ABSTRACT
I don't know Feliciano The police arc seeking an individual
with a scar on his facc (S)he took the girls to the zoo Look at the (i.e. those) tourists! I don' t care whether you find the
murderer or murderers They admire the cameraman a great
Compare the following sentences in which the object of the verbis not individually particu larized:
Busco un marido que Jnf' m;rtde en Ia casa
No cmwzco un solo famwceutico en todo Bruselas (A. Bryce Echenique, Pe.)
Los universitarios eligieron una reina de belleza (I. Allende, Chi.)
Amenazaron con no dejar un terrorista vivo en todo el pais
Mira los turistas, siempre gastando dinero
Utilizaron un perro lobo para el experimento
I don't know a singlc pharmacist in the whole of Brussels
The university students elected a beauty queen
They threatened not to leave a single terrorist alive in the whole country
Look at tourists (for example), always spending money
They used an Alsatian dog for the experimcnt
(i) A proper name may occasionally denote a non-living thing, in which case personal a is not used: dice conocer todo Shakespeare '(s)he says (s)he knows the whole of Shakespeare' (i.e. the works), van a subastar un Turner 'they're going to auction a Turner', procura tomar la reina 'try to take the queen' (in chess). (ii) The GDLE, Chapter 28, notes that with some verbspersonal a is used even with unidentified persons: encarcelaron a un narcotraficante 'they jailed a drugpusher', not *encarcelaron un .... Likewise insultar 'to insult', curar 'to eure', emborrachar 'to make drunk', sobornar 'to bribe', golpear 'to hit', odiar 'to hate', hacer + infinitive 'to make .. .', etc.
