Chat in English (英語で雑談) Part 158

Can I ask you guys a favor?

There's a thread in the English board for those who read the Economist.
And we have kind of a heated discussion about the usage of "a" before countable nouns.

Please read the excerpts from two articles first:
A)
“We’re not replacing our core production in Germany,” says Manfred Wittenstein,
the chairman of the board and a son of the founder.

B)
Three days later James Murdoch, chief executive of the European and Asian divisions
of News Corporation, which owns NI, and son of Rupert, announced that the 168-year-old newspaper,
Britain’s bestselling Sunday, would close after its July 10th issue.

And the place we are stuck at is what is/are the difference(s) between
1)and a son of the founder and 2)and son of Rupert.
We are usually taught that we should use "a" before the singular form of countable nouns.
What do you think differs between the two phrases? What's the connotation?
Are both of them exchangeable? Is there any grammatical rule?

Thanks.

What made this board inactive for almost a day?
Did an evil organization or something attack the server to break it down?

>>866
i DOn'T uNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

me too.

me too.

>>867
It was not possible to post for a day in the English board because of "internal server error".
That incident often happens when 2ch is under cyber attack.
In retrospect, the same happened when those Korean people who lost temper
because Mao Asada won a figure skate competition conducted mass cyber attack on 2ch
if my memory serves right.

It's back, now I can post this.
>>863
Yes it is used fairly often. For example,
"It was she/her who drank your beer!"
"Look, it's him! Get him!" (there, saying "it's he" actually sounds weirder)
"It wasn't I/me! I didn't chloroform the schoolchildren!"
So it's used pretty often, I suppose.

>>865
Here, "a son of the founder" implies that the founder has more than one son, and
"son of Rupert" means that Rupert could have one or more sons. "A son of the founder" can
be rewritten as "One of the sons of the founder".
"The son of XXX" would, of course, imply that he is the only son of XXX.
I guess it's like saying 創設者の息子の一つ (a son) versus マードックの息子 (son/the son),
although I can't be certain that the nuances are the same.
They're both correct, and in general you would say "son of XXX" if you do not know how
many sons the person has, or sometimes if you do.

>>872
I suppose 「息子の一人」 would make more sense there. Sorry, counters still sometimes
confuse me.

>>872
That's really easy to understand! Thank you very much.
You are cut out for teaching. Or are you a teacher yourself?

Let me confirm if I understand you correctly.
When English speakers use "son of the (fe/male) parent", it generally means they don't care
either if he's one of his sons or if he's the only son. Rather it simply means
his relationship to the parent. In this example, James Murdoch is son of Rupert. How many sons
Rupert actually has isn't not of focus here. Am I correct?

Oh, and would you mind if I copied our conversation here and pasted it to the thread the discussion was held?
I'd love to share this knowledge with them.

>>872
If he has two or more sons but in one story, one of his sons is focued,
then it's possbile to say the son of Rupert to mean the particular
son?

Testing, can I post?

>>855 >>856 I agree too. Applies to all languages. You cannot clone
yourself to live parallel lives in different countries. Learning a
language is like living a different life. We have different views
on life, the languages we speak will differ accordingly.

>>861 Yes there is gap due to language and time differences.
European fans get secon dhand info from South East Asian sources,
who blog/tweet in ENglish.

With google Chrome this has changed drastically. I can read Japanese
blogs/tweets, however Chrome has bugs that makes tweeting experience a nightmare.

Actually when I saw a tweet from a Kame bot, I realised it could be the
video you mentioned, and it was. Otherwise as I say, we get the info rather late.
Another incentive to learn Japanese I guess.

>>863 No problem, it took me three seconds to find that info. Just typed
the whole expression in quotation marks. That is not even research!

Yes I am a fan but I know very little about him. Japanese friends are baffled
as to why he is so popular. There are far more handsome, talented and cooler
celebrities but Kame is special wwww.

>>878
I see. I understand how things are for Johnney's entertainment fans overseas.
I take it that you use an extention for chrome that automatically translate a webpage/blog page
into another language.

i am making a map in sauerbraten

hey, what are you guys doing? i have done the everything what i have to do.

i have not been able to sleeping very well recently.

i am always thinking about what i did to him when i am alone.
I haven't forgotten that all my life.

Him, who?

>>874-875
No I'm a student (^^). I'm thinking about trying teaching though, but probably not as a career.
Um... actually, saying "James Murdoch is son of Rupert" sounds weird. You need a particle
before any countable noun after a copula ("is"). I didn't think of that until you wrote it.
You can say "James Murdoch, son of Rupert" or even "James Murdoch is a cool dude and also
son of Rupert." Sorry if this is a lot to remember; I only know it because I've heard English
all my life, which is why I say immersing yourself in a language is the best way to know it.
Over time you will know what sounds normal and what doesn't.

>>875
And of course, you can copy my posts anywhere.
>>876
Yes, that's fine too. If you want to distinguish between the son of Rupert and sons of
other people (for example), then you can say "the son of Rupert".