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The Children Know The Fastest Way Home.: Lexicalization

The definite article "the" indicates that the noun it modifies is a specific, identifiable thing. It may refer to something already mentioned or uniquely specified. "The" is used for both singular and plural nouns in English. The definite article can also indicate a specific class of things. However, recent research shows that definite articles are morphological elements linked to certain noun types due to lexicalization, not definiteness. The definite article is sometimes used unnecessarily with proper nouns but its presence may be accounted for by the assumption that it refers to a longer phrase using the proper noun. The usage of definite articles can become a political matter in some place names. Some other languages also use definite articles with personal names.

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26 views

The Children Know The Fastest Way Home.: Lexicalization

The definite article "the" indicates that the noun it modifies is a specific, identifiable thing. It may refer to something already mentioned or uniquely specified. "The" is used for both singular and plural nouns in English. The definite article can also indicate a specific class of things. However, recent research shows that definite articles are morphological elements linked to certain noun types due to lexicalization, not definiteness. The definite article is sometimes used unnecessarily with proper nouns but its presence may be accounted for by the assumption that it refers to a longer phrase using the proper noun. The usage of definite articles can become a political matter in some place names. Some other languages also use definite articles with personal names.

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Haris A
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© © All Rights Reserved
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A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener.

It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be something
uniquely specified. The definite article in English, for both singular and plural nouns, is the.
The children know the fastest way home.
The sentence above refers to specific children and a specific way home; it contrasts with
the much more general observation that:
Children know the fastest way home.
The latter sentence refers to children in general and their specific ways home.
Likewise,
Give me the book.
refers to a specific book whose identity is known or obvious to the listener; as
such it has a markedly different meaning from
Give me a book.
which does not specify what book is to be given.
The definite article can also be used in English to indicate a specific class
among other classes:
The cabbage white butterfly lays its eggs on members of the Brassica genus.
However, recent developments show that definite articles are
morphological elements linked to certain noun types due
to lexicalization. Under this point of view, definiteness does not play a
role in the selection of a definite article more than the lexical entry
attached to the article.
[3]

[4]

The definite article is sometimes also used with proper names, which
are already specified by definition (there is just one of them). For
example: the Amazon, the Hebrides. In these cases, the definite article
may be considered superfluous. Its presence can be accounted for by
the assumption that they are shorthands for a larger phrase in which the
name is a specifier, i.e. the Amazon River,the Hebrides Islands. Where
the nouns in such longer phrases cannot be omitted, the definite article
is universally kept: the United States, the People's Republic of China.
This distinction can sometimes become a political matter: the former
usage the Ukraine stressed the word's Russian meaning of
"borderlands"; as Ukraine became a fully independent state following
the collapse of the Soviet Union, it requested formal mentions of its
name omit the article. Similar shifts in usage have occurred in the
names of Sudan and both Congo (Brazzaville) and (Kinshasa); a move
in the other direction occurred with The Gambia.
Some languages also use definite articles with personal names. For
example, such use is standard inPortuguese: a Maria, literally: "the
Maria". It also occurs colloquially in Spanish, German and other
languages, and is sometimes heard in Italian. In Hungary it is
considered to be a Germanism.

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