Why no article in front of it?

Question

Hi. Please tell me if it is correct for the word "biography" in the following example phrase to not to have the indefinite article "a" in front of it when it seems to be a countable noun. Come to think of it, I think I have seen countable nouns like "gender", "race" and "mission" without an English article, especially when occuring in what looks like in a series (possibly in conjunction with other uncountable nouns).

a mixing of history, prophecy and biography

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

They are not talking about countable objects, but a field in general.

I went to the library and checked out a history of Poland. (Meaning, a book.)
versus
I studied history at school.(Meaning, an academic subject.)

Clear?

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. I was asking about the word "biography," not the word "history." Anyway, I looked up the word in a dictionary and I believe it noted that the word "biography" could be either countable and uncountable (both countable and countable). And that solved my problem.

Now my question is whether either of the underlined parts for the following two exmple sentences correct or not. Perhaps can we use both the countable and the uncountable version for each of the following example sentences? I assumed the first pair ("profession" and "discussion") to be uncountable and the second pair ("professions" and "discussions") to be countable. Thank you advance for your help.

1. (assuming they made several professions)
Their action belies their profession / their professions.

2. (assuming they had several discussions on a certain matter and reached a certain decision)
Their action betrays their discussion / their discussions.

Doctor D · Answer

History was an example (you gave three subjects). What applies to history also applies to biography.
Biography is a field (of writing).[No article]
A biography is a book about a person. [Article required]

Countable or not countable does not factor into it.

If by "profession" you mean a public declaration, then it is certainly "countable." The question is, how is it being used. In your sentence, it refers to a series of public declarations (so it takes an article or a pronoun). The same with "discussions."

So yes, "their professions" and "their discussions."

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much. You helped me a lot. Please help me with this one, too. As for the context I established below, the words "the discussion" in parentheses were used as uncountable. Which one is correct? I think what the third person said (which is in quotes) is not particularly natural, but I hope it is good enough for you to answer my question. Thank you again in advance for your help.

Let's say three people had several discussions on the pros and cons of purchasing an electric item on a store ad for their use. Right after reaching the decision, they all went to the appliance store that ran the ad to buy the item, but when the time came for each person to come up with the portion of the money each agreed to put out, two of them backed out and subsequently the purchase was not made. Then the third person, being angry, said, "You guys' action betrayed the discussions (or "the discussion"?) we had."

Doctor D · Answer

If I had to stick to the given words, I would say "the discussion" in this case. "The discussion" would refer to the on-going debate over a period of time about that one subject.
However, if I could chose a better word, I would say:
"Your actions betrayed the decision we made." That is because the series of discussions ended with a single decision. And that is what the others went back on.

Why no article in front of it?

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