Missing 'the'

[Miss Mae]

Isn't there's a right time when 'the' can be omitted?

The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month.

[Joe Carillo]

Let me restate your question for clarity from a grammatical perspective: Isn’t there a right time when the article “the” can be omitted as modifier of the subject noun in a sentence like “The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month”? In short, can we construct it this way: “United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month”?

My answer to that question is a categorical “no.” Stylistically, with writing newspaper headlines as a notable exception, there isn’t a right time to do that. We can’t write or say “Philippines is an archipelago of 7,100 islands” either. We need the article “the” before the geographical noun to make that sentence look and sound right: “The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,100 islands.”

Indeed, the United States and the Philippines—along with the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, the West Indies, and the Dominican Republic—are among the very few exceptions to the general usage rule that the article ‘the” shouldn’t be used before the names of countries and geographical territories. This is why we don’t read or hear people saying “the China,” “the Japan,” “the France,” and “the Germany” when using these names; the norm is to simply say “China,” “Japan,” “France,” or “Germany.”

Are there hard-and-fast rules then for when or when not to precede a geographical or territorial name with the article “the”?

There are three well-accepted stylistic conventions for this: (1) When the name of the country is in plural form—meaning that it ends in “s”—it is normally preceded in both written and spoken form by “the,” as in “the Philippines” and “the Netherlands”; (2) When the name of the country denotes a political entity, it should be preceded by “the,” as in “the Czech Republic” and “the Dominican Republic”; and (3) When the country is named after the fatherland or motherland—the so-called “patria”—the name doesn’t need the article “the,” as in “Britain,” “France,” “Russia,” and “New Zealand.”

An exception to Rule 1 is the seemingly plural-sounding Barbados, the name of that sovereign island-country in the Lesser Antilles; the accepted usage is not to precede that name with a “the.” We should also take note that contrary to popular usage, the country name Ukraine shouldn’t be preceded by “the.” Once commonly used in English, “the Ukraine” is now considered inappropriate, so just say or write “Ukraine” when using that country’s name in a sentence.

[Miss Mae]

Uh, oh. I was thinking of the article that seemed to be only appropriate to be between the words April and National Autism Awareness Month. I had wondered if there's a right time when "the" can be omitted such as in this sentence -

The United States has gone one step further to make April the National Autism Awareness Month.

(The original construction was The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month.)

I'm really sorry for this, Sir. 

[Joe Carillo]

No need to apologize. Your question served as the basis for another important grammar lesson anyway--if not in the exact direction that you had in mind. The next time around, just be clear and precise in your questions. Keep in mind that this is a public forum so you need to guard against being second-guessed as to what you are really thinking.

Now as to this sentence construction,

"The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month."

Its non-use of the article "the" before the noun phrase "April National Autism Awareness Month" is both grammatically and stylistically correct. The thing to keep in mind here is that in that sentence, the phrase "National Autism Awareness Month" does not function as a noun but as an adjective complement or modifier of the word "April" that precedes it.

Even as a stand-alone subject, "National Autism Awareness Month" has no need for the article "the" to precede it, as we can appreciate in this sentence construction: "National Autism Awareness Month is now celebrated in April in the United States." It would be awkward to write or say "The National Autism Awareness Month is now celebrated in April in the United States," in much the same way that it would be out of line to write or say "the Christmas" or "the Halloween." This is because all three--"National Autism Awareness Month," "Christmas," "Halloween"--are actually proper nouns, and we will recall that the general rule is that proper nouns in English shouldn't be preceded by the definite article "the."

[Miss Mae]

Thank you, Sir 

[Mwita Chacha]

Sir, I'm specifically drawn to your stating that the noun phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' in the sentence ''The United Sates has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month'' is serving as an ''adjective complement.'' I don't agree with you because my understanding is that that noun phrase functions as an object complement for the noun ''April'' that precede it, an object complement being defined as a word or phrase (usually a noun, pronoun, or an adjective) that follows the direct object and renames it or tells what it has become following the verb's action--by the action of the verb ''make'' in this particular case. An adjective complement, as I see, is an infinitive, a prepositional phrase, or a noun clause that follows an adjective to complete it. As you may have appreciated in the sentence in question, the noun ''April'' doesn't at all qualify as an adjective and therefore the phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' is certainly far from being an adjective complement.

[Joe Carillo]

By definition, a complement is a word or group of words that completes the predicate in a sentence. There are two kinds of complements: subject complements, which follow the verb “be” and other linking verbs, and object complements, which follow a direct object. When the complement identifies the subject, the complement is a noun or pronoun; when it describes the subject, on the other hand, the complement is an adjective.

Now, in the sentence “The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month,” you are absolutely correct in classifying the noun phrase “National Autism Awareness Month” as functionally an object complement. This is because as you say, that noun phrase follows the direct object and renames it or tells what it has become following the action of the verb, which in this case is “make.” In that sentence, however, the noun phrase “National Autism Awareness Month” grammatically also functions as an adjective complement because it describes the subject “April,” which just happens to be also the direct object in that sentence.

