weeks 1 and 2: nouns and determiners comparative constructions 1
TRANSCRIPT
WEEKS 1
AND 2
:
NOUNS AND
DETERMIN
ERS
COMPARAT
IVE
CONSTRUCTI
ONS 1
OBJECTIVES OF THE CHAPTER• To study noun classes in Arabic and
English, addressing similarities and differences between them;
• To study similarities and differences between Arabic and English in terms of what determiners they take;
• To study the implications of these language facts for writing and translating in Arabic and English.
WHAT IS A NOUN?Nouns name entities such as pen,
furniture, sugar, etc. They are the head of what is known as a noun phrase. They can be preceded by a determiner (an article or a quantifier) and a pre-modifier (adjective or another noun), and followed by a post-modifier (a relative clause):
Noun phraseDeterminer
Pre-modifier
Head noun
Post-modifier
The Saudi student who …
NOUN CLASSES Across Arabic and English, there are two
classes of nouns:
Proper nouns (John, عمر) and Common nouns (a pen, قلم , sugar, السكر).
Proper nouns do not take articles or determiners (* a/the John, *a/the Amr).
However, countable common nouns do take an article (a pen) while uncountable common nouns do not (*a/the sugar).
TEST TABLE FOR NOUN CLASSES
Prenominals
Proper nouns
Common nounsCountable
nounsUncountable/mass nouns
Countable and
uncountable nouns
Zero article Sid/Meshari *book Furniture Brick Definite article
*The Sid/The Meshari
The book *The furniture/the sugar
The brick
Indefinite article
*A Sid/A Meshari
A book *A furniture/a sugar
A brick
Quantifier *Some Sid/Some Mashari
*Some book
Some furniture/some sugar
Some brick
Plural *Sids/Masharis
Books *Furnitures/sugars
Bricks
(Adapted from Quirk et al, 1985, p. 246)
USES OF THE ZERO ARTICLE IN ENGLISH Some institutions of human life and society
To be in town/city (To love the town/city) To be in hospital (To redecorate the hospital) To be in prison/jail (To walk around the prison/jail) To be at school (To visit the school) To be at church (To contemplate the church) To go to college (To walk around the college)
Zero article is used with these nouns when they are used for their primary function with the noun referring to the building. However, the definite article is used when they refer to the abstract institution.
In Arabic, both uses of these nouns take the definite article: في زيد – المدينةزيد المدينةيحب في طالء – المشفىزيد زيد المشفىيجدد في حول – السجنزيد زيد السجنيحوم في زيد – المدرسةزيد المدرسةزار
USES OF THE ZERO ARTICLE IN ENGLISH Means of transport
Travel by bicycle ( متن على زيد الدراجةسافر ) Communicate by telephone ( عبر معنا زيد الهاتفتواصل )
Times of day and night At sunrise ( شروق الشمسعند ) → but (in the morning) At midnight ( منتصف الليلفي ) → but (in the afternoon) At sunset ( غروب الشمسعند ) → but (in the evening)
Seasons Winter is coming ( األبواب - الشتاء على قادم )
Meals Where are we having dinner tonight? ( سنتناول أين
؟ العشاء الليلة ) Illnesses (anemia, diabetes, cancer, pneumonia,
asthma, etc.) Our daughter has asthma ( بمرض مصابة الربوابنتنا )
NOUNS AND THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE IN ARABIC In Arabic, nouns can take the definite article or
be in the indefinite; A definite article is morphologically marked as
;(ال) Indefinite articles in Arabic do not have a
physical existence, i.e. there does not exist, like for the English a/an article, an indefinite article;
An indefinite article in Arabic is signaled by the absence of the definite article: e.g. [ الكرة - كرة ];
The indefinite article in Arabic is also used with countable singular and plural nouns [e.g. كرة - [كرات
ARAB STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AND ARTICLES In writing in English and translating from Arabic into
English, most Arab students tend to drop the indefinite article in English as in the following example: [ الطالبة وجدت
الدرس بقاعة مكتبها فوق The student found *pen on] → [قلماher desk in the classroom], which should be [The student found a pen on her desk in the classroom];
In English, as long as a noun is countable and singular, it must receive the indefinite a/an article even in citation form;
Obviously, if the noun is countable and plural, it does not receive the indefinite as in [ مكتبها فوق أقالما الطالبة وجدت
الدرس The student found pens on her desk in the] → [بقاعةclassroom].
USES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE IN ARABIC The definite article [ال] in Arabic is used with
countable/uncountable, mass, and abstract nouns.
