English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
B3.7 Conclusion
B3 Articles
Section B Development
Articles are probably the most difficult words in English for non-native speakers to learn, especially if their first language does not have articles (which means the vast majority of speakers in the world; even when the languages do have articles there are differences in use). And the rules for their use, especially for the specific uses of the definite article are quite difficult, and impossible to apply while speaking (of course, they are not meant to be applied in this way). But this is still no excuse for the inaccuracy of the ’second-mention’ rule. Here is a better pedagogic ’rule’:
Table B3.7.1 The difference between the and a with singular count nouns
In fact the second and third columns correspond to the two types of reference discussed in this section: specific vs non-specific (known to speaker) and definite vs indefinite (known to hearer).
Comments
Activity B3.1:
(1) and (3) require the indefinite article; system and father are count nouns. In (2) advice is a noncount noun, and in (4), though crisis is a count noun, it is not the head of the noun phrase; management is, and it is noncount.
Activity B3.2:
On the first line we think that the television means the system of entertainment (institutions; use h) above). But on the last line we realise that it is specific reference to a particular object in the immediate situation.
Activity B3.3:
There are several references to a dog. They are (line numbers in brackets):
a dog (1), a dog (3), a dog (3), a dog (5), him (5), the dog (8)
Notice how the first four mentions keep the indefinite article, because the dog is not yet established in the story; the first three mentions are questions. It is only with the fourth mention that the dog becomes established (i.e. has specific reference); it is now available to be referred to as definite (as the speaker and listener know that they are talking about the same thing). But in the fifth mention, instead of the definite article, the definite pronoun him is used. Only after a little gap is the definite article used with the noun to remind us what is being discussed.