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Definite Article, The; Usage of

I grew up not far from a rather large river, the Tennessee. I didn't realize for a long time that it was as large as it is in relation to other rivers, but it is. I didn't understand this until I went to Colorado, and there encountered something that was called a river, but was so small that you could probably spit across it if you had the wind at your back. I think I actually laughed out loud; it was much smaller than what we called a creek back home. 

Flowing into the Tennessee some thirty miles or so away from my home was a tributary which everyone called Elk River. Not "the Elk River," just "Elk River." As in "they have a place up on Elk River." The Tennessee was so dominant that it was more often referred to simply as "the river," but if we did name it, it was "the Tennessee River," not "Tennessee River." 

Why did we attach "the" to one, and not to the other? No one knew. No one even thought about it, but my father used to like to pose the question, just to discombobulate people, which it always did. It's not as if there were several Tennessee Rivers, so that you needed to distinguish the most prominent as "the Tennessee." 

This is all prompted by a blog post at National Review discussing the significance of saying "Ukraine" vs. "the Ukraine"; apparently each has a political implication, which I didn't know. The post itself, as well as some of the commenters, mention other occasions when the article is used or not used for apparently arbitrary reasons. Some people in California apparently refer to some highways there as, for instance, "the I5," but I have never heard anyone refer to Interstate 10 as "the I10"–it's just "I10". And why are Brits sometimes "in hospital" while Americans are "in the hospital," even if there are multiple hospitals in the locality, any of which might be the one involved?

I expect there are many more examples. I'm glad I didn't have to learn English as a foreign language. I have heard a lot of non-native speakers struggle with articles, definite and indefinite. I recall, for some reason, a Chinese co-worker arriving at a dinner with a bottle of Johnny Walker Red and saying he had brought "the wine." Aside from the fact that it wasn't wine, it wasn't the only alcohol, therefore not "the wine," nor would it have been "a wine." However, if he had brought a salad, it would have been "a salad," or perhaps "the salad." Though just "salad" would have been ok, too. Imagine trying to learn all that consciously, especially if your native language had no similar constructs. I don't know any other languages at more than the most rudimentary level, so I don't know if they all have these kinds of irregularities.

Maclin Horton

13 responses to “Definite Article, The; Usage of”

  1. Grumpy

    which side are you on if you say ‘the Ukraine’? which side ‘Ukraine’?

    Reply
  2. Mac

    Ukraine wants you to say “Ukraine.” “evidently the “the” is viewed as a vestige of Soviet imperialism.” It’s not in that piece (maybe in a comment) but I read somewhere that “Ukraine” means something like “borderland”, relative to Russia. So they don’t want people saying “the borderland”. Yes, I see it is in a comment on that post, for what it’s worth:
    ‘I believe the objection stems from the fact that “Ukraine” means “borderland,” so adding “the” only serves to emphasize that Russians treat it as an appendage of “Great Russia.” Removing the “the” treats “Ukraine” as a name rather than a descriptor. ‘

    Reply
  3. Marianne

    Another one is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also called the Democratic Republic of Congo. The CIA’s country profile does it as “of the Congo,” while the NY Times does it both ways, but mostly without the article as “of Congo”.

    Reply
  4. Grumpy

    I knew people felt strongly about the definite article in ‘Ukraine’ but I didn’t know which way it went.

    Reply
  5. Mac

    It was “the Congo”, and even still “the Belgian Congo” when I was in grade school. “Belgian” went away in the early ’60s or so. But the “the” seems to be optional still. I know I’ve heard just “Congo”, but Wikipedia has “the Congo”.
    In English novels one sometimes sees references to “the Argentine”, which I always took to be Argentina.

    Reply
  6. Gary

    “Why did we attach ‘the’ to one, and not to the other? No one knew. No one even thought about it, but my father used to like to pose the question, just to discombobulate people, which it always did.”
    I recall seeing someone on TV, possibly Steven Pinker, talking about human linguistic abilities. I think there’s a longstanding debate about whether the mind comes equipped with some sort of “grammatical firmware” that assists children learning how to construct syntactically correct sentences.
    But this fellow claimed that we’re always absorbing all kinds of linguistic rules and gave the following example (among others I don’t recall): no one says “red, big balloon”; somehow, you know to say “big, red balloon” even though there’s nothing grammatically wrong with the former.

    Reply
  7. Mac

    I’ve heard reference to that debate about “grammatical firmware” but I don’t know what the arguments are. Personally, though, I think it’s pretty clear that something like that exists. Just watching children learn to talk convinces me of that. It’s amazing. There’s no instruction at all, it just happens. Seems clear to me that the mind is in some way built for it.

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  8. Paul

    Well, there is sort of a rule of thumb (which is all any grammatical rule is) for the order of adjectives in English: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/adjectives/order-adjectives

    Reply
  9. Mac

    That’s pretty nice. I’d never thought about the arrangement, but that makes sense.
    It does not however account for a term I’ve heard my wife and sister use: “big giant”, as in “You turn left at that big giant Pepsi sign.” Somehow “giant big” just wouldn’t have the same flavor. Maybe you have to hear it in a southern accent.
    I heard someone, not all that long ago, use “young” as the first adjective in a sequence where it would normally be second according to the rule of thumb, as in “handsome young man.” I was talking about swimming for exercise at a pool affiliated with an old folks’ home, and griping that a couple of old ladies had been interrupting my laps wanting to chat. A co-worker said “Well, in their eyes you’re probably this young hot guy.” I was probably 56 or 57. I hate that use of “hot”, but in the context it was very funny. The moral being, in reference to the standard practice, that context can vary the relative significant of multiple adjectives.

    Reply
  10. Gary

    Paul wrote:
    “Well, there is sort of a rule of thumb…”
    Interesting. I had never heard of this thing (not that I would, since I only know a handful of rules and otherwise just go with sounds right), but it does explain why “big, red balloon” is preferred over “red, big balloon” since size adjectives (#3) precede color adjectives (#6) in their list of 8 types of adjectives.

    Reply
  11. Louise

    Well, there is sort of a rule of thumb
    A rule of thumb. Not the rule of thumb. Also, not rule of the thumb. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Mac

    “rule of the thumb”–ha! Exactly the sort of thing that trips up a non-native speaker. Must be very frustrating.

    Reply
  13. K

    Argentina in Spanish shall be named “la Argentina”, and telling just “Argentina” is wrong. On English, I don’t know.

    Reply

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