Japanese English articles
Senmon Enshu1
2002/1/8
Outline
I. Introduction
II. What is article?
III. Use of articles which Japanese people are easy to mistake and examples
I. Use of indefinite articles, “a” or “an”
II. Use of definite articles, “the”
III. Use of the zero articles
IV. Conclusion
Ⅰ. Introduction
This paper will research articles typical characteristic in English. Because Japanese
languages don’t has articles, most Japanese are not good at using articles in writing and
speaking English. In fact, when we write a paper, we hesitate about what article to use.
When we read English, for example, textbooks and English papers, we can read them
without thinking about articles. However, when we write and speak English, we must
consider about articles.
When British and American people read the sentences written by Japanese, they are
often surprised because of mistaken articles.
Thus, it seems that this is the biggest characteristic of grammar in Japanese English. So,
this paper will research how Japanese mistake articles, what is an article, and so on.
Ⅱ. What is an article?
There are three kinds of articles! “the” indefinite articles “a” or “an” and zero article.
The definite article “the” is used when we point to a particular thing. The words which
has already appeared in the topic and is known when we talk to each other also uses
“the”.
Indefinite articles “a” or “an” show one thing which we can distinguish from others.
We use them before a word which appears for the first time in a text.
Finally, there are things which use neither definite article nor indefinite articles, they
use the zero article. Examples are material nouns, noun representing meals, and so on.
In this chapter, I describe the origin of articles, beginning with the definite article.
English in the oldest age did not use articles with nouns, but demonstrative adjectives
and definite articles developed to divide particular things from same kinds.
Demonstrative adjectives changed by sex, number and case in the oldest English. In
them, “pe” was used instead of the masculine gender of singular nominative “se” and
the feminine gender “seo”. It changed into “the” and all of the sex, number and case
were used as definite articles. At the same time, neuter “pat” (=that) was used as a
demonstrative adjective for all of the sexes, numbers and cases.
Then, the division of use of demonstrative adjectives and definite articles began. That
is to say, English began to use “that” when we can point and show directly, we use “the”
when set by the connection or the explanation of the language.
Next, indefinite articles historically have not changed as much as definite articles. In
the oldest English, “an” (=one) was used to point to indefinite individuals. That is to say,
at first, the indefinite article had only “an”, and it abbreviated the last “n” in before
consonants, then changed to “a” as the numeral changed to “one” by the change of the
pronunciation.
Articles are put before nouns and decide their characters. In other words, they have a
function of realizing nouns. For example, dog, a word. “dog” ; In case of not using
articles, it only shows that the image of mere dog is very primitive. So, we can’t use
“dog” as a flesh and blood dog in conversations. It is not “a dog” which we can realize
as a pet until we use the indefinite article “a”.
Also they have a function of specifying nouns. They specify that nouns in an utterance
of a speaker is known to the listener, or that a listener is getting one with the image
which the speaker has and this doesn’t relate to conflict of “abstract vs embodiment”.
This conflict is shown by conflict of “definite article vs indefinite articles”.
Thus, a noun with a definite article have means that you will also understand that noun
which the speaker is recalling.
In conclusion, an article is a word which particularly explain a noun, and functions to
realize and specify nouns.
Ⅲ. Use of articles which Japanese people are easy to mistake and examples
☆ mistaken examples of indefinite articles, “a” or “an”
According to http://www.asahi-net.or jp/CA6E-PKI/english.html (July 2000) ;
“Ex, 1 I am in a hospital.”
Well, what does this sentence mean? It seems that Japanese people translate
“watashiwa nyuin siteiru.”, but this is a mistake! “in a hospital” is not a particular place
but means “toaru byoin no naka.” This means inside of a building of a hospital. In brief,
a man only is in a building of a hospital, for example, get medicine or by mistake. The
correct sentence is that “I am in the hospital.”
According to Milword (1982, pg. 15); “Ex, 2 Mary was a wife of Mr. Smith.”
This mistaken mean is “Mary wa Smith sanno tumano hitori datta.” Indefinite articles
are used to mean “one of many”. So, “a wife” means “one of many wives”. In this case,
we should use definite article “the” because it shows “just one”.
According to Ishiyama (1986, pg. 242); “Ex, 3 A man is mortal.”
This means “Ningen wa shisuru monodearu.” This sentence is a mistake. We can
usually put articles before countable nouns, but this is an exception. When we point all
of human as “Ningen toiumono”, we should regularly treat them with zero articles and
singular. So, the correct sentence is that “Man is mortal.” Besides woman and mankind
also use zero articles.
According to Ishiyama (1986, pg. 242); “Ex, 4 I went there by a taxi.”
This sentence is a mistake because in case of pointing communication, we must use
zero articles. The correct sentence is “I went there by taxi.” Other communication is
similar. For example, by car, by train and by plain in case of traffic routes, we also can
point in the zero articles. For example, by air, by road.
