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Former Manchester United defender says his old club is 'mad' to sell Danny Welbeck to Arsenal and expects forward to be a huge success at the Emirates.
Is "forward" here a noun as in expect somebody to do something ? So why is there no article before it? Could it be an adverb?
quintana43
Posted 2014-09-07T12:04:30.640
Reputation: 585
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In this case, forward is referring to the position that he plays.
See for instance responsibilities of a forward
To discuss the missing article, imagine if it said instead:
Former Manchester United defender says his old club is 'mad' to sell Danny Welbeck to Arsenal and expects player to be a huge success at the Emirates.
It's still a bit awkward to leave out the "the". You really should have it, but often news headlines will be written this way to make them briefer. @StoneyB has pointed out that people have given this style of writing a name and a Wikipedia article: "headlinese"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlinese
It's a little odd here to be using it on such a long sentence. But I suppose if one is worried about attention span and word economy, the first sentence in an article might use the same techniques as one might use in the headline itself.
When I first read it, I knew what it meant. But I still thought it was a poor choice on the writer's part. I'm fully sympathetic if you might have read it as:
Former Manchester United defender says his old club is 'mad' to sell Danny Welbeck to Arsenal and expects the team to have a huge success at the Emirates going forward.
HostileFork says dont trust SE
Posted 2014-09-07T12:04:30.640
Reputation: 3 162
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As you may be aware forward is a player position in both soccer and football. Perhaps the article the was missing.
Gary's Student
Posted 2014-09-07T12:04:30.640
Reputation: 1 816
I cannot think of a player position in American football called "forward". Perhaps you meant basketball? (Anyway, this article is obviously referring to the soccer position.) – Jasper – 2015-12-01T06:51:23.177
American football has "backs" ("quarterbacks", "half-backs", "fullbacks", "tailbacks"), "ends" ("tight ends", "split ends", "flankers", "wide receivers"), "linemen" ("centers", "long snappers", "nose guards", "offensive guards", "tackles", "defensive tackles", "leos"), "linebackers" ("wills", "mikes", "sams", "deathbackers"), "defensive backs" ("free safeties", "strong safeties", "cornerbacks", "nickel backs"), "kickers" ("punters", "placekickers", "drop kickers"), "kick returners" (including "punt returners"), "placeholders", and "gunners". – Jasper – 2015-12-01T06:53:30.967
Sigh... back to complaints about my native language - "football" in the American usage is a nonsensical name for the sport! I wish we could just fix things like that... Wikireality? – HostileFork says dont trust SE – 2014-09-07T13:59:16.220
Soccer and football? You mean football and hand-egg? – oerkelens – 2014-09-08T08:11:52.353
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Yes, it's headlinese. Note that the subject of the matrix clause is also missing the article.
– StoneyB on hiatus – 2014-09-07T12:32:21.440@StoneyB Oh, fun word. :-) – HostileFork says dont trust SE – 2014-09-07T12:49:04.780