the power of "the"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:44 AM -0400 6/6/11, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>They mean the same thing to me: the wife felt the jealousy. If
>Othello felt the jealousy, it would say "about," not "of."

I get the first version on Jon's (text-faithful) reading, which of
course is excluded on the second version.  So would a lot of others,
judging from a quick and dirty google of "by jealousy of his"

LH

>
>Which is not to say that "the" is not a powerful word:
>
>I love the Charleston.
>I love Charleston.
>
>He hunted the dog.
>He hunted dog,
>
>Etc.
>
>But we already knew that.
>
>Sent from my iPad
>
>On Jun 6, 2011, at 10:21 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>>  Hardcore syntacticosemanticists may find this interesting.
>>
>>  Contrast the meaning of these two sentences:
>>
>>  A. Othello is brought down by jealousy of his wife.
>>
>>  B. Othello is brought down by the jealousy of his wife.
>>
>>  Different, virtually antithetical meanings. My unconscious must know why,
>>  even if the rest of me doesn't.
>>
>>  Both sentences are theoretically "paraphrasable" as "Othello is brought down
>>  by his wife's jealousy," but that isn't even true!
>>
>>  How describe this mysterious power of "the"?  Is it widely recognized?
>>  Parallel examples?
>>
>>  JL
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org