He was nephew to Von Hindenberg

Question

Hello!Following is from “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald."He's a bootlegger. One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenberg and second cousin to the devil" The underlined part, nephew, doesn’t it have to be “a nephew”, because it is a countable noun?Is there any other deeper grammar that I am missing? I am studying English for so many years, but still get stuck up with this small grammatical things. Sometimes, I doubt. Why? English Grammar Books by native speakers plainly and clearly states that, a countable noun should be preceded by articles, a, an, or should be used in plural. But great writers like Fitzgerald is not writing using that way. Then either one of them should be wrong.  I doubt if that's the case in, for example, Korean Grammar or Japanese Grammar.Any native speakers has an opinion?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

"He's a bootlegger. One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenberg and second cousin to the devil"

This is considered correct English. However, it is very literary and very stylish and is not commonly said.

In some ways, it's like the word is used almost like a title, in the same way that we say 'He is manager of the company' rather than 'He is a manager of the company'. The first example suggests that there is only one manager of the company', and your example hints that Von H. only had one nephew.

As regards rules, I would say that, generally speaking, there can be exceptions to all or many of the English language rules. These rules are an attempt to describe how we use language, but the language came before the rules. When the language changes, we later change the rules.

Rather than being upset about the rules, try to consider them as useful tools to help you learn about English.

Is Korean or Japanese grammar totally logical, and free of exceptions to the rules? Do the rules never change? I would find that very surprising.

Best wishes, Clive

Pructus · Answer

Thanks, Guru, for your generosity!

Definitely you are right... Korean grammar cannot be totally logical...

I agree with you....

By the way, "He is manager of the company" bears the same notion as "He was elected president"?

In that case, even though "president" is conuntable, but "how many" is not the focus here, so that's why it was used without an article "a"?

Then, how about "Cat ate the cheese"?

If how many cats is not considered important, but what ate the cheese was a cat or were cats, only which is important, then "Cat ate the cheese" is also accepted grammatically?

Marius Hancu · Answer

Google hits:

375 for "he was nephew to"
632 for "he was nephew of"
96 for "he was a nephew to"
15,800 for "he was a nephew of"

The first three, as Clive mentions for the first, are mainly for literary/formal usage.
The 4th is the most frequent today.

Clive · Answer

Hi again,

By the way, "He is manager of the company" bears the same notion as "He was elected president"? Yes.

In that case, even though "president" is countable, but "how many" is not the focus here, so that's why it was used without an article "a"? Yes. Think of it as a title.

Then, how about "Cat ate the cheese"?Or even 'Cat ate cheese'?

If how many cats is not considered important, but what ate the cheese was a cat or were cats, only which is important, then "Cat ate the cheese" is also accepted grammatically? No. First, 'cat' does not seem at all like a title. Second, you wouldn't say 'Manager spoke to Tom'. In other words, the word needs an article because it is the subject.

My advice is to consider these cases that we have been discussing as exceptions. Please don't start thinking that you can easily forget about articles in every sentence you write.

Best wishes, Clive

Pructus · Answer

Thanks Guru!

I am starting to get a grasp on it.

Thanks.....

He was nephew to Von Hindenberg

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