Timeline for Why does the definite article appear before the mass noun 'phloem' in this passage?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
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| Jun 10, 2023 at 16:20 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | ...in any case, your cited example says "the phloem" is a relatively straightforward transport system. If it's a "system" or an "organ", it can take an article. | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 16:17 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I'm not a biologist, but it seems quite reasonable to me that a person working in this area might think of "the phloem" as a "system" within the plant, rather that just a "substance". Certainly that's what we all do with "skin" (both a biological system and a substance). | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 9:51 | comment | added | Zheng Li | Thanks a lot. But as the author of this article is a native speaker, I guess he must have a reason to add 'the' before 'phloem' so many times in the paper (also in the Wiki article on phloem). | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 2:12 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 4.0 |