Transcript File

A Few Basic Points about Articles in English
(The first of three PowerPoint presentations about articles)
19 slides
1
First of three 19 slides
1. Every SINGULAR, COUNT common noun in
a sentence needs an article or other determiner.
Articles include a, an, and the.
Determiners include this, that, these,
those, Susan’s, some, any, numbers,
and a few others.
2
First of three 19 slides
2. PLURAL, COUNT nouns do not appear with
a or an.
*A chairs
*An animals
3
First of three 19 slides
3. NON-COUNT nouns are grammatically
SINGULAR.
Music is…
*Music are…
4
First of three 19 slides
4. GERUNDS, gerund phrases, and other
similar noun-like phrases are grammatically
SINGULAR.
Jogging is good exercise
*Jogging are good exercise.
Baptizing investigators is…
*Baptizing investigators are…
5
First of three 19 slides
5. The articles a and an appear only with singular
count nouns, but the article the can appear with
SINGULAR, PLURAL, and NON-COUNT nouns.
• A chair (okay)
• The chair (okay)
• *A pencils (strange)
• The pencils (okay)
• *A music (strange)
• The music (okay)
• *A singing (strange)
• The singing (okay)
6
First of three 19 slides
6. The articles a and an can appear with a noncount noun when the meaning is “a type of.”
Mary shows love to her children.
Mother Teresa showed a love that
many people will never understand.
I need a cooking oil that won’t burn.
7
First of three 19 slides
7. English speakers see nouns as
SPECIFIC or GENERIC.
A lion is sitting next to me (specific).
A lion is a wild animal (generic).
8
First of three 19 slides
8. The safest way—but not the ONLY way—to
speak GENERALLY about something is to use
PLURAL.
Best, simplest, easiest to teach and understand:
Lions are wild animals.
(plural—all concrete examples)
But also:
A lion is a wild animal.
(generic—one representing all or any.)
The lion is a wild animal.
(generic—with the idea of species or class, but not
referring to any individual
animal)
First of three
19 slides
9
9. SPECIFIC and DEFINITE are not the
same thing.
Specific contrasts with generic.
Definite contrasts with indefinite.
10
First of three 19 slides
10. Nouns that are definite appear with the
article the.
11
First of three 19 slides
11. A noun is definite only if it is known to both
the speaker and the listener.
The milk in the refrigerator is spoiled.
Larry kissed a pig. The pig became angry.
Larry met Susan at the temple.
12
First of three 19 slides
12. A noun can be known to both the speaker
and the listener in one of three ways:
by explanation,
by lexical context, or
by cultural context.
(additional notes in a separate PowerPoint presentation—
”Fa06 4-square grid”--When should I use “the”?)
First of three 19 slides
13
13. In place names such as for countries and
geographical features like mountains and
bodies of water, the often appears in the name
if the name contains common nouns but not if
the name does not contain common nouns.
Some exceptions exist.
(The Philippine Islands or The Philippines, but
not Philippines alone. Japan but not The
Japan. The United States but not United
States. The Himalayan Mountains or The
Himalayas, but not Himalayas alone.
14
First of three 19 slides
14. Names of body parts (or pairs of body parts)
typically appear with the.
•
•
•
•
The heart
The head
The liver
The medulla
oblongata
• The gluteus maximus
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The eyes
The ears
The kidneys
The lungs
The belly-button
Um…
The buns
15
First of three 19 slides
15. Names of diseases occur with no clear
system for article use and are best just learned
as lexical units (i.e., they must simply be
memorized). There may be a system present
for choosing articles with the names of
diseases, but one is not immediately apparent,
or it is so complex as to be of no practical use
to second-language learners.)
A cough, a cold, the measles (麻疹）,
rabies（狂犬病）, the flu, influenza（流行
性感冒）, AIDS, the plague （瘟疫）, a
fever, malaria, etc.
16
First of three 19 slides
16. In deciding whether to use an article before a
noun in a sentence, it is not enough to consider
only the grammaticality of the sentence.
One must also consider the larger contexts of
what information precedes and follows the
sentence and how much of the information in the
sentence the reader/hearer knows, what the
reader/hearer expects, or what the reader/hearer
is familiar with.
(These contexts are examined in “2-Fa06 4-square grid.”)
17
First of three 19 slides
In conclusion…
18
First of three 19 slides
17. Although article usage is sometimes
confusing and exasperating, it is not correct to
conclude that article usage is not subject to
rules.
It is true that English includes a number of
cases in which article use is idiosyncratic,
exceptional, or not well defined.
It is also true, however, that useful explanations
and clear rules of article use are available for
teachers to present and students to apply—with
considerable confidence.
19
First of three 19 slides
<end>
20
First of three 19 slides