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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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New York City grid...or gridlock  Gee, Helen, I didn't notice all these street-structure nuances while I was there...I was too busy drinking beer. You could pluck a nice cold Grolsch out of any deli fridge-box, in those days, and drink it while you strolled. Gave long walks a whole new meaning! 
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Joined: Mar 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the
It may also be a matter of emphasis, Faldage. For instance, we'd always say, "Don't ever play on the railroad tracks" rather than "Don't ever play on railroad tracks".
"Don't ever cross the railroad tracks when the light is flashing."
And, "Cross on the green, and not in between", not "Cross on green, and...".
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old hand
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old hand
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Faldage, The Hunter
- by Odgen Nash
The hunter crouches in his blind
'Neath camouflage of every kind
And conjures up a quacking noise
To lend allure to his decoys
This grown-up man, with pluck and luck
is hoping to outwit a duck
Faldage:
(Most know when to use "A" or "THE"), but can we explain when to use either one as opposed to using neither? Why, for example, do we say, "cross the street" rather than saying "cross street"?
My Dear Mister Faldage,
Obviously nits today are becoming scarce entitants to pick. Any word-rooting hog knows that "The" and "A" are mutually dependent so as to convey the meaning of "particular" or "general" entities.
Yours is a question that begs a question.
And as to the exclusion of either one, it is a process that in-groups utilize for economy, ( tsuwm has a cute word for it, but we all forget.) articleless languages survive without the need of this distinction, but they very likely suffer from less than fluid transfer of exacting information.
Bemoan them and move on to other crusades.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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This suggests to me that there is a subject-object relationship proximity issue rather than a possession issue.
...
Yet another example is "I'm going to town", although in this case if you said "I'm going to the town" you would cause confusion, and your interlocutor would probably ask which town you actually intended going to. But again, usually, you are referring to the centre of your current town, or if you live in the country you are referring to the nearest town, or at least the one you go to most often.
I just came back from a scene study class, where we worked on Brian Friel's 'Dancing at Lughnasa', an Irish play. The women kept talking about going into the town. It sounded a little foreign to me, and I kept wanting to omit the 'the'.
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member
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member
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as this thread is going on my understanding of articles theme goes in waves. i liked the idea of cadences...than i got confused with "the/no article street"...now this thing about "personal proximity" - excelent!
in the end it is all as my British supervisor used to say to me: "One just fells where to put an article". i hope the (?) Native Speakers will forgive me putting wrong articles in wrong places.
do articleless languages suffer from their absence?
not that mutch. but those who know English do say sometimes
in order to emphsize: day mne the knigu (give me the book)
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veteran
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veteran
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adverts on tv with the Jolly Green Giant (I think) teaching children how to cross the road....Never Cross the Road without the Green Cross Code Certainly not the US Green Giant, rkay, though he is certainly Jolly, being inclined to a "Ho Ho Ho" rather than a "Fe Fi Fo Fum" (and incidentally partial to sweetcorn niblets rather than bread made from ground-up bones). You're thinking of the Green Cross Man, a superhero played by none other than Dave Prowse aka Darth Vader. Check this out: http://www.toysrgus.com/images-speci/harper/prowse-greencross.html
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Joined: Oct 2000
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veteran
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veteran
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This is a sideline, but an interesting one, I think..
How would you say:
"I'm on holiday from 1st September"
[non-US (well, Brit, anyway)]
"I'm on holiday from 01/09/02"
[US+ (at least)]
"I'm on holiday from 09/01/02"
Specifically, where do the ofs and thes magically appear, and which bits get translated and/or expanded?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Funny, whenever I think of Jolly Green Giants I smell napalm and burning jungle and wounded soldiers. Dunno why.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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How would you say:
"I'm on holiday from 1st September"
Nice to see you back, Shona. I'd say it probably one of two ways: if I wanted to impart generalized info., I'd say I'm going on vacation (around) the first of September. To be specific, I'd say I'm leaving on vacation on September first, or, on the first day of September. Do you-all really say first September? Hmm--now that you've made me think about it, I realize I might say Sept. the first.
Another difference I've become aware of: we say self-rising flour, and you-all say self-raising. When we get a salary increase, it's a raise. When you do, apparently it's a rise. I thought it interesting that the same 2 words were reversed in different contexts.
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old hand
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old hand
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>we say self-rising flour, and you-all say self-raising. When we get a salary increase, it's a raise. When you do, apparently it's a rise.
While up here we say "self-rising" and pay rise, although pay raise is far from unheard of.
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