Introduction

Nouns stand for people, things and so on, but often it is important to establish which particular person or thing is being referred to, or how many. Determiners are a class of words that are used with nouns and have the function of defining the reference of the noun in some way. They answer, for example, the question Which? or Whose? or How much? of the thing(s) named in the noun phrase.

Tasks

1 Determiners

Can you classify the underlined determiners in this text, according to their function – i.e. articles, numerals, quantifiers, possessives and demonstratives?

2 The zero article

In the previous text some noun phrases, such as journalism have no determiner at all. Since the presence of a determiner is the norm, determiner absence is called the zero article (and marked Ø). Other examples from the text are: Ø Landport; Ø monthly instalments; Ø talks and Ø readings.

Now, find an example in the text of each of these rules for zero article use:

• a Use zero article with non-count nouns, where the reference is indefinite.

• b Use zero article with plural count nouns, where the reference is indefinite.

• c Use zero article with proper nouns.

• d Use zero article with certain common expressions of time and place, means of transport and so on.

Can you think of more examples of Rule d? For example: by train, in bed.

3 Articles: definite versus indefinite

a Look at these two short conversations, and match each one with the picture below that best represents the state of each speakers’ knowledge:

Here is how the conversations continue. Which continuation is most likely to go with which conversation?

B. Our dog?

and

B. Which dog?

How does this exercise illustrate the difference between a and the?