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Why is there no definite article before loss and lack in examples 1 & 2, before people in 3 & 4, and before lands in 4?

  1. I'm suffering from loss of blood.
  2. New parents are suffering from lack of sleep.
  3. I know people who have seen ghosts.
  4. I'm so sorry for people who live in lands where there are no May flowers.

In these sentences loss, lack, people, and lands aren't referring to general concepts, they are specified – so why we don't see definite articles before them?

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  • Including the article in case #3 is syntactically fine, but I know the people who have seen ghosts strongly implies I know all of those people (who've seen some particular contextually-relevant ghosts, since it's unrealistic to suppose I know everyone who's ever seen a ghost). And so far as I'm concerned, with case #4 it's primarily a stylistic choice whether to include a determiner in contexts like I feel sorry for [the / those] people stuck in tiny apartments during this Covid lockdown, which has no real effect on meaning whichever choice is made.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 19, 2020 at 12:37
  • You could optionally include "the" in 1, 2, and 4, though it might be a bit odd, depending on tone/context. Including it in 3 implies that you know all the people who have ever seen ghosts.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Apr 19, 2020 at 16:12
  • @HotLicks: no, you can't include the in 1 and 2. You can include a: a loss of blood, a lack of sleep.
    – TonyK
    Commented Sep 23, 2021 at 11:08

2 Answers 2

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They actually are general concepts. They are not specified. Although we can infer there are particular things, the sentences do not refer to them. Instead, they each refer to an abstract quality.

For example, "people" does not refer to any particular people. It refers even to people in the future who you do not know--anyone who meets the criteria of "people who lives in lands where there are no Mayflowers", not a particular group who does.

Do you mean "new parents suffer from lack of sleep"?

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    One tricky example is when the phrase is in the subject, you would often use a determiner: "The lack of sleep experienced by new parents causes stress".
    – James K
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 6:40
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  1. I'm suffering from loss of blood.

The word “loss” can be countable or uncountable. Here it is uncountable.

  1. New parents are suffering from lack of sleep.

“New parents” is the plural of “A new parent” – plural nouns do not require a determiner.

  1. I know people who have seen ghosts. –

“people” is the plural of “a person” – plural nouns do not require a determiner.

  1. I'm so sorry for people who live in lands where there are no May flowers.

“lands” is the plural of “a land” – plural nouns do not require a determiner.

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  • Plural and unclountable nouns don't require a determiner, but may have one. Consider "The people who have seen ghosts are next door.
    – James K
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 6:38

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