Using of use and usage :)

[Tamara]

Hi

1. Hence the need to revise dictionaries and grammars as certain particularities of use become generalized as usage.

2. Social commentators noted, in a transatlantic usage,…

3. It has a use.

4. The idea of using roads for local distribution and the railways for the long-distance trunk haul is as old as the railways themselves.

(all examples are taken from BNC)

Could you explain:

1. when usage and use should be used with (indefinite) article? (as in (2) and (3)),

2. more clearly - the difference between use and usage when they are used without article, (1),

(I also wanted to ask about the difference between use of and using (when the latter/gerund is used as a noun) - but have understood it while writing a question 3) about (4) :)).

[Mister_Micawber]

.

1. when usage and use should be used with (indefinite) article? (as in (2) and (3)) – As with other nouns that can be countable or uncountable, use the indefinite article when it is an unspecific or non-previously-mentioned, etc, countable noun.

2. more clearly - the difference between use and usage when they are used without article, (1)-- the difference is not related to countability. In language, usage is established use; use is pragmatic usage. Actually, however, they are cavalierly mixed by most writers (including me).
   .

[Tamara]

@Mister Micawber

Actually, however, they are cavalierly mixed by most writers (including me).

This means that I, not being a mad linguist nor even an English-Writer-with-a-Capital-Letter, don’t need to know that difference at all. Actually.

Thank you, Mister Micawber.