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Dipsik Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

An article missing?

Hello,

the passage in bold feels a bit weird to me. Shouldn't there be an article 'a' before the 'spilling-over'?

thanks

Lenny

Translation, when practiced by relatively bilingual individuals but especially when by persons with limited proficiency in one or both languages, involves a risk of spilling-over of idioms and usages from the source language into the target language.

  

Top answer

should think twice before posting anything

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7 Answers
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Ooops, I think I know...should think twice before posting anythingEmotion: embarrassed
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Hin

It sounds OK to me. To a degree, it's a matter of style. '. . . a risk of a . . . ' sounds ugly.

In terms of grammar, note we say things like 'The rough sea posed a risk of drowning'. The lack of an article before 'drowning' makes the statement more general.

Clive
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Thank you, Clive. I thought the article would be inappropriate because of the related noun (idioms) which is in plural...
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Thank you, Clive.
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Hi,

Consider that we say 'a can of beans'.Emotion: smile

Clive
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Hi. I searched for the phrase "a spilling over of" in the Google Book Search and saw the following one. Now my question is "Could we use 'Such a spilling over' instead of 'Such spilling over' -- as written there?"


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Hi,

Yes, you can.

I didn't say that you couldn't use an article. I just said the lack of it makes a more general kind of statement.

What do you suppose the wrote means by a spilling over of language into language ?

Best wishes, Clive
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