Countable nouns include examples such as [ – – الكرة القلمالسيارة – while mass and abstract nouns include [ النظارة
nouns such as [ الدقيق – – – األرز الماء الصداقة – ] and [ السكرالمحبة – – الغضب .[ الخوف
In writing in English and translating from Arabic into English, most Arab students tend to keep the definite article with all of the countable, mass, and abstract nouns as in the following examples:1. [ السيارة السائق [The driver got into the car] →[ركب2. [ الشاي لتحضير السكر العامل The worker bought the]* →[اشترى
sugar to make tea]3. [ السائق الخوف [The fear took hold of the driver]* →[انتاب
ARABIC AND ENGLISH IN CONTACTWhile sentence (1) is acceptable as an
equivalent of the Arabic construction, sentences (2) and (3) above are unacceptable since English does not take the definite article with mass noun (sugar) and the abstract noun (fear).
The correct sentences do without the definite article in English [The worker bought sugar to make tea] and [Fear took hold of the driver].
EXCEPTIONAL USE OF DEFINITENESS WITH ABSTRACT NOUNS IN ENGLISHThere is an exception to the use of the definite article with
abstract nouns. This exception has to do with cases where the abstract noun is postmodified by a relative clause as in the following example:
[ هاجسا الخوفأصبح السائق انتاب الذي ]→ [The fear that took hold of the driver became an obsession]
GENERIC REFERENCE IN ENGLISH AND ARABICGeneric reference in English can be
expressed through definiteness, indefiniteness, and the plural:
The bull terrier makes an excellent watchdog; A bull terrier makes an excellent watchdog; Bulls terriers make excellent watchdogs;
In Arabic, however, generic reference is expressed solely through definiteness:
فصيلة األسد من ضخم حيوان وأحد السنوريات. النمر لجنس المنتمية الكبيرة األربعة السنوريات
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONSIn Arabic, the definite article seems to be
used with all of the countable, abstract, and mass nouns while it is only used with countable nouns in English;
With abstract and mass nouns, the definite article in English is strictly used when the noun is postmodified with a relative clause or other defining constructions;
The zero-article has many uses in English, which are expressed almost always with the definite article in Arabic.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS Arabic seems to favor definiteness (التعريف) over
indefiniteness (التنكير);English seems to put more restrictions than Arabic on
the use of definiteness; English makes a distinction between zero-article and
indefiniteness, with zero-article used with abstract and mass nouns and the indefinite with countable nouns;
English seems to favor zero-article with plural nouns while Arabic favors definiteness with them.
With regard to generic reference, Arabic and English overlap only partly, whereby both languages use definiteness to express it. However, English also uses indefiniteness and the plural.
PRACTICE EXERCISE 1:Organize the following nouns
according to whether they are countable, uncountable, countable and uncountable, or mass nouns:
Paper, milk, school, water, radio, cake, brick, information, coffee, damage - المياه
السكر – – – األوراق الورق - معلومة
Countable nouns
Abstract nouns
Countable and uncountable nouns
Mass nouns
PRACTICE EXERCISE 2:Use the correct form of the noun in brackets in the following constructions:
Martin enjoys listening to … but he does not really like … that his son plays on his guitar (music).
… is one of the my favorite sports (football).I must show you … of our holidays in Ireland. Pat is really
very good at taking … (photos).… opposite my house blew down in the wind last night. I
don’t think it is a good idea to have … near houses (trees).Sarah loves … . When she visits foreign countries, she always
goes to local restaurants and tries … which is typical of that region (food).
William wrote … to his bank yesterday but he forgot to post it. This morning he saw … on the kitchen table (letter)
PRACTICE EXERCISE 3:SAY WHY SOME SENTENCES ARE INAPPROPRIATE ENGLISH CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE FOLLOWING TEXT:
PRACTICE EXERCISE 4:Express the same idea in the following
English/Arabic sentences, using the appropriate English/Arabic constructions:
يوم 1. ذات قولك أذكر زلت . ” :ما هو واألدب بيننا حدث ما هو الحبيحدث لم ما ". كل
.2. المنطق يعترضه ال داخلي صهيل للرغبة
.3. للمطر مضاد معطف إلى يحتاج ال الحزن
لليأس 4. استسلم إنسان لكل صادقة برسالة أبعث أن أردتوالفشل.
األمل: 5. اإلنسان فيفقد مع�ا، والعقل الروح يصيب إحباط اليأس ..! حوله من واألمور واألوضاع األحوال تغير إمكانية في
COURSE READINGS
Khalil, Aziz M. (1999). A Contrastive Grammar of English and Arabic. Jordan: Jordan Book Centre.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman Group Ltd.