Lingua e traduzione inglese I/M 2011-2012 Module A
The definite and indefinite article
Teachers and manuals often tell you that the definite article is required when the contextual reference is specific (the books on my desk are John’s) and not required when the reference is general (she loves books).
Well … this certainly applies when the noun in question is either plural (books) or uncountable (music), but if the noun is countable and in the singular, then the situation is completely different. Consider the following two sentences:
Somebody’s taken the computer you left on my desk (specific) The computer is the greatest invention of all time (general)
Here the is required anyway, so the specific/general rule carries less weight. But why is it required anyway?
Because of the following golden rule:
Countable nouns in the singular are preceded by some type of determiner (a, the, my, her, this, that, what, which and others).
Thus it would be wrong to say *Book is on desk and *Computer is the greatest invention… There are exceptions to this golden rule (in bed, at school, day by day), but it remains crucial. Therefore, for example,
‘nato come isola’ (3a) is originally an island.
However, the situation is complicated by the fact that some nouns have both countable and uncountable functions. How do we translate, for example the following?
‘il promontorio… fu in seguito possedimento della Chiesa Romana (3a)
The two most obvious equivalents of ‘possedimento’ are possession and property, each of which have countable and uncountable functions, so in theory, if we consider the meaning in this context to be uncountable, we would not need a determiner. However, I think there are two good arguments in favour of inserting a determiner (a/the) here. The first is that the sense of the word in the context appears to be more countable than uncountable (this was only one of the huge number of possessions of the Roman Church); the second is that even if we were to consider it uncountable, there is a following of, which would in any case attract the definite article (see below).
Naturally there are borderline cases, for example:
… caratteristici ristoranti con terrazza (3b)
According to the golden rule above, a determiner is required here, because balcony is singular and countable, along the lines of room with a view, but abbreviated sequences such as restaurants with balcony and room with view are often found in tourist brochures when a list of facilities is supplied. Indeed determiners are often eliminated in abbreviated language, for example newspaper headlines, e.g., CHELSEA FAN INJURED IN VIOLENT BRAWL.
The context is crucial: if the occurrence is part of a running text you should insert a determiner; if it is part of an abbreviated text, for example a list, you could omit it, but if you have any doubts about it then use a determiner.
Uncountable nouns and plural nouns: ‘half-general’ cases.
Consider these examples:
1)Porto Ercole is a popular destination for VIPs (3b) This is a completely general reference to VIPs.
2) Informative websites are essential for towns wishing to attract tourists
Here towns and tourists are general, but websites is ‘half-general’ because it is qualified by an adjective.
However, it is still a fairly general reference, so you should not insert a determiner.
3)Elizabethan literature is unsurpassed
Again half-general: there is a qualifying adjective but the reference remains general Compare these more specific cases:
4)The Elizabethan literature that we’ve studied so far in this module is uninspiring
The relative clause which follows Elizabethan literature renders this much more specific, so a determiner is required.
5)The VIPS of Macerata will all be present
Here the following of makes this much more specific.
But what about cases such as the following?
6)The literature of the Elizabethan period is unsurpassed
Notice that the meaning of this is the same as Example 3, and so it would be classified as half-general, but this time literature is followed by of, which is strongly attracted to determiners, particularly the. Compare:
7) I adore nineteenth-century architecture
8) I adore the architecture of the nineteenth-century
Other observations about determiners:
a) don’t be distracted by other words appearing before the noun:
created by the local tourism office (1a)
The word tourism is uncountable, but the head noun (office) is countable, and thus a determiner is needed b) the use of the with geographical locations involving rivers, lakes, mountains, bays, gulfs etc is unpredictable, for example the (River) Thames but Lake Maggiore and Mount Everest.
c) in Saxon genitive structures, the determiner refers to noun1, not to noun2. So in the phrase the man’s car, the definite article connects with man, not car, which is why *these man’s cars is wrong, and these two men’s car is right. The fact that the determiner refers to noun1 means that *the Peter’s car is wrong, because you (normally) cannot say the Peter (i.e., the + proper noun). For the same reason *the St Dominic’s church (1b) and *on the Porto Ercole’s sea front (3b) are also wrong.
In this last case you should simply use on Porto Ercole’s sea front or even on the Porto Ercole sea front, where Porto Ercole has adjectival function and the is required because sea front is a countable noun in the singular (compare Brighton’s promenade and the Brighton promenade, both equally correct).
When in doubt, remember that a corpus or archive can provide more information about determiners than grammars or dictionaries.
