Gramatika

Biology, Physics, Geography


Other uses of zero article


- times of day and night, esp. after the prepositions at, by, after, before

e.g. at dawn / daybreak, sunrise, noon, midnight, dusk, from dawn to dusk
by day, at night But! during the day, in the night, in the day time
before morning


- meals – breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, supper

e.g. Dinner is served. / Michael’s at lunch. / Let’s have breakfast.
Will you stay for breakfast?
I’ll work on it after breakfast.

But! When a meal is specified, we use articles as in:

The breakfast I ordered still hasn’t arrived.
That was a very nice dinner.
We had a nice dinner, just the two of us. (= a particular meal)

- man – as the ‘human race’ or ‘mankind’, also ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in a general sense:

e.g. This book is an attempt to trace the history of man / mankind.
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Man and woman were created equal. (or the plural Men and women…)

- nouns like school, hospital, etc. (in British English!)

: bed, church, class, college, court, hospital, market, prison, school, sea, town,
university, work

- these nouns have the zero article when we refer to their primary purpose (= the
activity that is associated with them – we do not refer to actual buildings or places but
to the ‘institutions’ associated with them:


e.g. He was sent to prison for 7 years.
The children went to school.
He had an accident and was taken to hospital.
It’s time to go to bed now.

But! When specified, we use articles as in:

Ken went to the prison to visit his brother.
Alison’s mother went to the school to see her daughter’s teacher.
Jill has gone to the hospital to visit Jack.
I sat down on the bed.

Compare: I met her at college. v. I met her at the college.
(=when we were students) (= meeting place)

- means of transport and communication

e.g. travel by bicycle, bike, boat, bus, car, coach But! be on the bus, on the train
travel by land, air, sea
go on foot

But! When the means of transport is specified, we use articles as in:

I came here on the local bus.
You won’t go far on that old bike.

communicate by radio / phone but be on the phone / talk on the radio


- zero article in fixed phrases – parallel structures – two nouns placed together in a
parallel structure

e.g. arm in arm inch by inch
face to face day by day
side by side man to man
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hand in hand eye to eye

- ‘pairs’ joined by ‘and’

e.g. day and night
father and son
husband and wife
light and dark
pen and ink
sun and moon

- other phrases with zero article

from top to bottom in terror
by reason of in haste
keep in mind in trouble
in case of in fear
in turn in danger
come to light in memory of
by heart from father to son


But: there are phrases where we use ‘a’, e.g. in a hurry



- what / such + plural nouns or U

e.g. What freedom young people enjoy nowadays!
We had such problems getting through Customs.


- unspecified quantity

e.g. I have news for you.
I have presents for children.




Zero article with definite meaning


- when a phrase specifies a unique role or task, e.g. only one person holds the
particular position

e.g. Mary is (the) captain of basketball this year.
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As (the) chairman, I declare this meeting closed.
John F. Kennedy was (the) President of the United States in 1961.


Careful about names!
Compare: Prime Minister Blair v. the Prime Minister
Queen Elizabeth II v. the Queen


- articles are usually omitted in headlines or on official forms

e.g. ‘Crew deserts ship in harbour’
Please state reason for application and give ……….


- fixed phrases v. a particular thing

Compare:

be in town v. The town is very old.
be in bed v. It’s on the bed.
go to church v. How far is the church?
go to sea v. The sea looks calm.
travel by bus v. She was on the bus.
send it by post v. The post is late today.


- abstract nouns

e.g. She is studying European history. X …. the history of Europe.
………………. human evolution X …. the evolution of man
………………. medieval art X …. the art of the Middle Ages


Further notes:

a) uncountable nouns treated as countable - some normally uncountable nouns can be
used with ‘a’ in the singular (=the meaning is particular, not general) , but the plural form
is not possible

e.g. Mary has a good education. But: She speak very good English.
She felt a certain impatience.
I need a good sleep.
You’ve been a great help.

The nouns refers to a quality or other abstraction attributed to a person, or the
nouns is premodified or postmodified.
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Careful: not all uncountable nouns can be used like that, most remain
uncountable in all contexts, e.g. weather, progress, money, information, luck,
music, etc.


b) TV

What’s on TV tonight? v. Look! The cat’s sitting on the TV.


c) parts of the body

- normally we use ‘possessives’, not ‘the’

e.g. Katy broke her arm climbing. (not ‘the arm’)
He’s cut his finger when he was cooking.
He stood in the doorway, his coat over his arm.
Jack bumped his head.
She has sprained her ankle.

