the power of "the"

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

They mean the same thing to me: the wife felt the jealousy. If Othello felt the jealousy, it would say "about," not "of."

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

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