We need to keep in mind that a complement is any added word or expression by which a predication is made complete. In a sentence like, say, “They elected him chairman,” the noun “chairman” is clearly an object complement because it not only identifies the subject “him” but also gives him a concrete, real-life position. On the other hand, in a sentence like “The judges deemed her beautiful,” the adjective “beautiful”—apart from functioning as an object complement—clearly is also a subject complement because it describes the subject “her.” It is in this sense that I consider “National Autism Awareness Month” an adjective complement, being just a label or adjective—not a concrete, real-life position like “chairman”—arbitrarily given by the US government to the month of April. In a broader grammatical sense, therefore, the complement “National Autism Awareness Month” can be considered both an object complement and an adjective complement.

[Mwita Chacha]

Permit me, Sir, for the first time to differ with your explanations. I'm afraid to say what you've explained about ''adjective complements'' is somewhat against what my comprehension tells me about them, or at least what many grammar resources talk of them. A legitimate adjective complement, as far as I'm concerned, should, in the same way as a noun complement does for a noun, complement an adjective in the sentence. That being the case, we can tentatively make this principle: ''no adjective, no adjective complement.'' Your saying, then, that the noun phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' is an adjective complement in that unmistakably adjective-less sentence ''The US has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month'' is not only confusing but also inapprehensible, especially for a beginning English grammar learner like me. I think I won't risk demolishing what I have known about adjective complements; that is, are words (prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases, or noun clauses) that follow always an adjective to complete or complement it. And here are a few examples of such constructions that take up adjective complements: ''She was unhappy with his decision to leave the company'' (a prepositional phrase as an adj. complement), ''I am really disappointed to see she's treated in that humiliating way'' (an infinitive phrase as an adj. complement), and ''They were so excited that their job applications had been approved by the employment committee (a noun clause as an adj. complement)

[Joe Carillo]

I agree on the whole with your understanding of what constitutes an adjective complement, and I am thankful that you have taken the initiative of providing several good examples of the forms that adjective complements can take in a sentence, namely as a modifying prepositional phrase, as a modifying infinitive phrase, and as a modifying noun clause. I must hasten to add, though, that an adjective complement can, in fact, take a form other than those three that you cited. This other form is the adjective complement that certain verbs can take to indicate resulting states, which is precisely the kind of adjective complement I identified in the original sentence at issue here, “The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month.”

In English, there are some verbs that allow an action and its resulting state to be combined into one clause or sentence. In such grammatical situations, the adjective indicating the resulting state can be placed after the direct object in this pattern: Verb + Noun or Noun Phrase as Direct Object + Adjective. The adjective then works as a so-called post-modifier to modify that direct object. Such post-modifiers that indicate a resulting state are called adjective complements to verbs; functionally, of course, they are also known as object complements because they also serve to modify the direct object.

Here are some examples of sentences where the particular verb used allows the adjective complement to follow the post-modifier construction pattern described above:

“John scrubbed the drum clean.”
“The challenger knocked the champion senseless.”
“Her pranks frightened us silly.”
“The police shot him dead.”
“The barber cut my hair short.”
“The stranger pushed the door open.”
“They named him Joseph.”
“The ancient clerics declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day.”

I think you’ll be able to see clearly now that the last sentence above has precisely the same construction pattern as the sentence at issue here, “The United States has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month.” The noun phrase “National Autism Awareness Month” functions both as an object complement of the direct object “April” and as an adjective complement of the verb “make.” We must keep in mind that the adjective complement as post-modifier need not be an adjective per se; as in the other forms of adjective complements, it can be a noun or noun phrase, a modifying prepositional phrase, a modifying infinitive phrase, or a modifying noun clause. (This is really why I find your suggested “no adjective, no adjective complement” principle too sweeping for comfort, for as in this case, there will be sentences without a single-word adjective to be modified by an adjective complement; the adjective complement itself functions as the adjective.) What’s important is that the complement functions as a modifier of the direct object right before it. 

I hope this explanation will finally lay to rest your doubts about the legitimacy of my calling the noun phrase “National Autism Awareness Month” an adjective complement in that sentence in question.

For a very instructive discussion and exercises on how adjective complements to verbs work to indicate resulting states, click this link to Grammar-Quizzes.com.

[Mwita Chacha]

I massively appreciate your time and energy, Sir, with regard to this issue of adjective complements and how they are formed in English sentences. But even so, I have to make it very clear that my understanding--at least for the time being--remains entirely unswayed of them as words that must always follow adjectives. What I'll unwaveringly stick to, in other words, is that an adjective complement is literally a ''complement of an adjective''--always a prepositional phrase, an infinitive phrase, or a noun clause-- and thus should appear only where an adjective has appeared. I consider that as the only way to prevent myself from plunging into the complexities of grammar. Of course, once my (grammar) brain is mature enough to absorb as many new ideas as possible, I will ponder over accepting this proclamation of yours: an adjective complement can as well be anything than a prepositional phrase, an infinitive phrase, or a noun clause. 

[Joe Carillo]

You're welcome! Then we'll let it be as you wish.

[jpri]

Wow this post had so much information. I often wonder when speaking and writing if I should be leaving the article out to sound more natural. Thank you so much for all of your help Jose.