Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: The logic of "and" and "but"
Message-ID: <D4Kv5x.Avy@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <600434857wnr@shappski.demon.co.uk> <3il3p5$ov2@ss1.cam.nist.gov> <193589616wnr@shappski.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 22:44:21 GMT
Lines: 32

andre@shappski.demon.co.uk (Andre Shapps) writes:

>In article: <3il3p5$ov2@ss1.cam.nist.gov>  koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E 
>Koontz) writes:
>>The English definite article can be used to indicate
>> a class, when used with the simple present, e.g., The dog is man's
>> primary pet." or "The dog eats meant almost exclusively."  I suspect
>> this construction might be calqued from some outside source, perhaps
>> French.

>Do you think I'm right in saying that one of the reasons French uses 
>articles so liberaly is because it is often hard to tell just from the 
>sound of a noun whether it's being used in the singular or plural?

I always thought that the generic use of "the dog" etc. harked back to
the Platonic ideals.  %^)

Both French and German use their definite articles a lot more than
English because English dispenses with them before mass nouns & plural
count nouns when used generically -- e.g., "life is hard", "whales are
mammals".  Thus we distinguish between "water" (in general, as a
substance) and "the water" (limited to what was mentioned or will be
specified); in French it is "l'eau" for both.  French in particular,
by its incessant use of the partitive "de" with such nouns, seems to
me to imply a model of the world in which substances are treated as
bodies -- "l'eau" as the name of the immense, scattered body
comprising all the water in the universe.  But perhaps this is a mere
Whorfian whimsy.  %^)
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
