Unit 4 The Use of Articles with Class Nouns Modified by Attributes

In accordance with their role in the choice of articles attributes may be divided into particularizing (or limiting) and descriptive.

A parti­cularizing attribute is used to single out an object from all the objects of the class, to point out one particular object or group of objects. The use of a particularizing attribute implies the idea of “той, який”; “саме той, той самий”. It makes the noun definite. So the definite article is used with this kind of attribute.

A particularizing attribute can be expressed:

• by prepositional phrase

The only way to learn the price of something is to pay for it.

The reason for this selection is obvious.

• by an of-phrase (with certain nouns which refer to a part or characteristic of something)

Look at picture 5 at the top of page 43.

We met at the end of 1980.

He knocked at the door of a very neat house.

• by relative clause

What about the argument that reality isn’t like that?

I want to get back to the hotel where he was staying.

• by clauses with non-finite verbs (Infinitives or participles)

“May be he is the man to ask about work,” she thought.

• by apposition (using a noun group to qualify another)

And he wrote a book with the titles”The Summing Up”

• by nouns in the genitive case

He worked abroad. The two years’ stay in France changed him a lot.

A descriptive attribute is used to describe an object or to give some additional information about it. This kind of attribute does not single out an object (or a group of objects) but only narrows the class to which it belongs.

He wrote a novel.

He wrote a good novel.

He wrote a good historical novel.

In a fortnight I got a long letter, which I considered odd.

Nouns modified by descriptive attributes may be used with either the indefinite or the definite articles, as the choice of articles for countable nouns is not affected by this kind of attribute. As all adjectives taken by themselves are neutral, it is only in the context that they acquire particularizing or descriptive force.

He was going to build a new house.

Shortly after he moved to the new house, he fell ill.

Modification by nouns in the genitive case

The use of articles with nouns in the genitive case is accounted for by the element of the combination to which it refers.

1. The article which refers to the noun in the genitive case is chosen in accordance with the general rules.

the boy’s the boys’ a boy’s boys’ Robert’s

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books

The articles here refer to the noun boy’s which together with the article is a determiner to the noun books.

Note When the noun in the genitive case is a proper name, there is naturally no article.

2. When an attribute is expressed by a noun in the genitive case it refers to the head-noun, as in a women’s college, a children’s hospital, a doctor’s degree, widow’s weeds, a doll’s house, cow’s milk, lady’s clothes, etc. It is important to note that such combinations cannot be substituted for by of-phrase. The article for the head-noun is chosen in accordance with the general rules.

Is there a girls’ school in this area?

“I’m looking for the girls’ school”, she said, “that used to be here when I was a child”.

Girls’ schools are not popular nowadays.

As the article in the examples above refers to the head noun, the noun in the genitive case may have the plural form and yet be preceded by the indefinite article, as in a soldiers’ canteen, a three miles’ walk, a fifteen minutes’ break.

A noun in the genitive case used as a descriptive attribute is not a determiner; it may be preceded by other attributes also referring to the head- noun.

They gave the girl a beautiful doll’s house as a birthday present.

The expensive widow’s weeds only emphasized her prettiness.