indefinite articles with unmodified nouns

Question

I have always been taught to not use indefinite articles with unmodified nouns -- specifically Soy profesora. or Mi padre es arquitecto. BUT I recently came across this sentence in a textbook. "No soy una profesora sino una arquitecta." 1) Is it correct? 2) if so, is it correct because the "sino" somehow causes it to be modified, or because of the contradiction in the sentence? ¡¡Les agradezco!!

Answer 1

Was there a broader context? (more text)

There are times when the indefinite article is acceptable.

Es una profesora de cien. (One teacher of many)

Sometimes the article is used in a dismissive tone, similar in thought to the "one of many" idea. I.E. Mrs. Stanley is a baker, but Mrs. Baird is a baker. Senora Stanley es una panadera, pero Senora Baird es panadera. Although this example would probably never be used, you don't really use it as a comparison or psuedo superlative. I'm just using it to show what the meaning of using the article is. It is similar to saying that someone like so-and-so is a dime a dozen in his/her field of work, but not as harshly.

But I'm not sure why they used it again for arquitecta. Perhaps self depreciating humor. Or perhaps the speaker thinks there are a lot of architects in his city so he feels like there are a lot of them to be compared with.

In your example "...de cien" modifies the noun. The question is asking about unmodified nouns. - gringojrf, Oct 2, 2013

I wish it were in context. It was a single example in a textbook. It was showing the use of "sino." I wish they had chosen a different example. :) Thank you for your quick and complete repsonse. - srakallis, Oct 3, 2013

Answer 2

I am going to stick my neck out here. I do not know the grammar rule. I believe the sentence, "No soy una profesora sino una arquitecta." is correct. I think the negatives; no and sino, are exclusionary and thus are modifiers of the class, ie profesora o arquitecta.

Thus you might say, "No soy una profesora, soy arquitecta."

Gracias, gringo. That does make sense. - srakallis, Oct 3, 2013