Postscript: "prom"--a bit of data . . .

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:14 PM -0200 5/6/06, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Regarding "prom" as it's been discussed recently--an example
>of what linguists refer to (technically speaking) as Words
>That Used To Have "The" In Front Of Them But Don't Anymore:
>
>My son and daughter-in-law both graduated from high school
>in 1991 (from large, racially and economically diverse
>public schools is different Georgia cities), and they are
>both "the prom" speakers.  So the change seems to be even
>more recent than I had supposed.
>

So in Georgia in 1991, one could (*the) 95 to *(the) prom, and in
2007 in southern California one can take *(the) 5 to (*the) prom.
Law of conservation of articles.

Larry

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