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Although I've read a few grammar books, sometimes I'm not sure if I should use 'the'.

These two phrasas are from the figure captions of a paper published in the journal Physical Review B:

  1. Time dependence of electron temperature at the front and back surfaces of the target.
  2. The temperature dependence of the volume of the copper material.

Is one of these incorrect grammatically/semantically?

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    Grammar rules for headlines, titles, and captions are different than for regular speech or writing.
    – The Photon
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 18:24

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The syntax of things like titles and headlines is different from normal speech. One the distinctions is that articles are often omitted.

In most contexts "Time dependence of ... " would require an article, but in titles and captions it doesn't need one.

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  • Could you please explain why "time dependence of ..." (without the definite article) is incorrect when used in a normal context?
    – user60033
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 18:32
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    @Arham, Research the zero article. You would only omit the article if you're talking about the general idea of time dependence, rather than the time dependence of one particular thing.
    – The Photon
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 18:40
  • @ThePhoton, what about 'drunken fans' in this example from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: 'The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans.'? These drunken fans were watching the game. So they form a specific group of people; but the definite article hasn't been used here.
    – user60033
    Commented Aug 2, 2017 at 19:11
  • That's an interesting example that doesn't fit the simplest rules for using the zero article. It could be worth asking a new question about.
    – The Photon
    Commented Aug 2, 2017 at 20:52
  • You can't talk about "the drunken fans" unless the fans have already been introduced in context. So you might say "the game was marred by the behavior of some drunken fans". Often some can be omitted without changing meaning. The Cambridge Dictionary website talks about strong and weak uses of some, and it seems to me that their examples of weak usage could all be omitted; but their section on "Leaving out some" doesn't say this explicitly. I don't know if this is British/American difference (I'm American).
    – The Photon
    Commented Aug 2, 2017 at 20:55