2015-11-19 Grammar: specific/nonspecific

Greg Malivuk
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http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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Homework: p. 317 exercises 3 and 4
exercise 3
1 P
2 G
3 P
4 G
5 G
6 G
7 G
8 P
9 P
10 G
11 P
12 G
exercise 4
1 G: Bicycles are a great present for little boys.
  P: My bicycles were stolen.
2 G: At the beginning of a new year, many people buy a new car.
  P: My dad bought a new car.
3 G: The English language is easy for some people to learn and hard for other people to learn.
  P: The English language that people speak in Australia is different from American English.
  P:  The English language that Shakespeare used is confusing to modern readers.
the Bible -
  G: The Bible is the most important book in Christianity.
  P: The Bible is on the table.
(If we say “a Bible”, we always mean the physical book. “The Bible” can also mean the collection of stories within the book.)
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Specific vs. Nonspecific Nouns

Please bring me the water. = There is some specific water that we’re both thinking about.
Please bring me some water. = There’s no water in the room. There’s no specific water that we’re already thinking about.

I can say “the Thai student”, because there is exactly one in this class.
I can’t say “the Saudi student”, because there are three.

I can say “the Saudi students” if I mean all three of them.
I can say “a Saudi student” if I mean just one of them.
I can say “some Saudi students” if I mean more than one, but not all, of them.
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I should buy a new car. (I don’t have a specific idea, and neither do you.)
I bought a new car. (I have a specific idea, but you don’t.)
You bought a new car. (You have a specific idea, but I don’t.)

I see you bought the new car. (We both already had a specific idea about this car, for example because you showed me a picture when you were trying to decide.)
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p. 319 exercise 5 (who already knows which thing they’re talking about?)
both know: 4
listener knows but speaker doesn’t: 6
speaker knows but listener doesn’t: 2, 3
neither know: 1, 5
exercise 6 - choose the correct meaning for each statement
1 b
2 b
3 b
4 a
5 b
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Homework: exercise 7