皆さんこんにちは。
ILC国際語学センターです。

John先生のミニレッスン、第9回目は「"There is a man." と"There is the man."の違いとは？」についてです。
今回のトピックは、プライベートレッスンの受講生さんから実際にいただいたaとtheの使い分けについてのご質問です。
早速見てみましょう！

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Complementary Learning Targets
A synergy of learning occurs when unique explanations of troublesome concepts, like the use of articles, result in an enhanced learning experience for both the student and teacher. When language students focus on one learning target, sometimes other complementary learning targets surface unexpectedly.

One example is seen when studying countable and uncountable nouns: a noun preceded by an indefinite article, “a” or “an”, must be a countable noun. Conversely, if your selected word is a noun, a countable noun can be preceded by an indefinite article, but an uncountable noun can't. This is one way to hone your vocabulary and accuracy skills in two complementary learning targets, articles and nouns.

This also happens when trying to understand words with multiple uses or functions, such as the word “there”, which is used as a location adverb in some sentences and as the introduction of an existential situation in other sentences. One way to differentiate these two uses of “there”, when it is used at the beginnings of sentences, is to look at another learning target, again the articles, “a”, “an”, and “the”, to identify previously introduced things or people.

Using two simple examples, we can see the difference quite clearly:
1. There is the man...
2. There is a man...

In sentence 1, the definite article “the” is used to indicate a previously introduced thing or person, which is a property of the definite article, and it implies that the “there” word is used as an adverb of location by identifying the location of a known item. Typically, we would clarify which man we were referring to: “There is the man who helped us yesterday.” A reversal is possible in this case: “The man who helped us yesterday is there.”

In sentence 2, the indefinite noun phrase is used, “a man...”, indicating a new or previously not introduced person, which is a property of the indefinite article, and it implies the existential use of “there” as introducing something new or previously unmentioned. The usual location function of “there” is now changed to an empty subject, which points to the delayed subject “man” later in the sentence. The existence of the man is more important than the location of the man, in this case. Typically, the location of the new item is given later in the existential sentence as a preposition phrase: “There is a man in the room.” A reversal is not possible if you want to indicate existence for the word “there”: X “A man is there in the room.”

So, by looking at the second learning target of the definiteness and indefiniteness, the “a”, “an” or “the”, of the noun phrases in sentences starting with “There”, we complement the first learning target of differentiating between the functions, adverb or empty subject, of the “there” word.
As a caveat, some less-common exceptions do occur with the use of “the” in existential sentences; however, for a basic differentiation of these concepts there is no better way to learn than by introducing complementary learning targets to explain important concepts.
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※John先生が開発したグローバルリーダー向け英語プログラムは、様々なビジネスシチュエーションに特化した英語スキルに焦点をあて、論理性と説得力のある英語力を養成します。
詳細はこちらからお問い合わせください。

担当教師

John　Mukts　（ILC企業研修主任）

日本での英語教授歴20年以上、数々の企業にてビジネスパーソンやグローバルリーダー向け英語研修を担当。ILCの主任教師としてプレゼンテーション・ミーティングなどのビジネスに焦点をおいたGLLT（Global Leadership Language Training)コース開発やオリジナルテキスト開発に従事。