Thursday January 12, 2012
The case of articles
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WITH respect to Fadzilah Amin’s answer to the question on word order and the choice of articles in referring to businesses (definite, indefinite or none; e.g. “the Guardian Pharmacy on Fifth Street”) (MOE, Dec 29), it seems to me that the situation is more complex, and may defy attempts at logical explanation. I should point out that I am Canadian, which means (generally) following American usage.
I question the significance of whether there is more than one McDonald’s or more than one Guardian in the city.
For a start, you would say “I am just going out to the pharmacy/the laundromat” even if there were many pharmacies that you might be going to, and the listener didn’t know or care which one was intended. In this situation you would not say “I am going to a pharmacy” (even though it seems more logical to do so) or “I am going to pharmacy.”
If there is a company name involved, generally no article is used: “I am going to McDonald’s” and “I am going to Carrefour” and “I am going to Walmart” are correct, while “I am going to the Carrefour” is not normal. But if you add the word store, the only possibility would be “I got it at a Walmart store” (which nevertheless still sounds a bit odd). A few companies have incorporated the definite article into their name, like The Gap, The Bay, etc; thus, “I got it at the Gap.”
Strangely, however, “I am going to the 7-Eleven” sounds much more natural than “I am going to 7-Eleven” (or “I am going to a 7-Eleven.”). This is true even if there are several 7-Elevens in the vicinity and the listener neither knows nor cares which one is intended. Is this because 7-Eleven has assumed a generic role, like Kleenex?
But for hotels the definite article is always required: “We stayed at the Hilton” is correct, even if there are several Hiltons in the city. Either of the alternatives “We stayed at a Hilton” or “We stayed at Hilton” are incorrect. Even “We stayed at a Hilton hotel” sounds a bit odd.
Stadiums: “We attended a match at Wembley.” But museums, theatres and cinemas call for the definite article: “There are several Rothkos at the Guggenheim” ... “That film is at the Roxy” ... “That play ran for three years at the Winter Garden.” If you add the words Museum, Cinema, Theatre, respectively, following Guggenheim, Roxy, Winter Garden, nothing changes. On the other hand: “We saw a performance at Carnegie Hall” – no article! How to account for this?
The original question was about the sentence “This is the McDonald’s restaurant on Ivy Road,” which is of course correct, as you said. But for me it would be equally correct to say “This is McDonald’s restaurant on Ivy Road,” regardless of whether or not there are other McDonald’s restaurants nearby. (But would you agree that it’s rather an odd sentence? ... Hard to imagine a context in which one would actually say that. When I compare “I am going to the McDonald’s restaurant” with “I am going to a McDonald’s restaurant” and “I am going to McDonald’s restaurant,” none of them sound quite natural, possibly because hardly anyone ever uses the word restaurant in combination with McDonald’s.) – John Jose
Fadzilah Amin responds
When I answered the original question, i.e. whether it is correct to say “This is the McDonald’s restaurant on Ivy Road.”, I imagined a formal context where a member of staff of the restaurant is phoning someone outside on behalf of the restaurant, for a business reason. Let’s say the management wants the restaurant painted. If there are several McDonald’s restaurants in that town, the member of staff will have to identify his restaurant by the name of the road it’s in. Suppose he were to say “This is McDonald’s restaurant.” his interlocutor will surely ask: “Which MacDonald’s restaurant?” So to make things clear, he says: “This is the McDonald’s restaurant in Ivy Road.” because if the question is asked, he’ll have to answer “The one in Ivy Road.” If there is only one McDonald’s restaurant in that town, he still needs to give the location of the restaurant for the painters to know where to go to, but “the” is not needed, because the official name of a McDonald’s is “McDonald’s restaurant” without a “the”. The same goes for Guardian Pharmacy.
I agree with you that “hardly anyone ever uses the word restaurant in combination with McDonald’s” – but only when they are speaking informally. The sentence in the original question, however, is not spoken in an informal context.
In this country, a lot of people will say, informally: “I’m going to Guardian Pharmacy.” or “I’m going to Guardian.” If they are going to other pharmacies, they will say, e.g. “I’m going to Watson’s/Allin’s (Pharmacy).” Only some will say “I’m going to the pharmacy.” – Fadzilah Amin
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