LL-L "Grammar" 2002.04.03 (05) [E]

Wed Apr 3 23:16:09 UTC 2002

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 03.APR.2002 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Leonard Okhotchinski" <ok_lennie at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2002.04.03 (02) [E]

Dear Ron

I'm not a native speaker of any variety of English, but teaching English
to
speakers of Russian, which doesn't happen to have any articles
whatsoever,
I'm expected to know a lot of little things about these little words - I
wish I knew more. It would be really interesting to see if my non-native
speaker's theoretical knowledge is worth anything.
Well, anyway, I've been taught (and this is what I teach my students)
that
the absence of article in the phrases in question can be explained
semantically. "School", or "church", or "sea" in "at school", "to
church",
"at sea" don't denote objects of the real world, but rather abstract
concepts of places usually associated with a specific human activity.
You go
to church to pray and you go to the church to do anything else, like
repair
the church roof, meet someone near the church and so on. So, according
to
this theory, some nouns change their lexical meaning and consequently
move
to a different grammatical class - they become uncountable and therefore
can
be used with the zero article. Can you say: "My children go to schools"
or
"Drug dealers must go to jails"? The list of such nouns (for Standard
British English, whatever that means)usually includes (at/to)SCHOOL,
(at/to)COLLEDGE, (at/to)UNIVERSITY, (in/to)HOSPITAL, (in/to)JAIL or
PRISON,
(in/to)CHURCH, (at/to)SEA, (at/-)HOME, (at/to)WORK, (in/to)BED,
(at)TABLE.
You can add the names of meals: for breakfast, dinner, tea etc. I can
think
of some more: "have smth in store" - "work in a store", "go to town"
Different prepositions may be used in other varieties of English: I
understand that in American English you say "in school", not "at school"

A similar change, in the opposite direction, occurs in "I had a coffee",
where "a coffee" [countable]means a portion of the drink, not the
substance
itself (as opposed to "I drink lots of coffee" [uncountable])
  There are also pairs like "wood" (timber) - "a wood" (forest), "glass"
(material) - "a glass" (e.g. of milk)

This doesn't seem to contradict your "adverbial lexicalization" in any
way, just puts it in a different perspective.

But the theory I've quoted above doesn't explain some examples I've just
thought of. How about "in hell" and "in heaven"? Or "This department is
IN
THE CHARGE of Mr N" and "Mr N is IN CHARGE", and similarly "in
control/in
the control"? There is also a group of words that normally require the
definite article in contexts, similar to "go to school": "I have to go
to
THE bank/shops/doctor etc."

As far as dialectal variations are concerned how about "in spring" vs.
"in
the spring" and other names of seasons?

I hope this can be helpful.
Leonard Okhotchinski

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From: "Willem Oosthuizen" <willem_oosie at hotmail.com>
Subject: Grammar 2.4.02

In afrikaans the definite article seems to be omitted when there is no
preposition present:

eg. ons gaan hospitaal toe (literally: we go hospital to)
     ons gaan na die hospitaal toe (literally: we go to the hospital to)

Now, the direct translations sound like English infected with the BSE
virus, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say.

Is what I'm saying relevant or am I missing the point here?

Willem

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Grammar

Good to hear from both of you, Leonard and Willem (from Russia and South
Africa respectively).  Thanks for your responses.  I am always delighted
to welcome newcomers and "unlurked" lurkers.

I feel that both of your points are relevant and valid.

Leonard, your explanation seems pretty good, especially for people who,
like speakers of Slavic languages, struggle with the concept of
"article" to begin with.  Just as long as people are aware that this is
lexicalized (i.e., its use is restricted to certain phrases) and that
there are dialectal differences.

Leonard, correct me if I am wrong, but don't you have something similar
in certain phrases in Russian, distinguishing in part by means of case
endings?  (E.g., _dom_ 'house', 'home': _Ja v dome_ ("I in
dom+preposional") 'I am in the house/home' vs _Ja doma_ ("I
dom+genitive[?]") 'I am at home')

> As far as dialectal variations are concerned how about "in spring" vs.
> "in the spring" and other names of seasons?

Good question!  I seem to hear both versions around here (Seattle, USA).

Willem,

> eg. ons gaan hospitaal toe (literally: we go hospital to)
>    ons gaan na die hospitaal toe (literally: we go to the hospital to)

I think we are dealing with the same type of phenomenon, except that in
Afrikaans you use this peculiar (and probably quite ancient) postnominal
"pre"-position _toe_ as direction indicator.

Best regards!
Reinhard/Ron

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