- we prefer ‘the’ in prepositional phrases related to the object

e.g. She hit him in the stomach.
Can’t you look me in the eye?
He was shot in the leg.


d) nouns functioning as adverbials – without a / an

e.g. They welcomed her with genuine pleasure. (how? = adverbial)

d) after linking verbs –without a / an

e.g. It seems great fun.
I don’t call that friendship.

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SEMINAR 3 – ARTICLES with COMMON NOUNS

QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Generic reference - the following example is wrong. Explain why and rephrase
the sentence in 3 possible ways:

Mobile phone has become an inseparable part of modern life.


2. Give examples of your own (in sentences) where ‘a’ expresses:
a) quantity
b) price
c) distance
d) frequency


3. Compare the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’ in the following sentences. What’s the difference
in meaning:

a) A house on the corner is for sale.
b) The house on the corner is for sale.


4. Some exclamatory sentences contain ‘a’, others don’t. Give examples.


5. What are the rules for using articles (a / an) with illnesses? Give examples:


6. Sometimes the definite reference is derived from ‘immediate situation’. Give an
example and explain what is extralinguistic context:


7. Explain the difference between anaphoric and cataphoric reference, give
examples to support your explanation:


8. Explain the usage of articles in the following sentence:

When she tried to open the front door, she couldn’t get the key into the lock.


9. ‘Meals’ are not used with articles, but not always. In what context can we say ‘a
dinner’ and ‘the dinner’? Give examples:
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10. Explain why we say:

a) Her children go to school. but b) Their mother went to the school to meet.
the headmaster.

Which other nouns are like ‘school’?

11. Do we use articles with various means of transport? Give examples.


12. Give examples of the so-called ‘parallel structures’:













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SEMINAR 4 – PROPER NOUNS (SGEL – 5.25 – 5,34; LEG 3.31 ; Chalker – ex. 55,
Grammar I – ex. 9; 15 – 17 + Nationality words ex. 21 – 26)


- proper nouns – grammatical features; names with the definite article – names
with no article; nouns relating to region and nationality

- proper nouns are basically names: of specific people (Kennedy), places (Tokyo) and
institutions (The South China Morning Post), months, days, festivals, magazines, etc.

- names can be single word nouns (London) or quite lengthy phrases (often including a
definite article and premodifying items e.g. The New York Times)

- names reflect their uniqueness of reference in writing by our use of initial capitals. If
we so wish, we can raise to the uniqueness of proper-noun status such concepts as Fate,
Heaven, Truth, Man, Paradise, Hell, (spelled with capital letters), etc.


GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

- most proper nouns are singular and have no plural (Indonesia), or they have a plural but
no singular (the West Indies)

- proper nouns do not normally have determiner and number contrast, but there are
many exceptions to these restrictions – in special circumstances proper nouns are
reclassified as common nouns, so they no longer have unique denotation:

a) it is only the referent that is unique, and different referents may share the same
name (i.e. several people or places may bear the same name) – e.g. there are
several places called Richmond:

e.g. There is a Richmond in the south of England and a Richmond in the
north, not to mention a dozen Richmonds outside the British Isles.

or I’m trying to find Philip Johnson in the phone book unless he’s one of
the several P. Johnsons he’s not in.

The nouns conveying the name are used as though they were common nouns, they
can have their meaning varied by articles and other determiners:

e.g. a Shakespeare ( = an author like Shakespeare)
or his new Shakespeare (= his copy of the works of Sh.)
It’s a Rembrandt painting. (also: It’s a Rembrandt.)
He’s not a Paganini.
Also:
e.g. I used to know a Mary Roberts, too. (=a person called Mary Roberts)
The doctor Brown I know comes from Australia.
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She’s the second Mrs. White. (the first one died)
Is there a William in this class?
He doesn’t look like a Burton. (i.e. a member of the B. family)

Compare:
a) the young Shakespeare / the old Shakespeare = one person
b) young Johnson / old Johnson = two men of the same name
(probably father and son)

Further notes:

- the definite article with nuclear stress before a name has the special meaning of
‘the well known person / place named…’:

e.g. A: I used to know John Lennon quite well.
B: Surely you can’t mean the /ði/ John Lennon?

- the use of ‘one’ proves the status of the proper noun becoming a common noun
as in:
e.g. I knew a / one John Lennon, but not the famous one.

- ‘this’ and ‘that’ are also possible:

e.g. Who’s this Mrs Robertson that phoned?
Oh, you mean that Mr. Phillips (= a particular person)

´that´ can have a negative meaning in some contexts, e.g.
e.g. That Mr. Phillips has been on the phone again! (but it is not
negative in the example above)

- possessives and genitives – denote close family relationships:

e.g. Is your Jennifer still at school? (=your daughter Jennifer)
Did you know that your Mrs White has been arrested for shoplifting?
(= the one you know)
Granny is delighted with Peter’s Jane. (= Peter’s girlfriend)
John and Mary are very anxious about their Tom. (=son/ bother)

b) number and determination with the names of days, months, festivals, etc.

e.g. She’ll be here on Monday. (specific reference – a particular time of a
particular week, year, etc.)

but there is a Monday every week = Mondays necessarily have st in
common (=the first working day of each week)

e.g. She’s always here on Mondays. (not a specific reference)
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c) a married couple can be referred to as the Johnsons (it may also embrace their
whole household)

d) we can use a famous name to mean the type that made it famous
e.g. There were no Shakespeares in the 19
th
century. (=no writers of
that quality – like Shakespeare)
Lu Xun is revered as the Chinese Gorky.

Or we can use partitive restrictive modification:

e.g. The Dublin of Joyce is still there for everyone to experience. (=the
features of Dublin reflected in Joyce’s writing)

unique meaning partitive meaning

during Easter during the Easter of that year
in England in the England of Queen Elizabeth
in Denmark in the Denmark of today
Chicago the Chicago I like (=the aspect of Ch.)


ARTICLES WITH PROPER NOUNS

I. NAMES WITH THE DEFINITE ARTICLE


1) some titular names

e.g. the King of Sweden, the President of General Motors, the Queen, the Marquis
of Salisbury, the Pope, the President,

2) geographical names of plural form, especially:

a) groups of islands – the Hebrides, the Bahamas, the Shetlands, the
Canaries, the Seychelles, etc.
b) mountain ranges – the Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes, the Pyrenees, the
Rockies

Also: nonplural mountain ranges: the Sierra Nevada, the Caucasus
Also: the Netherlands, the Midlands, the Great Lakes

3) other geographical names:

a) rivers: the Avon, the Danube, the Rhine
b) seas, oceans: the Pacific (Ocean), the Baltic Sea,
c) canals: the Suez Canal, the English Channel
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d) other geographical names: the Isle of Man, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of
Biscay, the Cape of Good Hope (but: Hudson Bay, Long Island)
e) areas of territory: the Sahara Desert but not! lakes – Lake Huron
f) the Far East, the Middle East

4) public institutions, facilities, etc.
a) hotels, restaurants: the Grand (Hotel), the Waldorf Astoria, the Hilton
(but: Tony’s Bar, Macy’s - named after people – no article)
b) theatres, opera houses, cinemas, clubs: the Globe (Theatre), the Odeon
c) museums, galleries, libraries, hospitals: the British Museum
d) the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London, the Great Wall of China, etc.

5) names of ships: the Queen Mary, the Mayflower, the Titanic

6) newspapers and periodicals: the Economist, the New York Times, the Observer,
the Providence Journal

!!but not magazines: Time, Punch, New Scientist

7) political parties: the Labour party


Note:

a) when the name of a public institution begins with a genitive, the is not used:
e.g. St John’s College
Gaylord’s (Restaurant)
McDonald’s
Harrod’s

b) exception: the Hague, the Vatican
c) the University of London but London University


II. NAMES WITH NO ARTICLE

1) personal names

First names (forenames): Margaret
Surnames (family n.) alone: Smith
First n. and surname together: Margaret Smith

Names as these may be prefaced by the normal titles (Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms) or
those indicating the person’s status:

e.g. Dr Brown General MacArthur
Captain O’Connor Professor Smith
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Private Walker Cardinal Spellman
Lord Nelson Judge Fox
Lady Churchill

- Sir + first name: Sir John
Sir + first name + surname: Sir John Smith
but not! Sir Smith

- the Lord = God, e.g. Praise the Lord. But: Good Lord! / Oh, Lord, I forgot!

