 Re: Omission of articles by native speakers
No - again, this is "action" in it's generic sense meaning "it was necessary to do something". So it's uncountable. Words like reform and action are only used countably when they refer to specific actions or reform. Eg :
XXX is best remembered for his reforms of the health and education systems. (2 reforms are specified)
XXX did YYY and ZZZ. The court ruled that his state of mental health meant that he could not be held responsible for his actions. (ie YYY and ZZZ)
Sometimes of course, the specific actions/reforms are not listed - the reference is to "everything they did". But the implication is always that they were concrete events which could be listed if necessary.
Compare that with your examples of both reform and action, which are much vaguer - we don't know exactly what action/reform is referred to - the sentences could be glossed as "any wider social reform /some sort of action". In this case the words (and many others like them) are used uncountably. |