2014. Item vs. system: the definite article in a tug-of-war. In: Extension and its Limits, ed. Grzegorz Dróżdż and Andrzej Łyda. 157-175. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Item vs. system: the definite article in a tug-of-war Adam Głaz Department of English, Marie Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland Abstract. A modified version of Robert E. MacLaury’s Vantage Theory, called Extended Vantage Theory, is used to account for a selection of uses of the English definite article. Specifically, the uses are modelled in terms of the speaker/conceptualizer projecting an analytic or a synthetic-systemic viewing mode (or mode of conceptualization) on the scene being described. Whereas the former marks the conceptualizer’s preoccupati on with a definite and specific item, entity or event, the latter marks their preoccupation with the system that embraces the item as one of its elements. At a more fundamental level, the crucial role in the cognition-driven semantic value of the definite NPs is attributed to the reciprocally balanced degrees of attention on the part of the conceptualizer, to difference (analytic viewing) or to similarity against the backdrop of difference (synthetic- systemic viewing). Keywords: definite article, Extended Vantage Theory, item vs. system, mode of conceptualization 1. Item vs. system in a broader context In early 20 th century, Edgar Rubin (1915/1958, 1921) proposed that a scene perceived by a human subject be analyzed as a configuration of a figure relative to the ground. How exactly the former is distinguished from the latter is a matter of some debate. For example, for Coren (1969) the figure is defined through a better definition of shape, greater proximity to the viewer, or greater brightness; in Matlin’s (1994: 26-27) synthetic account, what appears as the figure is usually more impressive and memorable, familiar, relatively small, enclosed, symmetrical, or vertically or horizontally oriented. Crucially, the perceiver has the ability to shift focus and may select a particular aspect of the scene as either figure or ground. The figure-ground alignment principle has been adopted in cognitive linguistics for a variety of purposes. For example, in Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar, several other notions have been either introduced or redefined on its basis, such as profile/base, subject/object, and head/modifier (Langacker 1987: 120ff). 1 Especially useful for operational purposes and as a semantic organizing principle is the first pair. Importantly, the meaning of an expression is said to reside in both its profile and base, rather than in either of them in isolation. Recall 1 The notion of profile is also used, albeit in a somewhat different manner, in Polish ethnolinguistics (cf. Bartmiński 2009/2012 or Głaz, Danaher and Łozowski 2013).