2) temporal names

a) festivals, religious periods: Christmas (Day), Good Friday, New Year,
Ramadan
b) months, days of the week: January, Tuesday

unless they refer to individual periods:

e.g. She left on the next Sunday. (the context determines which Sunday,
e.g. the Sunday after the accident.)
He left on a Sunday. (=as far as I can remember)
He left on Sunday. (=last S.)

3) geographical names:

a) extraterrestrial: Jupiter, Mars (but the moon, the sun)
b) continents: Asia, South America, Antarctica
but: the Antarctic (the region of the world around the South Pole)
the Arctic (the region of the world around the North Pole)
c) countries/ states: Canada, France, Ohio

but! the Crimea
(the) Sudan
(the) Ukraine
(the) Sinai

+ when the names end with a compass point: e.g. the Far East, the Midwest,
the North Pole

d) cities, towns: Boston, Rome but! the Hague, the Bronx, the City (of London)
e) lakes: Lake Michigan, Loch Ness
f) mountains: Mount Everest, Mont Blanc, Ben Nevis (exceptions: the Jungfrau,
the Matter horn)
g) streets, buildings: Park Lane, Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge, Scotland Yard
h) airports, train stations: Gatwick Airport, Charing Cross Station,


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but! the Mall, the Strand (streets in London)



Note:
- Br. E. – the University of London v. London University
- Am. E. – the University of California v. California State University

- universities named after a person have only one form: Yale University
- Oxford university, Cambridge University

- the north of France v. northern France
the south east of Spain v. south-eastern Spain


III. NOUNS RELATING TO REGION AND NATIONALITY

e.g. Russia - Russian

1) general adjective – Both the men are Russian.
2) language name – She speaks Russian fluently.
3) sg. noun with specific reference – He is a Russian, I think.
4) pl. noun with specific reference – There are several Russians among my
students.
5) pl. noun used generically – The Russians are a deeply patriotic people.

1) and 2) are always identical!

Note: a few examples



1 + 2

3

4

5
the Netherlands Dutch a Dutchman Dutchmen the Dutch
Denmark Danish a Dane Danes the Danish
Sweden Swedish a Swede Swedes the Swedish
Finland Finnish a Finn Finns the Finnish
Poland Polish a Pole Poles the Polish
Spain Spanish a Spaniard Spaniards the Spanish
Britain British a British British the British
Scotland Scots
or Scottish
a Scotsman
or a Scot
Scotsmen
or Scots
the Scots


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Also: Briton(s) as forms 3 + 4, informally Brit(s)

Scotland: the use of Scotch, Scotchman, etc. is controversial; Scotch tends to be
limited only to whisky.
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SEMINAR 4 – PROPER NOUNS

QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. a) What do the initial capitals in writing reflect? (e.g. Mount Everest)
b) Consider also words such as Hell, Fate, etc. and the following sentence – ‘How
did Man first discover fire?’



2. Some proper names can be ‘reclassified as common nouns’. How do you
understand this statement? Give examples referring to places and people.



3. Consider the meaning of and differences between the following noun phrases:

a) Shakespeare b) young Brown
a Shakespeare (two meanings) old Brown
the old Shakespeare the Browns
the young Shakespeare


4. Explain the use of ‘the’ in the following sentence: ‘Is he the Newman who went
to school with Tom?’


5. The use of articles can be important also semantically. What’s the meaning of
‘Mississippi’ and ‘the Mississippi’?


6. Explain the use of articles and other determiners in the following sentences:

a) Do you know that your Mr Wingate has been accused of fraud?
b) The Johnsons are giving a party next week.
c) That Mr Phillips has been on the phone again!
d) The flower arrangement was done by a Miss Hilton in Park Road.
e) This is a photo of me and Bill Clinton. – Do you mean the Bill Clinton?


7. What’s the difference in reference between the following phrases:
a) England v. the England of Queen Victoria

b) Brno v. the Brno of my youth
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8. Give an example of a name containing a genitive. Do we use ‘the’ in such a
phrase?


9. W