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Zero article
A zero article /zɪərəʊ ɑ:tɪkəl/ is a grammatical article that is envisioned to be present in English when a noun is not preceded by a determiner (including indefinite articles a/an or the definite article the); i.e. the determiner syntactic slot is empty.[1]
Meaning[edit | edit source]
In English, we use this the zero article when speaking about things in general. For example, in [∅] Dogs eat [∅] meat, dogs refers to “dogs in general” and meat refers to “meat in general”.
More specific examples of semantic categories which typically use the zero article include:[2]
| Category | Example(s) | Ill-formed example(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meals | I eat [∅] breakfast. | !I eat a/the breakfast. | |
| Sports | I play [∅] football. | !I play the football. | |
| Academic fields and school subjects | I study [∅] geography. | !I study the geography. | |
| Places, in the sense of their purpose | I’m going to [∅] school. | !I'm going to the school. | Also includes bed, prison, university, work, and in BrE, hospital. |
| Transport | I travel by [∅] bike. | !I travel by a/the bike. | |
| Time points | I eat lunch at [∅] noon. | !I eat lunch at the noon. | Also bedtime, dinner time, lunchtime, midnight, sunrise, sunset. |
| Seasons | I wear a hat in [∅] winter. | I wear a hat in the winter. | Both acceptable. |
Form[edit | edit source]
Grammatically, the articles marks both lack of possession and lack of definiteness. The zero article is used with both singular or plural nouns. Singular nouns are marked as mass nouns, e.g: [∅] Fruit is good for you. It can also be used with plural nouns, e.g: [∅] Oranges are [∅] fruits., including uncountable plurals, e.g. [∅] Clothes are optional.
English pronouns do not take determiners; therefore, there is no zero article before pronouns; e.g. Somebody is happy, not *[∅] Somebody is happy. — including temporal deictic pronouns; Yesterday was rainy not *[∅] Yesterday was rainy.
In some analyses there may be a zero article before most (but not all) proper nouns, e.g. [∅] Caroline lives in [∅] France (not e.g. *The Caroline lives in the France). Other analyses omit a zero article, and group most proper nouns in a group closer to pronouns, which cannot take determiners.
The zero article may be displaced by other articles, including:
- Demonstrative determiners and possessive determiners.
- Genitive case nouns, e.g. Dave’s cat.
- Quantifiers, e.g. some people.
