[Sussex] Grammar

[Anthony Rangecroft]

Mark wrote:
>- "A" is "A" except when the following word starts with one of the
>following, in which case it becomes "An".
>
>-- a vowel
>-- a silent "h"
>-- a specifically enunciated letter which starts with a vowel sound
>-- in formal text only, the word "historical", in which case, and only
>in which case, the "h" of the word "historical becomes silent"

John Grimmond's rules are incomplete (e.g. "a unit of measurement", "an 
yttrium garnet laser") - I think you should tell him  ;-)


>The rule is,
>
>- Use "the" when the thing being described is the only one of its type,
>- Use "a/an" when it is one of several, unless using "a" would be
>ridiculous, in which case use neither but provide enough additional
>information to make "the" appropriate.
>
>Examples:
>
>- The Royal Navy (the only one of its type in the Anglosphere)
>- A navy (one of many navies)
>- The Royal Navy is a modern navy (combining both)
>- Harrison's, a Swiss Bank is correct
>- Harrison's, the Swiss Bank is incorrect
>- "Ford, the US car manufacturer" is incorrect, however...

As any OO programmer will tell you an object can have any number of types; 
the rule makes sense when the type is inferred from the context.  In "Ford, 
the US car manufacturer" the commonly inferred type of the thing being 
described is "things called Ford" so the qualifier is correct.

>- "Ford, a US car manufacturer" is ridiculous, because everyone can be
>assumed to know what Ford is, hence the best advise it to say something
>like
>- "Ford, the second largest US car manufacturer" is correct (since there
>can clearly only be one second-largest US car manufacturer)
>
>Mark, trying to avoid being an Alan Davis incident, Harrison

Ah I seeee.......  plain "Mark, a Harrison" would be ridiculous  :-)

Arthur Troll