"Some": an emergent article?

[cema]

Was in a cafe today, heard the waiter say: "I will be back with some menu".

Normal usage to me, but a friend (lives outside of the US) was amused. Like, will she just choose a random menu? Anyway, it does seem that "some" is often taking place of "a" in spoken American English. But does it qualify as an article? I wonder if linguists have anything to say about this.

Comments

[spamsink]

Elementary, my dear Watson! She'll be back with a few copies of the menu.

[cema.livejournal.com]

That would have been "some menus".

In any case, "some" is often used where "a" would do. I wonder why.

[spamsink]

AFAIK, if a noun is countable, and therefore has a plural, it is used with "a few".

Either she has a notion of a menu as an abstract set of all dishes offered in the restaurant, so the printed copy of a subset (lunch/dinner/etc.) becomes "some menu", or she does know the difference between "a few" and "some" English.

In any case, "some" is often used where "a" would do. I wonder why.

In any case, "rain" or "snow" are often used where "precipitation" would do. I wonder why.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Rain and snow: (1) are specifications of the more generic "precipitation"; (2) belong to the neutral style of speech, whereas "precipitation" is scientific.

By contrast, "some" is not a specification of "a", and both belong to the neutral speech style.

[spamsink]

Depends on how you look at it. "More than one" (some) is a specification of "(at least) one" (a).