University abbrev. (and article usage with names) <fwd>

[Peter McGraw]

I think this message was meant for the list.

--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 14:07:55 -0400
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
Subject: Re: University abbrev. (and article usage with names)
Sender: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
To: Peter McGraw <pmcgraw at linfield.edu>

Reply-To: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
Message-ID: <v04011702b43e407bba11@[130.132.116.12]>


The Ohio State University is officially so-called (with the article),
but I'm pretty sure it's only ever abbreviated as OSU (I go to (*the)
OSU). Then there are all those abbreviations, which we probably had a
thread on a while back, of the form "UX" vs. "U. of X." vs. "the U. of
X.", for various values of X.

Larry

>As I recall, a well-known university in your home state is officially
>named "THE Johns Hopkins University," and I'm a little less sure, but I
>THINK Penn State's official name is "THE Pennsylvania State
University." >Colloquial usage, of course, would tend to leave off the
article >(unless local usage in those places has this same quirk),
making these >actually examples of the opposite of the BYU usage you
describe. >
>Peter Mc. >
>On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:13:07 -0600 David Bowie
<db.list at PMPKN.NET> >wrote:
> >
>> And now for the oddity in article usage: When i first came here, one
of >> the things i noticed was that several local speakers use the
definite >> article when naming BYU, as in "So you want to drive to
*the* Brigham >> Young University?" or "Here's how to get to *the*
BYU". This seems odd >> to my Southern Maryland born-and-bred self--i
can't put an article, >> definite or not, before the name of a school
ending with "university" >> or "college" (as opposed to a school name
beginning with those words, >> where i can freely include the definite
article, and it would in fact >> usually be required). Has anyone
anywhere noticed similar constructions >> with school names *ending* in
those words? >
>---------------------- >Peter A. McGraw
>Linfield College >McMinnville, Oregon
>pmcgraw at linfield.edu
--- End Forwarded Message ---


----------------------
Peter A. McGraw
Linfield College
McMinnville, Oregon
pmcgraw at linfield.edu