A Study on the Function of Articles for the Names of Diseases and Symptoms

Abstract

English language learners often have difficulty in using articles with countable or uncountable nouns appropriately. For example, we can say both ‘catch a cold’ and ‘catch cold’, or we can also say both ‘influenza’ and ‘the flu’, while we cannot say ‘*appendicitises’. This paper examines how indefinite articles, definite articles or zero articles function in the names of diseases and symptoms. We will employ the theory of cognitive grammar suggested by Langacker, especially the concepts of countable nouns and mass nouns, to explore the relationships between articles and medical terms.