Sheidlower in NY Times

[Mai Kuha]

> > (But surely not for the *young* Michael Palin? Seems to me he's become
> > much more interesting with age.
> > mk)
>
>
> I think you've just insulted Jesse!
>
> Lynne

Er, well, let me try this: I haven't, because of a crucial distinction in
definiteness expressed by the determiners involved. In using the phrase "a
young Michael Palin", the author asked us to imagine a set of similar but,
crucially, nonidentical individuals. I suggested that "the young Michael
Palin", the individual who is a specific reference point for this
prototypical set, had the quality of being eminently unremarkable, a
quality not necessarily shared by *any* of the other individuals in the
set, as per prototype theory.
-Mai
_____________________________________________
Mai Kuha                  mkuha at bsuvc.bsu.edu
Department of English     (765) 285-8410
Ball State University