article question. what's the difference?

[5jj]

Many people feel that Professor Curme's book will outlive some of the books written by various whippersnappers.

As I have pointed out pretty often, most of us consider that it is well past its sell-by date now. No matter how good Curme's book was in its day, it was written about the language spoken over eighty years ago almost before the days of talking films, and certainly before the days of television and computers. Except for those interested in the history of English grammars (as I am, which is why Curme's book is in my collection of grammars) it is of very little value indeed when discussing the language spoken and written today.

"Williams was son of an officer in the service of the East India Company" is not appropriate today.

[TheParser]

As a non native speaker, the problem of choosing the right definite/indefinite article has been very frustrating

.

CAUTION: NOT A TEACHER


(1) This also confuses native speakers like me, so I did some research and am delighted to report the results.

(2) Sometimes it makes a big difference:

(a) We were met at the airport by the officials of the government.
(b) We were met at the airport by officials of the government.

What's the difference? Well, an expert named Wilson Follett (Modern American Usage) says (a) = all or all of the important officials met us; (b) = only a few officials
met us.

(3) Regarding your sentence, the omission of "the" may be an example of

journalistic "corruption." That is, American newspapers started dropping articles

in order to make the stories brisker (faster). So now many people write that way, too.

(4) I most respectfully suggest that you include the definite article.

(a) I went to Google "books" and copied some examples for you:

(i) The reason ... is that the prices of gasoline and accessories, such as tires, have been so high that ....

-- Barrel and Box (1919) by Edgar Harvey Pefbaugh.

(ii) In round figures, the prices of foods had been reduced by 5-7%, clothes and shoes 5 to 10%, ...

-- Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law (1938) by Columbia University.

(iii) ...has been mainly attributed to the increased prices of food articles.

-- Eastern Economist (1975).

(iv) Great fluctuations which have occurred during the last thirty years in the prices of corn and other commodities.

-- Thoughts and Details (1824) by Thomas Tooks.

[5jj]

Frankly, Parser, examples from 1824,1919 and 1938 are not relevant to the way we write today. 1975 seems more recent, but even that example is now 37 years old.

All of the examples you gave are perfectly acceptable today without the article (and also with it).

[slim1111]

its comforting to know that often times both usages are acceptable because I could not figure out for the life of me which one would be correct as both sounded "ok" in my ears. I guess I just got to trust my intuition
.
Thank you guys, TheParser, 5jj, emsr2d2 and soothingDave for the insightful discussion.