Stylistic Functions of the Article
The stylistic effect is usually observed when articles are used with the nouns normally used without them. It primarily concerns the group of proper names that normally are not preceded by any article. But there are some cases which allow the use of articles before proper names, exactly, surnames.
The use of the indefinite article can express different meanings:
-belonging to a famous family, e.g., Elisabeth was a Tudor. He is a real human being – not a Pendleton at all. (J.Webster). The connotations here may range from neutral reference to a person as a member of a family to assigning either positive or negative features characteristic of all members of this family;
-meaning “some, certain”: e.g ., He was engaged to be married to a Miss Hubburd.() A Mr. Williams left a message asking you to ring him, Mrs.Grey. (M.Binchy)
-metonymic use of the indefinite article to name the works of art: e.g., He has a Levitan in his collection
-evaluating characteristic, both positive and negative, e.g., I don’t claim to be a Carreras. (The implication is that I don’t sing like he) I will never marry a Malone or a Sykes. (The implication is that of scornful attitude to the members of those families because of some negative qualities they possess).
The definite article before a surname may also be expressive:
-it may indicate all members of the family, e.g.,I’m driving to the Corners this morning to get some ner oil cloth for the entry…(J.Webster)
..and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. (F.S.Fitzgerald)
The Hardies were rather late.
-it may point to the fact that the given person is a celebrity, e.g., Do you know my painter? Old Robinson. Yes, the Robinson.
‘ The famous Mrs. Grey’, she said, looking Lena up and down. (M.Binchy)
-it may point to a certain characteristic feature or state of a thing or person, e.g., And she didn’t know whether the Damien downstairs was the Damien she knew once. (O’Flanagan)
He’s been serious also. Not the Stevie Sullivan she had watched for years aruon her home town. (M.Binchy)
She has been rapidely becoming the old Lena, full of plans and moving quickly. (M.Binchy)
The use of articles in enumeration may also have some evaluating character. In attributive groups with several homogeneous members the article is usually placed before the first attribute. When the article is repeated it creates a stylistic effect,
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e.g., Under the low sky the grass shone with a brilliant, an almost artificial sheen. The appearance of the second article gives more prominence to the noun that follows.
Absence of the article before a common noun in the singular is a violation of the norm. But when used like that, it conveys a maximum degree of abstraction and generalization so the image created in such a way looses its concrete character, e.g., “Old Man on the Bridge”.
Repetition of any determiner or a conjunction may combine with a stylistic device of gradation, i.e. placing words in order of their growing importance, e.g., It began to rain slowly and heavily and drenchingly… and her thoughts went down the lane towards th e fields, th e hedge, the trees – oak, beech, elm. (Greene) The correlation of words with the article and without it creates a certain rhythm in the sentence: slowing down or increasing its tempo.
Alongside the stylistic use of the article mentioned above there are specific cases of the use of the article typical of separate genres, such as drama (author’s remarks) and newspaper style (headlines, advertisements).
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