English translation: Job in the complement of the sentence = no article
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12:20 Feb 12, 2012
English to English translations [Non-PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase:Article absence
Why in the example below the noun "captain" for the first time has no any articles, then has "the", and at last "the"?
"If I were captain of the ship, I would take you on a voyage. ... Do you know that I am the captain of a ship or not?"
"I know that you are not a captain of a ship."
Explanation: I don't disagree with either of the other answers so I'm not looking for points ;-) but I needed more room to explain my answer.
The EFL teacher's "bible", Michael Swan's Practical English Usage, says this about the definite article:
... is not usually used in the complement of a sentence, when we say that somebody has or gains a unique position (the only one in the organisation). Compare:
They appointed him Head Librarian. / He's a librarian.
He was elected President in 1879. / I want to see the President.
I know that shipping companies have more than one captain, but there is only one per ship so the rule applies.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 23 hrs (2012-02-13 12:17:51 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
As B D Finch has pointed out, the sentences given are not all correct. Let's consider each of them:
"If I were captain of the ship, I would take you on a voyage."
That's perfectly good English. Nowadays, it is also perfectly OK to use "if I was" in informal, spoken English, though some people insist that it's incorrect.
"Do you know that I am the captain of a ship or not?"
This sentence is incorrect. "Or not" implies that only one of two things is possible, as in "is the coffee hot or not?", so it isn't compatible with "do you know THAT".
"I know that you are not a captain of a ship."
I'm not entirely sure that there's a grammatical error, but it's definitely odd. The natural way to finish the sentence would be "a ship's captain". The term "captain of a ship" could be preceded by either "the" or no article, but it wouldn't be my choice of phrasing.
If the person is referring to a real ship, then your first sentence is perfect. For a hypothetical ship, the best would be "If I were a ship's captain, I'd take you on a voyage."
How should I express the idea of this conversation? I.e. the "captain" really isn't a captain and the second person knows it for sure.
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Answers
6 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
article absence
slight nuance
Explanation: Just my own inclination, but in the first instance "captain" is used as a title for the man in question, while in the other cases we are talking about an actual job and adding the article inserts a slight distance between the commission and the man holding it.
I am not sure how well I articulated that. Someone else may expand.
Paul Lambert Sweden Local time: 03:06 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 12
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you.
13 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
article absence
consider the grammatical feature definiteness
Explanation: One of the main functions of articles is to express the grammatical feature of definiteness, i.e. if the representative of a class you are talking about is a defined one or not.
examples:
- Captains are usually strong men (not a specific captain or captains, captains in general)
- The captain of the ship is a strong man (a specific captain of a specific ship.
- I am captain of the ship. - although there is no article before captain, usually there is only one captain on a ship, so if the ship is defined, then we do not necessarily need to define its captain. This sentence equals "= I am the ship's captain", where we would normally not use the definite article when there is a possession marker (a noun in the genitive case or a possessive pronoun), as the possession marker by definition specifies which captain of all captains in the world we are talking about.
As with most things in grammar, the use can sometimes be arbitrary, as long as you follow the basic rules above. Read the link as well.
Job in the complement of the sentence = no article
Explanation: I don't disagree with either of the other answers so I'm not looking for points ;-) but I needed more room to explain my answer.
The EFL teacher's "bible", Michael Swan's Practical English Usage, says this about the definite article:
... is not usually used in the complement of a sentence, when we say that somebody has or gains a unique position (the only one in the organisation). Compare:
They appointed him Head Librarian. / He's a librarian.
He was elected President in 1879. / I want to see the President.
I know that shipping companies have more than one captain, but there is only one per ship so the rule applies.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 23 hrs (2012-02-13 12:17:51 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
As B D Finch has pointed out, the sentences given are not all correct. Let's consider each of them:
"If I were captain of the ship, I would take you on a voyage."
That's perfectly good English. Nowadays, it is also perfectly OK to use "if I was" in informal, spoken English, though some people insist that it's incorrect.
"Do you know that I am the captain of a ship or not?"
This sentence is incorrect. "Or not" implies that only one of two things is possible, as in "is the coffee hot or not?", so it isn't compatible with "do you know THAT".
"I know that you are not a captain of a ship."
I'm not entirely sure that there's a grammatical error, but it's definitely odd. The natural way to finish the sentence would be "a ship's captain". The term "captain of a ship" could be preceded by either "the" or no article, but it wouldn't be my choice of phrasing.
Sheila Wilson Spain Local time: 02:06 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 20
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
