textbook recommendation

[pyz at PANIX.COM]

On Thu, 17 Aug 2000, William Ryan wrote:

> The two recent objectors to my message about the use of the English definite
> article in the name of the Ukraine have overreacted and apparently not read
> very carefully what I said.
>     I speak as a longtime and fervent believer in the cultural independence of
> the Ukraine and Belarus, with a good many friends of both nationalities, and
> happy memories of a visit to the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard. I am
> happy that those two lands have now achieved political independence (more or
> less) and am on record in several places as pointing out that the view of
> ^QRussia^R as a continuum stretching from Kiev Rus^R to the USSR , as it appears
> in most Great Russian (and quite a lot of Western) historiography, is
> erroneous.
>     As I understand it from the press, the demand for removal of the English
> definite article came in fact from the Ukrainian foreign ministry. I can only
> imagine that they took this strange step as a result of representations from
> North American activists, since it can hardly matter much to them at home. Are
> North American Ukrainian nationalists like North American Irish nationalists,
> i.e. much more 'patriotic' than their counterparts back home (I speak as an
> occasional Irishman)?

How about it being just a case of proper English?

General rule - In English, unless it is a collective entity the names
of sovreign states do not take the definite article.  Territories, btw do.

So ...
The United States
The Phillipines
The United Kingdom
The Netherlands
The Russian Federation are correct.

At one time when certain states were territories of such things as empires it
may have been apropos to use the definite article.  "The Argentine" solved it
by becoming Argentina; the Lebanon somewhere along the way began to sound
ackward.  That hasn't wholly happened yet with Ukraine.  By saying "the" Ukraine
you are implying that it is a territory rather than a sovreign state.

However, it pleases me to see that at least U.S. periodicals are far ahead in
there refrainment of the usage of "the" than their British counterparts.

Btw, the only names which I find to be problematic with the above rule are
The Czech Republic, and The Dominican Republic.  Obliged to anyone who can
offer a reasonable explanation.

>     The point I thought I had made is that the use of the definite article in
> English (and French, e.g. ^QLa France^R and German, e.g. ^Qdie Schweiz^R) is not
> thought to be offensive in other placename contexts and in fact cannot by
> itself be offensive, as the analogues demonstrate, e.g. the Dutch do not object
> to ^QThe Netherlands^R (and are tolerant even of our sloppy and incorrect use of
> ^QHolland^R). English speakers neither intend to offend nor perceive any grounds
> for offence in the use of the definite article - 'The Ukraine' it is simply the
> name which we have always used. And since neither Russian nor Ukrainian have
> articles the alleged offensive connotation cannot arise in those languages
> either.
>     The fact is that the English definite article cannot in any way suggest
> subordination to Russia (which I gather is the reason for all this) - but the
> word ^QUkraina^R certainly does suggest a peripheral status.

It also means, at least in Ukrainian, "in the land" or "in the country".

> It is therefore
> illogical to ban the use of the semantically blameless English article while
> keeping the semantically loaded noun. A new state name (my suggestion of Kiev
> Rus', though light-hearted, was not entirely frivolous) would solve that
> problem, although it would leave anglophone writers still with a problem of
> appropriate usage in writing in historical and geographical contexts before the
> adoption of the new state name - an awkwardness which has already arisen in the
> case of Belarus, where the appropriateness of ^QBelarusian^R in medieval contexts
> is very dubious.
>     As a member of a minority in another multiracial community, I do not have
> to be told that the terminology of race is a subtle, often illogical, and fast
> changing area which has to be handled sensitively. But this is NOT about
> terminology of race - place names are not at all the same thing, the problems
> of usage are different, particularly in historical writing, and are subject to
> different pressures. If the perceived offence lies in the use of the definite
> article and nothing else then presumably this must apply to every language
> which has a definite article.

Other languages have different rules of usage, hence interjecting rationals
from French and German are irrelevant.

> Perhaps other participants in SEELANGS could let
> us know if the Germans are now also obliged to remove the article from ^Qdie
> Ukraine^R and the French from ^Ql^RUkraine^R? In French in particular the definite
> article is widely used with names of countries; to leave them out would sound
> very odd and ungrammatical - has the Academie Francaise expressed an opinion?
> In fact, is what is perceived as politically correct in some US circles to be
> imposed as linguistically correct not only on the whole English-speaking world
> but also on all other countries as well? Now that really is culturally
> offensive!
> Will Ryan
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Professor W. F. Ryan, MA DPhil FBA FSA
> Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Study, University of London)
> Woburn Square, LONDON WC1H 0AB
> tel: 020 7862-8940 [direct line]; from outside UK dial +44 20 7862 8940.
> fax: 020 7862-8939; from outside UK dial +44 20 7862 8940.
> The Warburg Institute's main switchboard number is 020 7862-8949
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>


Max Pyziur                                     BRAMA - Gateway Ukraine
pyz at brama.com                                  http://www.brama.com/

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