Omission of definite article

[Kelli Slimp]

Thanks, Jonathan. That's sort of what I had discovered as well. I did a
little assignment on that subject, and your summary is in keeping with my
questionnaire's findings.

ks

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 10:53 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Omission of definite article
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Welcome, Kelli. And yes, some have noticed.
>
> I can't say just when I began to note the replacement of "in the hospital"
> by "in hospital" on cable news, but it's been a few years.  "In future" may
> be more frequent. Yet "out of hospital" still sounds very UK.
>
> The changeover is not very far advanced, though, even among the chattering
> classes, and I'd still be surprised to hear anyone beyond the media or
> lacking a strong British-Irish connection omit the article.
>
> I almost said "Anglo-Irish," which sounds fine to me, but I didn't want to
> offend any Scots, Welsh, or Manx readers, for example.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 5:23 PM, Kelli Slimp <kellislimp at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Kelli Slimp <kellislimp at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Omission of definite article
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Hi all!
> >
> > I'm a M.Phil student of Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin and just
> > joined the list serve a few days ago.
> >
> > It's been entertaining following the various conversations, and I'd love
> to
> > hear your feedback on a little question of my own...
> >
> > I've noticed that the British and Irish press, as well as speakers in
> > casual
> > conversation, use the phrase "in hospital," effectively omitting the
> > definite article, much the way we would say someone is "in prison" or "in
> > jail," while Americans would more generally say someone is "in
> > *the*hospital.
> >
> > Is the US press beginning to drop "the" as well? What about citizens in
> > casual speech? What have you all noticed?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for your musings.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Kelli Slimp
> >
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>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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