jutfrank
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- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
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- England
I think we should sort out the meaning first, before we get into indefinite articles.
1) Sometimes we use the noun generation to mean a group of people with the same age. Here's a clear example:
My parents belong to an older generation.
2) And sometimes we use it very differently to talk about the lifetime of a particular group of people. This one can also be used to refer to the particular historical era which that lifetime corresponds to. That's just how we talk about history.
So:
Surely one of the most influential comedians of a generation.
can be understood as both:
1) Surely one of the most influential comedians of those people of a similar age to him.
2) Surely one of the most influential comedians of the last 30 years.
Now in this context, it doesn't really matter much which interpretation you take because they both have the same practical meaning. But I think there are reasons to prefer the second over the first. What reasons? Well, just from what Mr Gervais is doing with the text. When someone famous dies, we typically talk about their place in history.
Also, if the speaker was in fact using sense 1, a clearer way to phrase it would be with a different determiner:
Surely one of the most influential comedians of his generation.
Example sentence 2 is more clearly used in the sense of the group of contemporaries:
Outrage has become the lingua franca of a generation.
So that's sense 1 as I've described above. How do I know? Again from understanding what thought the speaker has in mind. People have lingua francas, not eras.
(Please tell me your objections to this post first before moving on.)
1) Sometimes we use the noun generation to mean a group of people with the same age. Here's a clear example:
My parents belong to an older generation.
2) And sometimes we use it very differently to talk about the lifetime of a particular group of people. This one can also be used to refer to the particular historical era which that lifetime corresponds to. That's just how we talk about history.
So:
Surely one of the most influential comedians of a generation.
can be understood as both:
1) Surely one of the most influential comedians of those people of a similar age to him.
2) Surely one of the most influential comedians of the last 30 years.
Now in this context, it doesn't really matter much which interpretation you take because they both have the same practical meaning. But I think there are reasons to prefer the second over the first. What reasons? Well, just from what Mr Gervais is doing with the text. When someone famous dies, we typically talk about their place in history.
Also, if the speaker was in fact using sense 1, a clearer way to phrase it would be with a different determiner:
Surely one of the most influential comedians of his generation.
Example sentence 2 is more clearly used in the sense of the group of contemporaries:
Outrage has become the lingua franca of a generation.
So that's sense 1 as I've described above. How do I know? Again from understanding what thought the speaker has in mind. People have lingua francas, not eras.
(Please tell me your objections to this post first before moving on.)