Q1 Probably, but the greater context would make this clear. He is likely to be speaking about those pupils in his school, but it is possible he is speaking about pupils in general or about pupils from a specific group.
Q". As in 1, the greater context would make it clear. He is likely to be speaking about all pupils in his country, but he might be speaking about pupils in general or about pupils from a specific group.
－－Thank you Beesnees. You said the greater context would make this clear. I agree. I’m sorry for not giving enough context. My aim is just to know what kind of meaning does “all plural noun” (all people / all boys ----) have. Your answer has taught me there are three meanings for it: for example, all the people plus attributive words (in the world —etc) and people in general, and people from a specific group.
What I wanted to know most is whether “all boys” can mean boys in general or not
Please answer one more question.
When the headmaster of a primary school is going to say, in A, something about all the / those boys and girls in his school, is it clearer not to omit “the” or “those”?
The whole point of using the definite article is, as the name suggests, to define the following noun.
All children enjoy playing games.Here we are not talking about particular children.
All the children in this school have to work hard. Here we are defining one particular group of children in that particular school.
‘all boys’ (without the article) is usually general. Grammatically it should suggest boys in general, but it does not always work that way in reality.
It follows then that it is clearer to include the article when speaking about a specific group.