also found with nouns denoting parts of
the day used generically.
e.g. He used to spend the morning lying about the beach.
The Use of Articles With Uncountable Nouns ___________________________309

I often sat up the night with him and read to him to ease his
pain.
2) When nouns indicating parts of the day have a descriptive
attribute and are the centre of communication in the sentence
they are used with the indefinite article (in its aspective func
tion). This use of the indefinite article is mainly found in the fol
lowing sentence patterns:
e.g. It had been a wet day; the pavements were glistening, though *
now the rain had stopped. It was a fine, warm night and Charles
and I decided to walk
home.
On a hot September evening he strolled idly to the embankment. We
were having tea in my room on a cold January afternoon.
3) Nouns denoting parts of the day have no article when they
are used as predicatives.
e.g. It was evening when he decided to lay his books aside and
take a walk. It was nearly midnight and neither of us had
eaten for a long
time. It was dusk but I could see Henry walking across the
field.
However, if these nouns are used predicatively with a de-
scriptive attribute, the indefinite article is used (see point 2
above).
But the article is not used with nouns denoting parts of the day
if they are modified by one of the following adjectives:
e.g. It was early morning. It was
broad day. It was high
noon. It was late evening.
The adjectives early, late, broad and high do not describe any part
of the day here, but just indicate the time of the day with more
precision. (Morning refers to a longer period of the day than early
morning or late morning.)
4) In many cases the use of articles with nouns denoting parts
of the day has become traditional.

3£0 __________________________________________________________ Articles
a) In some prepositional phrases either the definite article or
no article is found. They are to be treated as set phrases. The def
inite article is used in: in the afternoon, in the daytime, in the
evening, in the morning, in the night. No article is used after the
prepositions at, by, about, past, before, after, towards, till, until,
e.g. at night, at dawn, by day ('днем'), by night ('ночью'), by
noon ('к полудню'), by midnight ('к полуночи'), past noon, about
midnight, before dawn, after sunset, etc.
e.g. I would take pills at night to make me sleep quickly, but I
never found any pills that would keep me asleep till day-
light.
Rain was now falling in sheets as it so often did before dawn.
After midnight I walked to the beach with him, sad to see him
leave so soon.
b) There is no article with the nouns morning, day and dawn
when they are used as subject to the verbs to break, to be at hand;
the same is true of the nouns evening, night, dusk when they are
followed by the verbs to fall, to gather, to set in, to be at hand, to
come.
e.g. Day was breaking when we set out.
The sky was overcast and dusk fell early.
Dawn was breaking among the olives, silvering their still
leaves.
c) There is no article with nouns denoting parts of the day
when they are modified by the names of the days of the week and
the words tomorrow and yesterday.
e.g. I went to Aunt Milly's house on Friday evening.
He spoke to Lin on the telephone on Thursday afternoon.
I shall see him tomorrow morning. She was here
yesterday afternoon.
Note. Compare: We met on Saturday night ('Мы встретились в прошлую суб-
боту вечером') and We met on a Saturday night ('Мы встретились однажды суб-
ботним вечером').
d) There is no article in the following phrases: all day (long)
and all night (through) (but we say: all through the night and all
through the day), day after day, night after night, day in day
The Use of Articles With Uncountable Nouns ______________________________311
out, from morning till night, (to work) day and night, in the dead of
night, late at night (but early in the morning).
e) There is a tendency to use the nouns denoting parts of the
day without any article in attributive o/-phrases. Yet, the definite
article is used when a particular day, night, etc. is meant.
e.g. He always woke up with the first sounds of morning.
After the bombardment he couldn't recognize the street that
had been so familiar to him at the beginning of the day.
*
Names of Seasons
§ 46. To this group of nouns belong: winter, spring, summer
and autumn (AmE: fall). The use of articles with these nouns pre-
sents great difficulty because we find a good deal of fluctuation
here.
1) The definite article is used with these nouns when reference is
made to a particular winter, spring, summer or autumn present, past
or future, or to a season of a particular year. As a general -rule,
this limitation is clear from the situation or context, but it may also
be expressed by a limiting attribute. The nouns usually have the
function of subject in this case.
e.g. The summer was exceptionally trying in the town.
The winter was very fine that year and we were very happy. The
summer wore on. He was still working hard. The autumn of
1914 was very warm.
But when these nouns are used as the subject to such com-
monly used verbs as to approach, to be over, to come, to come to an
end, to pass, to set in and some others, either the definite article or
no article is found. In this case reference may be made to a
particular season or to the kind of season in general, e.g. (The)
winter came early and unexpectedly with a heavy fall
of snow.
(The) summer was over but we had not heard from him yet. In
those parts (the) spring usually sets in early.
The same fluctuation is observed when names of seasons are
used in general statements as a subject to a nominal predicate.