The zero article sounds as though it might refer to the words \u2018none\u2019, \u2018no\u2019 or \u2018not one\u2019, but that is not actually the case. An ‘article’ is probably one of the hardest grammatical things to describe. I\u2019ve used a few of them already in this piece, but it\u2019s a great deal easier to use than to explain, let me tell you! In essence, an article is the word before the noun that determines its specificity: \u2018the\u2019, \u2018every\u2019 (definite) and \u2018a\u2019, \u2018an\u2019 (indefinite).<\/p>\n
So what does a \u2018zero article\u2019 or the \u2018zero determiner\u2019 mean? It simply means the article is absent. You may think that sounds grammatically awkward or incorrect, but it\u2019s actually more common than it might appear on the surface. Firstly, no article is necessary when being used with proper nouns.<\/p>\n
\n Ruxandra<\/strong> likes to jump in puddles.
\n Mt Cook<\/strong> can be seen across the lake.
\n I\u2019m not a huge fan of London<\/strong>, it\u2019s too crowded.
\n At long last, we reached Main Street<\/strong>.
\n I found it quite hard to learn German<\/strong> as a child.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHere, the power of the proper noun does away with the necessity for labelling the noun with an article. There is only one London or one Ruxandra that we would likely be talking about, for instance. Of course, there are situational exceptions, such as:<\/p>\n
\n The Alex<\/strong> in the back row of our year photo was the tallest guy in the grade, but the Alex<\/strong> in the front row was the shortest.
\n \u201cI wish I could find myself a Mr Darcy<\/strong>.\u201d
\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t quite the London<\/strong> I remember\u2026\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnother instance of when a zero article would be brought into use is with unspecified plural common nouns and mass \u2018uncountable\u2019 nouns, such as:<\/p>\n
\n Daniel is not a fan of heights<\/strong>.
\n Antique furniture<\/strong> is what I generally prefer.
\n I\u2019ve never been this close to snow<\/strong> before.
\n Air<\/strong> is necessary for humans to survive.
\n We spent the day moving furniture<\/strong> upstairs.
\n What ghastly weather<\/strong> we\u2019re having!
\n The family retreated indoors when hail<\/strong> began to fall.
\n Cats<\/strong> love to play with toy mice<\/strong>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut even when it comes to singular common nouns, zero articles can be used. Often, you will notice that no article has been included when the nouns are references to locations, transport or even times; for example:<\/p>\n
\n I went to school<\/strong> today.
\n Jan spilt coffee all down her shirt in the kitchen at work<\/strong>.
\n At dawn<\/strong>, she went for a run.
\n It was midday<\/strong> by the time Tom got there.
\n We had to take the children to the doctor by train<\/strong>.
\n One way to get from the South Island of New Zealand to the North is to go by ferry<\/strong>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo with all that on board, what is the point of the zero article? When not adhering to the basic rules of proper nouns, its main purpose is to demonstrate a lack of specificity or to provide a sense of genericness. In the above examples, including an article might provide additional information that could change the meaning of the sentence.<\/p>\n
For instance, \u2018I went to school today\u2019 is vastly different to \u2018I went to a<\/strong> school today\u2019. The first sentence insinuates you were going to school to learn or a specific school that both speaker and listener already know about; however, the second could suggest a parent going to look at a prospective school for their child.<\/p>\n
Similarly, \u2018We spent the day moving furniture upstairs\u2019 is unspecific in the amount of furniture that\u2019s being moved, whereas \u2018We spent the day moving the<\/strong> furniture upstairs\u2019 could imply all<\/em> the furniture from downstairs is being taken upstairs.<\/p>\n
Likewise, ‘I went to the city by bus<\/strong>\u2019 rather than ‘I caught the bus<\/strong> to the city’ could include multiple bus rides, as it might, depending on where you live; and \u2018Cats<\/strong> love to play with toy mice<\/strong>\u2019 is very generic\u2014insinuating that all<\/em> cats enjoy playing with all<\/em> toy mice\u2014as opposed to \u2018the cats\u2019, which would mean specific cats (most likely revealed through additional context). And let me tell you, not all cats enjoy playing with all toy mice. My own cat is very picky with her choice of prey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doesn’t actually mean ‘none’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}