Theory and Grammar - The Article

I like early morning -- especially in spring... (Galsworthy). It was early afternoon. (Locke).

2. The names of meals (dinner, breakfast, lunch, supper, tea) have no article when they are treated as abstract nouns used in a general sense. The definite or the indefinite article is used with these nouns when the contents of the meal or a definite meal are meant:

He had many invitations to dinner, some of which he accepted. (London). Lunch succeeded to our sight-seeing... (Dickens). "Tea is ready, mother." (Lawrence). We went downstairs to breakfast. (Jerome). "Shall we go down to tea?" said Soames. (Galsworthy). Then we thought we were going to have supper (we had disposed with tea, so as to save time)... (Jerome).

But: Harris said: "The great thing is to make a good breakfast..." (Jerome). We had made the tea, and were just settling comfortably to drink it... (Jerome). After a scanty supper she and the old man lay to rest. (Dickens).

The nouns dinner, lunch, etc. are used with the definite or the indefinite article when they denote official meals (dinner-parties, banquets, etc).

...Mr. Merdle... had signified to the chief butler his intention to give a special dinner... The day of the dinner was now come. (Dickens). ...a small dinner for this club and its friends was announced for the first Thursday in December. (Dreiser).

3. The nouns school, college, market, prison, jail, court, hospital, tamp, bed, table have no article when they are treated as abstract nouns and denote the state or activities associated with these places or the aim they serve. This is usually the case when these nouns are associated with the prepositions at, after, in, to, from. The abstract meaning has developed from the concrete meaning of these nouns:

Anthony was five when he went to school. (Gordon). Anthony's letters from school were now short and hurriedly written. (Gordon). She went to bed soon after this... (Diскens). ...they were back in camp. (Hemingway). We were only three at table... (Conrad). "Have you ever seen him since?" -- About a month afterwards, in returning from market... (Bronte). On the first of May, after their last year together at college, Frank Ashurst and his friend Robert Carto were on a tramp. (Galsworthy).

But when the nouns school, college, etc., are used in their original concrete meaning and indicate a particular institution, a concrete building or object, they are used with the definite or indefinite article:

"Mine is not a nice school," he said suddenly. (Gordon). Suppose the court... accepted the story of Bosman? (Gordon). The school, thus improved, became in time a truly useful and noble institution. (Bronte). Cedric was at the head of the table carving the chicken... (Braine). He flung himself down on the bed... (Gordon). Anthony joined them, and the three men walked away from the court together. (Gordon). It was a college, as he could see by the gateway. (Hardy).

Note. -- The Words University and institute always take the article like other singular class-nouns:

"He'll be back at the University soon..." (Braine).

No article is used with the noun town preceded by a preposition when the abstract idea of town life is implied. Such meaning is usually associated with the town we live in or the nearest town if we live in the country:

I drove back to town the same afternoon. (Conrad). "I'm going up to town." (Gordon).

But when the noun town is used in its original concrete meaning, it may be associated with the definite or indefinite article.

...he gazed for the last time at the little town where he was born. (Gordon). It was a nice-looking little town. (Hemingway).

5. The names of languages have no article:

"That doesn't mean anything in correct English"; she objected. (London). ...with Sophie I used to talk French...

(Bronte). ...her husband taught English at the Grammar School... (Braine).

The definite article is used with the names of languages when a noun is felt to be missing:

As we trudged along he would tell me the German (words) for the various objects we passed, a cow, a horse, a man and so on... (Maugham). They discussed a novel... which had just been translated from the Italian (language). (Norris). It may also be used on the cover of the book:

Translated from the German.

CONCLUSION

In this course paper we revealed detailed rules and recommendations of the use of the article or its omission in dependence on various features of the noun and of the sentence in which it occurs. We ascertain which of the article must be used to show the concrete meaning of the noun.

Owing to its origin from the numeral one, the use of the indefinite article is limited to countable nouns in the singular. In the plural the noun has no article in a similar situation. The indefinite article is used before a noun in the singular to indicate that the object denoted by the noun is one of a class or group without defining what particular place it occupies in that class or group. Thus, the indefinite article is used to refer a thin to a certain class and is therefore a classifying article

The definite article is used before a noun to show that in the mind of the speaker and the hearer the object denoted by the noun is marked as a definite object, distinct from all other objects of a class or group of objects of a certain description. That is why the definite article is an individualizing or limiting article. This article is used before nouns in the plural, as well as before nouns in singular.

From the above-mentioned examples we saw that the absence of the article has generalizing force; it shows that we do not have in view an individual object (definite or indefinite) belonging to a class of similar objects, but express more abstract, more general ideas. Thus we find the absence of the article with nouns used in a general sense, which are the names of materials or the names of abstract notions (uncountable nouns).

We also find out how to use the article with different classes of nouns because the general description is not so detail as often students need to be clear in this question.

С1ass-nоuns (which belong to the group of countable nouns) are used with the definite or indefinite article; the choice of the article depends on the context or the general situation:

When a class-noun in the singular denotes an object which is considered as one of a class of similar objects, no matter which, the indefinite article (a, an) is used; a noun in the plural indicating an indefinite number of objects of a certain class is used without an article.

When a class-noun denotes an object which is regarded by the speaker as a definite object distinct from all other objects of a certain class, it is used with the definite article. The definite article is also used with class-nouns in the plural to distinguish a definite group of objects belonging to a certain class.

With class-nouns which denote things considered to be unique the definite article is used.

We ascertain the use of the article with syntactical, collective and abstract nouns.

I think this course paper will be very useful for students studying English as it full of detail descriptions and recommendations in the use of the article and it will be easier for them to apply it in their practice.

LITERATURE

article noun sentence

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