16. Comment on the use of the definite article with class nouns.

The definite article is used both with singular and plural nouns. It has the specifying meaning and the generic meaning.

In the specifying meaning the definite article denotes that the following noun refers to a particular object (thing, person) or particular objects as distinct from all others of the same class:

Nothing was natural in the room except the plants.

The definite article is used in the generic meaning when reference is made to a class of objects as a whole:

The tiger is dangerous.

The cat is a domestic animal.

Class nouns are used with the definite article:

1. When the speaker mentions a noun for the second time:

For lunch I had a sandwich and an apple. The sandwich wasn’t very nice.

If it is clear what item the speaker is referring back to, he normally uses a pronoun:

I have bought a book. It cost $2.50.

He can also use another, more general noun:

There was an enormous cat crouching on the counter… The animal looked up at Mrs. Bixby.

Angelica took the shell in both her hands and we peered at the thing.

Sometimes, however, the noun with definite article should be repeated:

 when the first mention occurred a long time before and a pronoun or noun would not make a connection with it:

But then I came on a man playing a harp. It was a black harp… and the man was dressed as a gorilla!

 when the speaker is referring to one of two different people or things that have just been mentioned together:

Suddenly Marsha heard what sounded like a fight between a man and a woman. She tensed, prepared to call for help, till she realized that the woman seemed to be getting the better of it.

 when the speaker wants to add something to the noun:

The full development of an idea may well take years of hard work but the idea itself may arrive in a flash of insight.

 as a way of avoiding repeating a pronoun too often:

Lyn lived with her husband in a house that they had bought for a song in nearby Seyer Street. The house was cheap partly because it was falling down.

2. When the speaker and the hearer know what particular object is meant. No special indication is necessary:

What do you think of the table? (= the table we are looking at)

How did you like the play?

I have got the magazine.

Note. It should be borne in mind that, there is a difference between knowing what object is spoken about and knowing the object itself:

I. - I do not care to speak to the girl. I have never seen her.

- Won't you speak to her?

- But I do not know the girl either.

II. - Who told you about it?

- A girl.

- What girl?

- My sister.

In the first dialogue the speaker and the hearer do not know the person at all, but they know whom they mean, so the definite article is used. In the second the speaker knows the person, but he presents her to the hearer merely as one of a class, so the indefinite article is used.

3. When the speaker uses an attribute pointing out a particular object:

This is the house that Jack built.

4. When the situation itself makes the object definite and when the speaker wants to talk about something that is associated with an earlier item (even though he hasn’t mentioned it before) just to show that there is a relationship or association between the items:

The wedding looked dismal. The bride was too old and the bridegroom was too young.

I went to the window again to try to smash the glass. (the glass in the window)

He needed a whisky, but the bottle was empty. (the bottle containing the whisky)

5. When the noun denotes the object or group of objects, which is unique or considered to be unique.

Here are some words, which belong to this group: the devil the earth the equator the moon

the north pole the planets the pope the sky

the solar system the south pole the stars the sun

the universe the world