what I meant by "看错人了” was

that I thought we were like-minded in our views of writing and English learning in general. But through this string of posts, I have realized that is not the case. 

As to the saying about "native speaker", I was not trying to prove anything. I hold the opinion that a native speaker has the intuition, if not the grammatical rules, to judge whether a "the" should be there or not. Just like a Chinese native speaker would find it odd if he/she sees a sentence with the second 了 in “我明天吃了早饭了之后。。。”but it's totally fine in "我已经吃了早饭了。。。”. My background is in linguistics,generative grammar in particular, which has instilled into me a complete trust in native speakers' intuition. So in some way, if you think I am treading into the area of grammarians, that is not totally beside the point. But I hope you don't think I am a grammar Nazi. I sure don't want to become one. And I have no intention to reinforce my rule or any person's rule. It's your writing after all. And I said from the very beginning, "I am not sure though". After our correspondence, I've confirmed with a native speaker whether an "a" or "the" is needed in this context. He agrees with me. I am not saying you have to agree with him or me as native speakers judgement might vary too. I just brought it up for your attention, as this line is supposed to be the "punch line" of your story. 

I respect your opinion and your writing. I think you are an excellent writer. I don't want to say the best in the forum, which might hurt some other good writer's ego, but you are definitely among the top 3. I believe the first criteria of good writing, esp.for non-native speakers, should be good grammar. Again, you don't have to agree with me. But I want you to know my intention was good, at least, and please don't take it the wrong way. Still just my opinion, for Chinese ESL writers, the major issues are tense and usage of articles. But if you feel it's unpleasant to talk about their usage, I will shut up.

Respectfully, WQ. :)

所有跟帖： 

• Tell that native speaker -hammerheadshark- ♀ (2448 bytes) () 09/23/2012 postreply 16:52:38

• let's talk about this offline or discuss it in the future. -非文学青年- ♀ (718 bytes) () 09/23/2012 postreply 17:36:42