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Here is a paragraph from today's Wall Street Journal.

Some businesses in the area closed their doors while authorities briefly closed an elevated train station outside mall where the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, had been placed.

I wonder why it is "outside mall", not "outside the mall". Why is "the" omitted?

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    Probably whoever wrote this made a mistake. Since you give us no source, I assume you wrote it. Why do you ask us why you left out the article? If it is not your own text, please provide us with the source!
    – oerkelens
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:34
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about explaining something based on the assumed correctness of a simple mistake in a text of unknown origin.
    – oerkelens
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:36
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    @oerkelens It's from today's Wall Street Journal. It constitutes an entire paragraph from the article. Have added the link. PS, if a user has 101 points, it's probably there first ever question here! :-)
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:57
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    It is the first time I wrote at Stackexchange. So I didn't know that I should provide the sources. It is a part of an article from WSJ. That's why I assumed this sentence is quite ok.
    – hopflink
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 9:27

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I'm pretty sure it's a mistake. It should be outside the mall, just as you thought. The sentence is indicating specifically which mall was near the train station: the mall where the IEDs had been placed, which is also the mall that was mentioned at the start of the article.

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    Thank you! Is there some occasions when "the" can be omitted? For example, I found this question and answer: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/32895/… It says that "weather" can be used without "a" or "the". Is it correct?
    – hopflink
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 9:47
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    +1. I would go so far as to say there is a 100% chance this is a typographical error. It's not the sort of error a native speaker would make in speech.
    – hunter
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 10:26
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    @hjjang Articles in English are a pretty complex topic, probably requiring many questions, which could take a lifetime to answer. Seriously! But here are three fundamental things to know: (1) Every noun must have a determiner. (2) Omitting an article is still a sort of article—it means something. (3) Special phrases can override everything: X permitting is one such phrase. That's why weather lacks an article in that question.
    – Ben Kovitz
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 10:28
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    There is not room to list how many ways "the" can properly be eliminated. Look for questions with "the", or for "article elision" here or elsewhere.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 12:00

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