Such formulations do appear to be arbitrary; and yet, if one views this very same rule from a discourse perspective, we see that this rule is one manifestation of an important generalization concerning English word order, a generalization that we introduce first in Chapter 2 and then revisit throughout the remainder of the book. | Chapter IS Articles 285 However any of the other three patterns for countable nouns . 1 2 and 4 would produce acceptable generic statements for these examples. Some grammarians would claim that pattern 3 is not really generic that it applies to plural proper names that express a collective meaning. Nonetheless since this form is often used in formal writing in the social sciences instead of pattern 1 and since the pattern can be used with both specific and generic meaning we believe it should be discussed and considered along with the other three patterns. The pattern illustrated in sentence 4 than the pattern in 1 the noun 7-----r- PL noun above is slightly less formal sg. . In speech it definitely occurs more frequently than pattern 1. In fact it can be used in almost all the discourse environments where pattern 1 occurs in addition it can be used to make generic statements about simple inanimate objects Books fill leisure time for many people. Il is more concrete and frequent than pattern 1 in that it generalizes via pluralization rather than abstract classification. It is important because it can be used in virtually all contexts and because it ranges from semiformal to informal register. Pattern 2 a an-------------- sg. noun is the most concrete and colloquial way of expressing a generality. It is used most appropriately when the context is specific Mrs. X to Mrs. Y I don t know about you but I think a husband should help out with the housework. It can be used to express informal generalities for all semantic contexts except those where collectivity or group cohesiveness is being expressed. In other words one could substitute husbands or the husband for a husband and the register would change but not the Related to Stem s observations on the distribution of article and noun number patterns in generic usage Bergsnev 1976 showed that abstract nouns deriving from verbs and adjectives often have both a noncount and a count form15 with a an
