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New2grammar Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
a mother of a soldier
I remember Kooyen once posted a question about article and his example was "the/a title of a/the movie". The replies to his question concluded that "the title of a movie" means the movie has only one title and "a title of a movie" means the movie could have more than one title.
Here is a sentence taken from a CNN article
After months of frustration, a mother of a soldier in Iraq has found someone to ship about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs.startclickprintexclude>
I don't think the article intended to emphasize the fact that the soilder highligted in red has more than one mother. I could be wrong considering second or even third marriage is so common in the US
My question is, should it be rephrased as "the mother of a soldier"? If not, why?
Thanks in advance!
Here is a sentence taken from a CNN article
After months of frustration, a mother of a soldier in Iraq has found someone to ship about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs.startclickprintexclude>
I don't think the article intended to emphasize the fact that the soilder highligted in red has more than one mother. I could be wrong considering second or even third marriage is so common in the US
My question is, should it be rephrased as "the mother of a soldier"? If not, why?
Thanks in advance!
Top answer
Yes, it could easily have been written "the mother of a soldier" - whichever soldier it was, he or she has only one mother (regardless of how many past or present step mothers he or she may also have). However, there are so many mothers with children serving in Iraq that "a mother" among the many mothers in this situation does work too.
- Yes, it could easily have been written "the mother of a soldier" - whichever soldier it was, he or she has only one mother (regardless of how many past or present step mothers he or she may also have).
- However, there are so many mothers with children serving in Iraq that "a mother" among the many mothers in this situation does work too.
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2 Answers
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Yes, it could easily have been written "the mother of a soldier" - whichever soldier it was, he or she has only one mother (regardless of how many past or present step mothers he or she may also have).
However, there are so many mothers with children serving in Iraq that "a mother" among the many mothers in this situation does work too.
However, there are so many mothers with children serving in Iraq that "a mother" among the many mothers in this situation does work too.
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