Still more on "the"

We've identified countable nouns and differentiated them from uncountable nouns, and recognized that each type of noun should be treated differently. To review, a countable noun refers to an object that can be enumerated; for example, "a ball", "a bulldozer", "a friend", "a type", etc. All countable nouns must be preceded by a modifier such as "the," "a," "any" when they are singular. Plural nouns are treated differently and I'll be discussing them presently. (Sorry about that -- if this weren't such a confusing issue so many people wouldn't be having problems with it.)

An uncountable noun refers to something that can't be enumerated, such as a concept, a country, or even a person's name, since there is only one of that person. One way of spotting a noncountable noun is that it has no plural. For example: "pacifism" refers to a concept and is thus considered an uncountable noun; "India" is the name of a country and is not countable, since there is only one India; "Harry" is someone's name and since each of us is unique, the person referred to by the noun "Harry" isn't countable. None of these nouns has a plural form. We would not (usually) write, for example, "pacifisms" or "Indias" or "Harrys." Uncountable nouns should not be preceded by modifiers such as "the," "a," "any," although they can be preceded by adjectives. We can write "distant India," but we can't (usually) write "the India." Nor should we (usually) write "the pacifism" or "the Harry," etc.

Some examples: Take the box to the store and return it. (Box and store are countable nouns in the singular.) The cashier got upset when I tried to return it. A cashier got upset when I tried to return it. Any cashier would get upset if someone tried to return something. (Cashier is countable and singular and thus must be preceded by a modifier such as "the," "a" or "any".) Surfing is my favorite spectator sport. (Surfing is a noncountable noun and does not take a modifier such as "the," "a" or "any".) He went to the store. (Store is countable.) He turned to religion. (Religion is noncountable.)

OK, good, now we know precisely when to use "the" and similar modifiers and when to avoid them. Well, not really. Because in fact everything I've told you above has to be taken with a grain of salt. English is a highly plastic language, meaning that it is malleable, like clay. As with clay, we can mould it into all sorts of shapes and, also as with clay, there is a certain amount of resistance that can't be overcome, i.e., we can bend many of the rules, but not all, never completely, and never without a logical reason for doing so.

Here's an example of an exception to the rules I've outlined above, taken from a paper in a peer reviewed journal:

"Due to egalitarianism that permeates throughout their basic lifestyle, the concept of chiefdom did not truly penetrate their society."

"Egalitarianism" is a noncountable noun and therefore should not be preceded by "the". That's the rule, right? Right. So the preceding sentence is correct, right? Wrong.

Noncountable nouns can be turned into countable nouns under certain circumstances. If we write only about egalitarianism in the abstract, then we are referring to something that is uncountable. But if we are referring to a particular kind of egalitarianism then that kind of egalitarianism is countable and requires a modifier such as "the." The above sentence does not refer to egalitarianism in general but to the specific egalitarianism that permeates the lifestyle of a particular group. Thus the sentence should read "Due to the egalitarianism that permeates throughout their basic lifestyle .  .  . " (Actually the word "throughout" is redundant as it is already implied in "permeates," so the entire sentence should read: "Due to the egalitarianism that permeates their basic lifestyle, the concept of chiefdom did not truly penetrate their society.")

Here are some more examples which will hopefully clarify the difference between noncountable noncountable nouns and countable noncountable nouns:

He turned to religion. (Religion is understood as an abstract concept and is therefore noncountable.) He turned to the religion of his ancestors. (In this case, we are speaking of a particular kind of religion, which is, of course, countable, and requires "the".) I said that existentialism was a noncountable concept and therefore it would be incorrect to write "the existentialism," but she insisted that there are many types of existentialist philosophy and wrote an essay titled "The Existentialism of Albert Camus" out of spite, to prove that I was wrong. (I was, and I apologize. But I was also right!) :-/