According to Milword (1982, pg. 17) “Ex, 5 A life of my father’s was quite long.”
This means “chichino shogaino nakaniwa hijoni nagaimonomo atta.” Man has only one
life, so the life is only one. Therefore, in case we must use definite article “the”.
☆ mistaken examples of definite article “the”
According to Ishiyama (1986, pg. 241); “Ex, 1 I watched the television last night.”
This sentence is a mistake. We must not put “the” before television. “the television”
usually shows “set”. Because we don’t watch set, “the” is not needed.
Ishiyama (1986, pg. 237); “Ex, 2 He is a graduate of the Harvard University.”
This means “karewa Harvard daigaku de desu, but this sentence is a mistake. This is
because Japanese think that Harvard University is a proper noun and only one. However,
when putting a proper noun before “University”, the article is abbreviated. Therefore the
correct answer is that “He is a graduate of Harvard University.”
However, in case of putting “University” before noun, “the University of Harvard”.
Ishiyama (1986, pg.239); “Ex, 3 I want to climb the Mt. Fuji.”
We imagine that we need “the” in it because “Fuji san” is only one in the same
examples but it is a mistake. The name of the mountain is zero articles in English. The
correct answer is “I want to climb Mt. Fuji”.
However, the name of the mountain chains was put “the”. For example, the Rocky
Mountains, the Pyrenees.
Ishiyama (1986, pg. 241); “Ex, 4 The honesty is a virture.”
This means “shoujikisawa toku dearu.” We have the rule that we must not put “the”
before such abstract noun as “honesty”. So, this sentence is a mistake.
Ishiyama (1986, pg. 236); “Ex, 5 The President Kennedy is a hard working man.”
This means “Kennedy daitoryowa kinben desu”. This sentence is a mistake because we
have the rule that we abbreviate articles in case of “occupation + the name of man”. The
right answer is “President Kennedy is a hard working man.”
However, without the name of man, in case of “daitoryowa kinbende nakerebanaranu.”
We must put “the”, “the president must be a hard working man.”
☆ mistake examples of zero article
Ishiyama (1986, pg. 240); “Ex, 1 He is now staying at Imperial Hotel.”
This means “karewa ima teikoku hoteruni taizai siteiru”, and this sentence is a mistake.
We must always put “the” before the name of the hotel. For example, the Hotel Okura,
the Hotel New Otani.
The city buildings are also put “the”. For example, the Tokyo Tower.
Ishiyama (1986, pg. 240); “Ex, 2 Japan is located in Far East.”
This means “ nihonwa gyokutochiikini ichi siteiru.”, and this is a mistake. “Far East”
is not clear about cutoff line. So, in such case, we must use “the”. The correct answer is
“Japan is located in the Far East.”
Ⅳ, Conclusion
This paper described about examples of articles which Japanese people easily to
mistake, and there are many mistaken examples. In them, I found that Japanese tend to
use articles for anything. We think that English has the rule which we must put articles
before nouns in English, Japanese believe that nouns with articles are better than
without articles, and put articles before everything. Especially, “the” is seems to be nicer
than “a” or “an”. Therefore, Japanese tend to put “the”.
Then, Japanese don’t understand that the mean widely changes by in case of definite
article and in case of indefinite article.
To understand these perfectly is difficult! Because Japanese language originally doesn’t
have articles, it is natural. Perhaps this is one reason for the common conception that
Japanese like vagueness but the British and Americans like to be clear.
Annotated Bibliography
.
This page shows me about the bibliography and corpus about English.
"”Kansi ni tuite”, available at http://homepage1.nifty.com/eigogakushu/eigo7.htm , as of
June 19, 2000.
This page shows me about many kinds of articles in English.
"Kansi
monogatari",
available
at
http://www.polyglot.co.jp/backnumber/kanshi/kanshinavi.htm , as of April 19,2001.
I can know about a position and the reason for being of articles in
English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and etc.
"Studying English", available at http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CA6E-FKI/english.html ,
as of July 2000.
This page shows me about the examples and explanations which the
difference between definite articles and indefinite articles.
"article", available at http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~e-fumi/StudyEng/article.htm , as of
May 20, 2001
This page shows me about detailed explanation of articles in English.
Isiyama hirokazu (1986) Nihonteki eigono goten (the mistake encyclopedia in Japanese
English) Tokyo: Jiyukokuminsha.
Sen Mark Peter (1988) Nihonjinno eigo (Japanese English) Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Nisida Toru (1992) Eigowa kansida (English is an article) Fukuoka: Sekifusha.
Masaho Tomizo (1996) Eigono kansiga wakaru hon: Eigono kansino youhouno
“naze?”wo kangaeru (the book which we can understand English articles : we think
“why” of uses about English articles) Tokyo: kenkyusha Shuppan.
Milword Peter (1982) Eigono gohou sindan : Nihonjinno eigono ayamari (mistakes of
Japanese English) Tokyo: Nanundo