When the Missing Article Seems Less Than Genuine

When the Missing Article Seems Less Than Genuine

SUSAN GREGG GILMORE
Los Angeles Times 04-16-2001
When the Missing Article Seems Less Than Genuine
By SUSAN GREGG GILMORE, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Los Angeles Times Monday April 16, 2001
Home Edition
Southern California Living, Page 1

Several months ago, I ran into an acquaintance at the bar of the
Crocodile Cafe in Old Pasadena. She greeted me warmly, took a sip of
chardonnay, and asked if I wanted to join her at table. I quickly scanned
the room to see if Jeeves was standing nearby, waiting to escort me to my
chair.

"Better yet," I responded to her kind yet verbally pretentious offer,
"let's just sit at booth."

At that moment, I experienced an epiphany of sorts. I began noticing
how people, English-speaking American people, drop the article "the" in
unfamiliar places. Friends and neighbors were now going to market,
vacationing on property and rushing to doctor.

At first, being new to Los Angeles, I pretended this was just big-city
talk. Then, after becoming not so new to L.A., I decided it was glam
talk, a lexical maneuver to inflate one's own sense of self-worth.
According to language experts, sometimes people do want to sound as
though they come from a speech community other than their own--maybe
from another part of the country or another part of the world. Unfortunately,
when they try to adopt part of an unfamiliar dialect structure, they
sound odd at best, pretentious at worst.

Often, people are not trying to show off, they're just trying to blend
in, says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University
in Washington, D.C., and author of "Alphabet to E-mail: How Written
English Evolved and Where It's Heading" (Routledge, 2000). "They may not
even be aware that they're doing it."

In all fairness to my friend, she did live in London for a couple of
years, and according to experts, it's easy to pick up elements of a
foreign language structure while living abroad, immersed in a different
culture. So maybe it's time to cut Madonna, with her faux-Brit talk, a
little slack. Maybe she's just trying to be like all the other working
mums on the block. My friend, on the other hand, is stateside now, and
instead of bringing home a souvenir T-shirt, she apparently opted for an
affected speech pattern.

Linguists estimate that 50 or 60 word constructions are used by
British and/or American English-speaking people in which the article
"the" is appropriately omitted. We go to school; they study at
university. We go on vacation; they go on holiday.

"Leaving out the article gives that extra piece of information about
what a person may be doing in a particular place," according to Laurel
Stvan, clinical assistant professor of linguistics at the University of
Utah. Stvan's doctoral dissertation was about the omission of articles in
the English language.

For example, if a Brit says, "My brother is in hospital," you're
likely to imagine a man dressed in a drafty gown lying in a hospital bed.
If an American says, "My brother is in prison," you're likely to conjure
up images of a man with tattoos on his arm sporting an orange jumpsuit.
If an American says, "My brother is in the prison," you might be
envisioning some clean-cut young man teaching high school classes to GED
applicants.

Unfortunately, when Americans try to imitate British speech, they can
make fools of themselves. "We begin dropping an article before a noun
where a British speaker would not," says Baron, and "before long, we lose
track of what is correct English and what is not."

Several Sundays ago my rector, a man of God, of the God, announced
from the pulpit he would be traveling out of country soon. In country is
military lingo taken from administrative paperwork used during the
Vietnam War, and referred to a soldier's tour in Vietnam. The Peace Corps
uses a similar construction when referring to a volunteer's in-country
training or service. But out of country seems to be a new phrase no
matter which side of the Atlantic you're standing on, and either Father
George got a little confused or a little creative with the English
language. By the time he returns, though, who knows? Maybe out of country
will have caught on.

Language changes all the time, adds Baron, and what sounds awkward one
day may eventually become the norm. For the record, at this moment in
time, those born and bred under the Union Jack would never say going to
doctor, visiting on or off property or traveling out of country. In fact,
they eat their meals at the table just like we do, according to Londoner
Christy Kirkpatrick, an editorial assistant for Routledge U.K. "At table
really isn't used much in conversation, not even in formal situations,"
says Kirkpatrick.

For two years, I was convinced that public radio host Linda
Othenin-Gerard of KPCC's "Talk of the City" was an intellectual snob and
a BBC wannabe because she uses the phrase in studio, as in "Amy Tan joins
me in studio today."

"I've been working in radio for 10 years now," explains
Othenin-Gerard, "and I've always heard it expressed like that.
It's
simply a way of emphasizing that my guest will be physically in the
studio and not participating via the telephone." ("By the way," she adds,
"I would never say at table.")

She's not pretentious after all, just professional. In fact, subgroups
within a culture will often drop an article in constructions particular
to the group, according to Stvan. For example, science fiction writers
describe something as being off or on planet. A health-care provider may
refer to working in clinic, and captains will direct their crews on deck.

Without a doubt, today we communicate with a global audience, and
we're going to be affected by the people and the cultures we encounter.
Hopefully, though, the next time my friend asks me to join her at table,
I'll be able to keep a tight grip on all my parts of speech and opt for
the takeout counter.

Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times, 2001.

Last updated, Feb. 16, 2003

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