Post #222,961
9/5/05 6:17:17 PM
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Grammar question
If I say: "This is the calendar for California", when I am referring to a listing of seminars, that sounds correct.
Yet if I am referring to a country, while the name alone MAY be correct, it sounds better if I put "the" in front, ie:
"This is the calendar for United States"
"This is the calendar for the United States"
"This is the calendar for England" - Sounds fine
"This is the calendar for the England" - nope bad
"This is the calendar for United Kingdon" - yick
"This is the calendar for the United Kingdon" - better.
OK, it seems the word "United" is the trigger that makes it want a "the".
"The" seems to add a feeling of specificity (to BS rambling, it just FEELS that way), which in turn seems to be needed when the word "United" is there.
Why?
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Post #222,964
9/5/05 6:27:57 PM
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United denotes a multiple
not a singular.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
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Post #222,965
9/5/05 6:29:02 PM
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US and UK are derived from ordinary words
Most country names are unique and wouldn't otherwise appear. However, 'united states' and 'united kingdom' suggests any number of unions. 'The' makes it singular and unique. It's the difference between called 'Master' and 'The Master'.
Matthew Greet
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
- Mark Renton, Trainspotting.
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Post #222,969
9/5/05 6:35:04 PM
9/5/05 7:13:07 PM
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I'll give it a go...
California is a name. Since you are calling the state by name, a defining article (the) is unnecessary. (Unless you phrased it: "The calendar for the state of California".)
The United States is a descriptive name, commonly called "America". It is a compound proper noun and is always called "The United States". One doesn't call it simply United States. Same goes for the UK. The defining article "the" helps to distinquish what, exactly is united (states or kingdom).
Does that help? (just pulling that out of my, um, ear :-D)
Peace,
Amy
(Edit: phraseology corrected.)
Pray for the survivors of Katrina.
Edited by imqwerky
Sept. 5, 2005, 07:13:07 PM EDT
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Post #222,970
9/5/05 6:36:24 PM
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English is weird.
Recall that the English like to say things like "Ugly things happened in the Sudan." or "Terrible rumblings came out of the Ukraine last week." But it's only used with some country names, as you've noticed (I can't say that I've heard something like "Ugly things happened in the Ireland."
[link|http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslart.html|This] page gives some rules, but doesn't say why. [link|http://eleaston.com/the-us.html|This] page gives some reasons.
I think it's because the English language borrows so much from other languages.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #222,972
9/5/05 6:48:50 PM
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Thanks
Good links
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Post #223,031
9/6/05 1:21:41 AM
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The name of my country...
...is "The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland".
I.e., there's a "The". The correct abbreviation is "The UK".
Peter
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Post #223,043
9/6/05 3:24:37 AM
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IOW, it's not "United" that does it, but any "someway" in...
...in a "someway something" combination -- just like you have "Superman", but "THE Green Lantern"; "Spiderman", but "THE Green Goblin". Once you have an adjective -- any adjective -- in there, English wants the definite or indefinite article... AFAICS, it's to signal that from there on it's a compound noun, starting with a "the", incorporating one (or possibly several?) adjective(s), and ending with the actual real noun.
Not, "I write with leaking fountain pen", but "I write with a leaking fountain pen" or "I write with the leaking fountain pen".
Not, "I kill stinking stupid disgusting paleface", but "I [will, am going to] kill a stinking stupid disgusting paleface" or I [will, am going to] kill the stinking stupid disgusting paleface". (But note how fittingly Savage-Injun-ish the first version is!)
Another way to see that there's nothing magical about the word "United", is to consider: It's "The Confederate States", too. ;^)
HTH!
[link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)
Your lies are of Microsoftian Scale and boring to boot. Your 'depression' may be the closest you ever come to recognizing truth: you have no 'inferiority complex', you are inferior - and something inside you recognizes this. - [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=71575|Ashton Brown]
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Post #225,802
9/21/05 5:46:19 PM
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Speaking of "Confederate States"...
Before the US Civil War, or—pace deSitter—the "War of Northern Aggression," as the then-losers would have it, the common usage was "the United States are..." After Lincoln's decisive consolidation of federal authority it became "the United States is..."
—as in "the United States is saddled with an incompetent, insincere, snake-fucking, cow dung-eating cretin as its annointed Thief Executive."
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #225,804
9/21/05 5:50:55 PM
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Not snake, chicken
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/22/63143/0518|Chicken George]
===
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Post #225,812
9/21/05 6:19:06 PM
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YM what you say now, the Southerners said then? OK... :^>
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