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.