What is the difference between:
“It has a value.”
and
“It has value.”
Value
February 18th, 2003 by dyske
10 Responses to “Value”
Leave a Reply
Teaching English to Preschoolers with iPhones
We (i.e. the creators of Pain in The English) developed a series of iPhone apps to teach preschool kids how to recognize letters and words. (My wife developed the characters and I did the coding.) Our own 4-year old daughter has been enjoying them. They are now available on Apple's App Store. You can search for "bitskis" on your iPhone, or visit the official website at bitskis.com.
If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
"A value" is a quantity. Such as: "X has a value of 29." Whereas, value itself could be quantifiable or instrinsic, for example "My life has value to me." Value could refer to its monetary worth, or its personal worth. Value itself may or may not be arbitrary.
Purple Dragon’s right. Anything can have value, or have some value; but when it has a value, it’s a quantitative measure, and math probably comes into it.
I’ll go with the simple objective vs. subjective angle.
‘a value’ can also leave the door open for a negative total assesment. ‘Some value’ often works better for this, as in "Bob’s a jerk, but he has some value, if only as a bad example!". Speakers might use ‘a value’ as shorthand, meaning a single positive property was all that existed in a sea of negative value prperties.
"A value" indicates a specific assignment of value.
Without the article "a" it simply means the speaker or writer see value in "it", making it not worthless. No indication of specific worth is implied.
"a value" is defined and tangible
"value" is abstract
To me, "a value" is an extrinsic quality and precise. Value, on the other hand, is intrinsic and vague.
The difference is instantiation.
Simply put, "It has value" is qualitative, as in "valuable".
"It has a value" is NOT quantitative, it’s simpler than that: "It has a value" can only be interpreted as "It has a number [associated with it]".
Context is absent, but I’d say, "It has value" means "It is valuable." Meaning: substantial value.
"It has a value" means "It is not worthless." Meaning: minimal value.