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Is it absolutely necessary to use "the" or "his"before the word "illness" in the following sentence to make it correct?

Last winter Victor got such a serious infection that it took him two months to recover from illness.

Laurel
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user112808
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    We have a "canonical question" for this sort of query: Simple rules for articles. Adding an article changes the nature of the word illness here. – Andrew Leach Mar 06 '15 at 12:52
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    @Andrew: I agree that a determiner (the or his) changes the nature of the word illness, but I don't see any reasonable justification for leaving a determiner out in this sentence. Victor is not recovering from generic illness, which is what I think a lack of determiner would imply. – Peter Shor Mar 06 '15 at 13:16
  • So the sentece without "the" or "his" is gramatically correct? – user112808 Mar 06 '15 at 13:38
  • Both are grammatically correct (as the linked question shows). But the word illness changes slightly depending on whether the article is present or not. – Andrew Leach Mar 06 '15 at 14:08
  • Could you please specify how 'the illness' differs from 'illness' in that particular sentence. Thank you. – user112808 Mar 06 '15 at 14:26
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    I think illness without an article tends to mean a generic illness, so you could use it in the sentence "Victor always takes a long time to recover from illness". However, what you're talking about in your sentence is a specific illness (the one he got last winter), so his illness or the illness would be more appropriate. But illness without an article is not definitively wrong here; when you ask "is it absolutely necessary", I think the answer has to be "no". – Peter Shor Mar 06 '15 at 18:16
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    Cambridge Learner's dictionary: illness (countable) a disease of the body or mind; illness (uncountable) the state of being ill. And the illness is the countable meaning, while illness is the uncountable meaning. – Peter Shor Mar 06 '15 at 19:42

2 Answers2

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So according to Mr. Andrew Leach and Mr. Peter Shor in the comments, both sentences are grammatically correct. However, the word illness's meaning will slightly change depending on whether the article is present or not. The lack of a determiner would mean Victor is recovering from generic illness, whileas the presence of a determiner would mean that Victor is recovering from a specific illness (the illness that both parties, the speaker and the listener, know about).

Credit to: Andrew Leach & Peter Shor who answered this in the comments. I only compiled their answers. This question has long been answered. It shouldn't have been under the "Unanswered" section for this long.

Student123
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The is anaphoric. Without the the noun becomes generic.

Greybeard
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  • Well, "anaphoric" is not the term I'd use, though it does become generic without the article. I think one is better off not trying to define, delimit, explain, or otherwise predict anything about the, except noting when it's used. – John Lawler May 11 '22 at 16:38