Hewas sent to a secondary (good, public) school
He was sent tothe best schoolin the town.
§ 52. The noun town in some prepositional phrases may be used
without any article when it means the centre or business part of a
town, the town one lives in, or the nearest town to a country place-
e.g. She drove into townand drew up at the curb beside the drugstore.
I called up and asked her if she wouldn't prefer to lunch in
town.
Ithought that he would be out of townnext week.
§ 53. A considerable number of different nouns when used in
adverbial prepositional phrases have no article, e.g. by train, by
plane, by boat, by coach, by bus, by tram, by taxi, by air, by car, by
sea, by post, by mail, by phone, by radio, by accident, by mistake,
by hand, by chance, by letter, by land, by sight, at hand, off hand,
[ in detail, in person, on board, on deck, on foot, on tiptoe, at sea, to
sea, on hand, on leave, on business, on holiday, etc.
e.g. It was nearly eight o'clock, and I had to go home by taxi.
Ihad already told her by telephoneabout my talk with
Keats.
You needn't tell me about it in detail.
§ 54.There is no article in a number of combinations con-
sisting of a preposition + a noun + a preposition. Such setphras-
es are to be treated as compound prepositions, e.g. in addition to,
in charge of, in contrast with, in regard to, in support of, in reply
to, in connection with, on account of, in comparison with, in con-
formity with, in honour of, in memory of, in pursuit of, in favour
of, in combination with, in answer to, in defiance of, with regard
to, in recognition of, in return for, in place of, in relation to, in search of, by reason of, by way of, etc.
e.g. I rushed through the passage in searchof my mother.
My father found himself in chargeof a factory.
However, in some other set phrases built up on the same pat-
tern the definite article is used, e.g. under the influence of, in the
centre of, on the invitation of, by the side of, in the middle of, on
the initiative of, under the pretence of, etc.
§ 55. There is no article in some combinations consisting of a
preposition 4- a noun + a conjunction which are on the way of beco-
ming compound conjunctions, e.g. for fear that, on condition that.
However, in some cases the definite article is found, as in: on
the ground that, for the reason that.
§ 56. The definite article is used in the following set phrases: to
the forest, in (to, across) the fields, to (at) the cinema, to (at) the
theatre, to the pictures, to (in) the country, on the spot, in the
slums, in the trenches. (Note, however, that the nouns museum,
picture gallery, concert, exhibition do not form such set phrases.)
e.g. I took Marian aside and asked her to come for a walk. We
went to the fields.
We had an early dinner and went to the theatre.
"Oh," he said, "Sarah*s come in. She's been to the pictures."
I knew that Aunt Lin would not ring up because it was her
afternoon at the cinema.
But if these nouns indicate a particular object, the articles are
used with them in accordance with the general rules. But this
case is not common.
e.g. We found that the film was on at a cinema across the river.
Charles suggested that we should have a meal and go to a the-
atre.
§ 57. The definite article is also used in the following set
phrases: to play the piano, to play the violin and the like. But no
article is found in the combinations: to play volleyball., to play
hockey, to play golf, to play cards and the like.
The Use of Articles with Nouns Denoting
UniqueObjects
§ 58. There are a number of nouns in English denoting either
concrete objects or abstract notions which are considered to be
unique. These nouns are neither countable nor uncountable as, on
the one hand, they express oneness but, on the other hand, the
idea of more-than-oneness, is inconceivable in connection with
them 1. Such nouns are used with the definite article as reference
is always made to the same object or notion. They include:
1 Occasionally some of these nouns are used in the plural for stylistic purposes.
e.g. The morning skieswere heavy with autumn mists.
1) names of unique objects, such as the sun, the moon, the
earth, the world, the globe, the universe, the Milky Way, the
ground, the cosmos, the atmosphere.
e.g. The sun was falling flat across the field and the grass was
pale with it.
We had been there all day, the whole party of us; the ground
was littered with our picnic.
Even when these nouns have descriptive attributes they may
be used with the definite article in accordance with the rule stat-
ed above.
e.g. Only the yellow light of the low autumn moon ruffled the water.
The stars were quivering in the frosty sky.
However, the indefinite article in its aspective function may
also be used in this case. Then attention is focused on the noun
and it becomes the centre of communication, which is as usual
marked by strong stress.
e.g. There was a splendid tropical moon and a soft breeze last
night.
It was a glorious night, with a great full moon gleaming in a
purple sky.
My first reply was: "Of course, I want to see a better world."
It should be noted that the above use is typical of literary style.
2) names of unique notions, such as the present, the past, the
future, the singular, the plural, the South, the North, the East, the
West, the equator, the horizon, the post, the press, the telegraph,
the telephone, the radio. But: TV, {the) television.
e.g. The film star had a particular smile for the press.
presently the sun rose over the horizon.
I knew that the future was going to be full of pain for me.
"The telephone in this town," Hallam said, "is as private as
the radio."
Note. The above rule does not concern the nouns radio and telephone indicating
concrete objects,
Somewhere a radiosoftly played.
The use of articles with these nouns modified by descriptive
attributes is the same as that with nouns denoting unique objects.
Compare: Even the distant futurelooked quite gloomy to him.
Everyone believed that he had a brilliant futurebefore
him.
Note. Note the following set phrases: at present ('в настоящее время'), in the
past ('в прошлом'), in the future ('в будущем'), in future ('отныне', 'впредь').
The Use of Articles with Proper Names
§ 59.The use of articles with proper names seems to be based
mainly on tradition.
It is true that some cases might be accounted for historically.
Thus we can say that the use of articles with names of certain
countries is due to foreign usage: the Senegal, the Tyrol. In other
cases the article may be due to the ellipsis of a common noun
which was formerly added: the Sahara (desert), the Crimea (pen
insula), the Pacific (ocean), the Baltic (sea), the Bedford (hotel),
the Lancet (magazine). In the Urals the use of the definite article
may be explained by the fact that the noun originates from the
name of a mountain range; the Congo may have the article be-
cause the name originally denotes the river. Names of rivers are
used with the definite article because formerly the noun river of-
ten preceded the proper name: the river Thames.
Although historical explanations of that kind may be con-
vincing, they are not of great help from the viewpoint of present-
day English. In modern English the use of articles with proper
names lacks regularity and so does not always seem consistent.
Proper names fall into various groups, such as names of per-
sons, geographic names, names of newspapers and magazines,
boats, hotels, public buildings, etc. Moreover, geographic names
may be divided into subgroups, such as names of countries, con-
tinents, cities and towns, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, islands,
peninsulas, etc. The use of articles with each of the above men-
tioned groups and subgroups has peculiarities of its own. Within
each group there are typical cases and individual cases. Hence,
it is necessary to describe the use of articles with each group
separately.