1. Which of these sentences are correct and incorrect? Why? What is the meaning of the particular sentences?

1. Child needs to feel secure. (‘A child’ would be correct)

2. A child needs to feel secure. (‘a’ because it’s the first time the speaker talks about the child and the listener doesn’t know about it, or because it is not a particular child)

3. Children need to feel secure. (children in general, all children need to feel secure, not a concrete group of children)

4. A tiger is in danger of becoming extinct. (generic reference, not a particular tiger or indefinite reference—a tiger that wasn’t mentioned before by the speaker/is unfamiliar to the hearer)

5. The tiger is in danger of becoming extinct. (the speaker is talking about all tigers or about a specific tiger)

6. Tigers are in danger of becoming extinct. (tigers in general)

2. In which sentences do we talk about generic or specific reference? Why?

1. Can you turn off the music? (specific music, the music is playing now, not all music)

2. I can´t play the piano. (generic reference; I cant play any piano, I cant play piano in general)

3. Do you see the man standing near the door? (specific reference; not any man, but the particular man who is standing near the particular door, the hearer knows/sees the man)

4. Who invented the telephone? (generic reference, it is used when talk about inventions)

5. Put the books on the table.(specific reference, the speaker is talking about some concrete books on the particular table)

6. Thank you for the banana. (specific reference, the speaker refers to the certain banana)

3. Is the definite article used in these sentences anaphoric or cataphoric “the”?

1. What did you think of the wine that we drank last night? –cataphoric

2. The radiator has a leak. Can you show me where the leak is?—anaphoric

3. I left a note for you. What did you write on the note?—anaphoric

4. That book is about the life of Mary Watson.—cataphoric

5. The spring I spent in Rome was lovely. –cataphoric

6. She has just written a book on the butterflies of Africa.—anaphoric

4. Which alternatives are right? Why?

1. the Queen´s arrival –is correct, because we use -s genitive in personal names/ the arrival of the Queen –is also possible

2. the room´s back / the back of the room (inanimate, part of something)

3. the earth´s gravity / the gravity of the earth—both possible, with geographical terms both -s and -of genitives can be used.

5. Which of these possessive forms are possible?

1. I didn´t believe the girl´s story.

2. I can´t remember the street´s name. –’street name’ would be correct

3. I´m afraid the house´s roof is leaking. –‘house roof’ or ‘roof of the house’ would be better, because it’s a part of something

4. It looks like the dog´s leg is broken.

6. Which pronouns can complete the sentences correctly?

1. The ship has struck a rock. It is sinking fast! (She is sinking fast!)

2. Your car has lost one of its windscreen wipers.

3. Canada has decided to increase its trade with Europe.

4. The sun was finishing its day.

Lecture 9 + 10

The use of the definite, the indefinite and the zero articles + Case and Gender

Definiteness is a grammatical category expressed by articles. In Slovak and in other Slavonic languages it does not exist (with the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian). The category of definiteness combines with the category of number in English, e.g. They were looking for a sheep. vs They were looking for sheep. (”sheep” is used in both numbers, the indefinite and the zero article are the only indicators of singularity and plurality)

Articles belong to the class of determiners, have no lexical meaning and function independent of the noun they precede.

Article usage – basic rules for common nouns:

a/an or the + countable singular

the or zero + countable plural

the or zero + uncountable noun

System of article usage: the type of reference: