Timeline for Use of "the" before the first part of Of-phrases
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:55 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://ell.stackexchange.com/ with https://ell.stackexchange.com/
|
|
| Sep 30, 2016 at 6:35 | comment | added | Ahmad | @stangdon the example can be " Brain is located in the head of a human". | |
| Sep 30, 2016 at 6:12 | comment | added | Ahmad | @stangdon I once again explained it in my question. I think when we are restricted to a single human, we can say "the head of a human" can't we? because we are talking about a human and head is a specific part of him, what makes this to happen? the possessive phrase. | |
| Sep 30, 2016 at 6:06 | history | edited | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 246 characters in body
|
| Sep 30, 2016 at 6:01 | history | edited | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 246 characters in body
|
| Sep 29, 2016 at 22:22 | comment | added | ColleenV | @AlanCarmack I don't believe we should close this question as a duplicate of the older one simply because this one is newer (and especially when the older question has no answer). I think this is the better written of the two, so I'm going to close the older one as a duplicate of this one and leave this one open to see if we can get an answer that Ahmad is comfortable accepting. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 21:40 | comment | added | Damkerng T. | @Ahmad I'd say that all examples in your question are possible (i.e., if X of (a/the) Y is grammatical, then the X of (a/the) Y would also be grammatical, but it heavily depends on context. (And as you know, it's tricky. Just changing a word or two here and there in your sentence or your excerpt may change everything, and sometimes more than one choice is possible.) | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 20:40 | comment | added | stangdon | @Ahmad - I think I might be starting to understand. Can you give me an example of a complete sentence? Sometimes context makes a lot of difference. Are you asking why would say "The head of a human was on the mad scientist's table" but "A human head was on the mad scientist's table"? | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 19:59 | answer | added | LawrenceC | timeline score: 3 | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 18:23 | review | Close votes | |||
| Sep 29, 2016 at 22:22 | |||||
| Sep 29, 2016 at 18:08 | comment | added | Ahmad | @stangdon OK then "study of PR" is a specific study. What is specific in "the head of a human"? I feel it is because each person have one head. These two examples are not similar. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:55 | comment | added | Ahmad | @AlanCarmack yes right. Now I feel possession itself has a role because it makes the noun more specific. I just need to get a node. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:41 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | Possible duplicate of "the" before of-phrases asked by the same user over a year ago. The lack of an answer back then may be due to the fact that there is no rule saying one has to use the before an of-phrase. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:36 | comment | added | stangdon | @Ahmad - The principle is the same everywhere. We say "the study of" because it's a specific study of a specific field, not just any study. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:20 | comment | added | Ahmad | @AlanCarmack most of-phrase I saw are like "the X of Y". I wonder why other can't see this pattern. I also said without any context in a possessive construction if the first part (please tell me what's the term for it) is unique for the second part "the" is used. Forget any context. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:13 | comment | added | Ahmad | @stangdon I added some example. You say the rule is the same. Why it is "the study of ...'? | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:11 | history | edited | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 200 characters in body
|
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:11 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | A problem with analyzing these examples is that we don't know if they are part of headlines. In headlines, articles are often omitted. Again, article usage is context dependent and listing noun phrases does little to help people answer your question. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 17:07 | history | edited | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 41 characters in body
|
| Sep 29, 2016 at 16:50 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | The window of the house is just as natural as the door of the house, even when there are multiple windows and only one door*. Of course, the window of the house could refer to a house's only window: it depends on context. In fact, the use/meaning of articles is largely dependent on context. Single sentences are rarely enough to illustrate native usage. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 16:46 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | @Ahmad You can say the finger of me but in reality my finger is the way to refer to one's own finger. You might hear this finger of mine in certain contexts such as storytelling, but the finger of me is grammatical but little-used. Even with my finger the context would have to determine which finger is meant. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 16:12 | comment | added | Ahmad | @Mari-LouA I described it in the question. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 16:11 | comment | added | Ahmad | @stangdon everyone has one head then we know which head in the head of a human but when you say the finger of me, it's not known which finger unless there is a context. Isn't it? It is just an example . | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 16:08 | history | edited | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 85 characters in body
|
| Sep 29, 2016 at 12:50 | comment | added | TimR | Role noun. youtube.com/watch?v=jy9rbMGSPl4 | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 12:44 | comment | added | TimR | Members is a role. About 99% of students have never been valedictorian of their class. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 11:54 | comment | added | stangdon | I don't think there's any special rule for using "the" before of-phrases. It's the same principle for why we would use "the" anywhere else. Also, why do you think we couldn't say "the window of the house" or "the hand of a human"? Those are perfectly correct phrases. | |
| Sep 29, 2016 at 8:01 | history | asked | Ahmad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |