Timeline for What makes the need of a definite article?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 9, 2014 at 9:40 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | If your "already defined" conjecture was true, couldn't I reverse the sentence? He works at day and sleeps during the night. But that's not how I'd say it; instead, I'd say: He works during the day and sleeps at night. I think Nico's "depends on the preposition" idea seems more on the right track. | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 9:12 | comment | added | Listenever | I guess when during has the meaning of OALD's #1:"all through a period of time", during can license a/an, but in this case, it would mean 'a whole day', wouldn't it? | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 8:23 | comment | added | Maulik V | @Listenever using the with during is quite common but then I already searched COCAE that showed several results on during a day. In my medical practice, I often come across something like Nausea during a day of long journey is expressed by the patient | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 7:50 | comment | added | Listenever | I rather think that it’s the preposition during that license the definite article. For I can find dur-ing the night. Don’t you think the meaning of during forces the use of the? | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 7:11 | comment | added | Maulik V | @Listenever True but then if you carefully reread them all, you'll find some context of defining it as the day. As in I teach... you have night with it so the same context; in crab's example also, it's crabs' routine and thus the. | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 6:05 | comment | added | Listenever | “During the day” seems not that simple. Because I find a sentence in Corpus of Con-temporary American English, “What kept you going during the day at night?”. And I also got these examples: “I teach during the day and do research at night”;" The crabs hide during the day and come out at night". So I get the feeling that ‘during the day’ alone has a definite article for denoting some meaning. There are variety of the examples in this Korean website. | |
| Mar 9, 2014 at 5:34 | history | answered | Maulik V | CC BY-SA 3.0 |