Alexander Koryagin to Anton Shepelev:

>  AS> Hey! The phrase "I forgot he was vegetarian!" (with 'was'
>  AS> and no article before 'vegetarian') is a quote from the
>  AS> book! Do [you] insist on correcting the language of Ramsey
>  AS> Campbell???
>
> Well, taking in mind that it was a horror story, it could mean:
> 1. He stopped be a vegetarian after that meal.
> 3. He was a vegetarian and died from that meal.

Honestly, neither is true. But where is your point 2. ?

> As for the absence of "a" before "vegetarian" I don't know.

It is only logical if one reads 'vegetarian' as an adjective, which
it is in that sentence.

> IMHO Englishmen can live without articles if they want. We see it
> when we read news titles, for instance. ;)

That is a special distortion of grammatical form that has its own
telegraphic rules with lots of elision.

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