Sunday, July 23, 2017

appositives - Article usage in a noun clause: "Tim Courtney, (a?) (the?) chief investment officer of Exencial Wealth Advisors, said.."


I am struggling with using articles in noun clauses. I have seen some examples where an articles is omitted when the following noun is not even uncountable. For example:


"Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Exencial Wealth Advisors, said: 'We're stockpiling commodities and demand is not picking up. It's kind of a depressing market.'"


Would it be correct if I write " Time Courtney, a chief investment officer of Exencial Wealth Advisors,..." with an article. I do not believe the word "officer" is uncountable.


Another example to further explain my problem: Mr. Smith, a teacher at Lincoln high school, has a phD degree in math. or Mr. Smith, teacher at Lincoln high school, has a phD degree in math.


Which one is grammatically correct? Or are both acceptable? or they simply carry different meanings.


Please help. Thank you.



Answer



Both are correct.



"Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of ... " sounds more authoritative, since we don't know whether he's the only chief investment officer, or one of the two chief investment officers, etc.


"Tim Courtney, a chief investment officer of ... " lets you know that he's one of many, which right away undermines his authority.


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