Réflexions Sur la Théorie de L'article de Gustave Guillaume

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the theory of the French article presented in the classical work by Guillaume "Le problème de l'article et sa solution dans la langue française". The paper emphasizes Guillaume's search for the semantic nature of the relationships determining the distribution of articles. The paper supports Guillaume, who seems to claim, contrary to what is commonly believed, that the function of the articles is non inherent in them, but that it is determined by the semantic properties of the nouns which select them. Treating this claim as the starting point, the paper focuses on the analysis of various senses of noun phrases, carried out in terms of the functional calculus. The applied method invalidates the extensional theory of the noun accepted by Guillaume, as well as a number of generalisations made by him.The paper shows logical and semantic conditions of some rules governing the use of the article. They differ from those proposed by Guillaume in that they seem to reach a deeper level of linguistic mechanisms. On the other hand, the emphasis is laid on Guillaume's subtle analysis and detailed observations, which stand in a sharp contrast to his rather vague generalizations.