grammaticality - Use or omit "the" before profession?



This image-stabilising system for a hand-held camera, developed by cameraman Garrett Brown in 1973, offers (...)



Wouldn't it be more correct to write "the cameraman Garrett Brown"?


Is omitting the "the" generally acceptable (outside newspaper headlines)?



Answer



It is fine to omit the definite article here, and awkward to include it. The only reason to use the article would be to note that you are referring to a specific thing. In this case, since you are naming the cameraman, it is obvious that the specification has been made.


In fact, you're not really referring to "cameraman" at all: You are referring to Garrett Brown. "Cameraman" functions as an adjective in that case. And as such, you would not need to say the Garrett Brown unless there were other Garrett Browns who could be confused with this one, or else you wanted to call out Garrett Brown as being particularly important (for the benefit of readers who might not know how famous he was).


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