EngQuizzitive-CET-10 (grammar):Articles : Answers

Topic: articles

The nexus between articles and proper nouns

Proper nouns are names given to: individuals, country, geographic locations, organisations, planets. Etc.Since they are one of their kind they should be preceded by the article ‘the’ which indicates definiteness.* But that rarely happens. Why?

The answer to this conundrum can be traced to the etymology (the scientific study of words) of words that indicate proper nouns.

• Individual names:

E.g. The Ganga is sitting in the class. /The Ganga flows maximum through Uttar Pradesh in India.

Between the two which one is incorrect? Why?

Is the answer the first one because proper nouns that are names of individuals do not take articles? Nope.

The first sentence is incorrect not for the above stated rule but because a river (the Ganga) cannot sit in the class. Remove the article from Ganga in the first sentence; it would be correct coz now the meaning communicated is that a girl is sitting in the class.

So why don’t Proper nouns indicating name of individuals take the article ‘the’?

Possible because names of individuals are not specific but generic.

E.g. There are many girls named Ganga in the world, so it is generic and not specific hence does not take the article ‘the’

• Country names: Most of the country names have an origin that can be traced back to their founder: Philippines from King Phillip II of Spain, America from Amerigo Vespucci. Hence they are eponyms. So they would not take an article for reason mentioned above. But yes, country names which are a conglomeration of states or islands will take the article ‘the’ for these are not based on name of any individual e.g. the USA,the United Kingdom

• Geographic locations : they are one of their kind so do take the article ‘the’ e.g. The Ganga, The Himalayas, The Nilgiris

• Organisation names : when based on the name of an individual will not take an article (for the reason mentioned above) but when refers to a group would need an article to give it a distinct nature

• Planet names: they are one of their kind but still do not take the article ‘the’ due to etymological reasons. All these planet names are names of Roman gods and goddesses. People name their children on the names of these gods and goddesses hence they become individual names so do not take an article. The only planet which takes an article is our planet. There is a reason for this too. Earth refers to soil (e.g. The pot is an earthen ware);so to differentiate between the planet and soil an article was given to our planet

The article usage conundrum can be easily solved if little pains are taken to study the etymology of words.

*Articles (from the Latin root artis = skill) give a definite or generic characteristic to a noun.

Answers

1. Ganga is sitting in the class. [here it refers to the proper noun that is name of a girl]
2. The Ganga flows maximum through Uttar Pradesh. [here it refers to the river and since there is only one river Ganga we know of it takes the specific article 'the']
3. He is the Tagore of our class. [in this sentence 'the Tagore' conveys an implied meaning , which means he is a great poet as Tagore was]
4. Isabella the heroine of the novel sets sail for India.
5. The GDP of India is greater than that of the United States. [refers to a cluster hence takes the article 'the']

Any queries please post them in the comments section of this post.

For more on articles visit these links:
Quiz : http://engquizzitive.blogspot.com/2010/07/grammar-quiz-iii-articles.html
Theory : http://engquizzitive.blogspot.com/2010/06/grammar-quiz-iii-articles.html