Glen/Robert -
I always thought it fine to use "the" in these contexts...
"the" United States of America emphasizes the plurality of the
Federation we began as. States Rights freaks surely would prefer that...
"the" Ukraine suggests to me a region, not a nation-state. Just as we
say "the midwest" or "the rockies". I do believe that before it was
even a "republic" of the USSR (notice I said "the" USSR, a *plurality*
of Republics?) it was a "region" describing geography and ethnicity in a
somewhat vaguely bounded way (there may have been borders drawn on
colonizers maps, but the people there probably had pretty fuzzy
boundaries for "the Ukraine"?).
What I've always been puzzled by is where referring to roadways with
"the" became common. I grew up referring to "US 60" or "I 40" or "route
18" not "the 5" or "the 60".... This was chronicled in that famous song
"Get your Kicks on Route 66", NOT "Get your Kicks on the 66"! I first
thought it was an eastern (USA) affectation that spread... though I
first heard it in LA... it sounded quaint but more like an affectation
than a proper way of speaking. But then most of you know I'm a hardhead
about just about everything!
- the Steve
Careful with that "the", it's got political connotations. The BBC has
a good description of the issue:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18233844
On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 12:43 PM, glen <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On 12/12/2013 10:55 AM, glen wrote:
> ... in the Ukraine is ...
I don't know where I picked that up... At first, I thought it was
because we say "the US". But that can't be it, since I don't say "the
China" or "the Kansas". I suspect it's going to be as difficult to
train that out of me as it is to try to use "data are".
--
?? glen
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