Re: OT: Two language change questions

The article doesn't affect the meaning that way for me.  I still read
the cream pie as what the clown hit with. The article solely
distinguishes between an unspecified/previously unmentioned pie or a
particular/established one.
If you drop the articles completely then the missile is now
undifferentiated cream pie - the filling, rather than a discrete
object.



On 10/29/08, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> --- On Wed, 10/29/08, David McCann <david@...> wrote:
>
> ...
>>
>> I wouldn't say that the indefinite article is *only* a
>> quantifier: I'm
>> always suspicious of theorists who insist there is only one
>> true way to
>> describe the phenomena! But *primarily* a quantifier, yes.
>
> Here's an odd role for the definite vs indefinite article:
>
> The clown hit the man with A cream pie.
> The clown hit the man with THE cream pie.
>
> In the first it is clear that the cream pie was the weapon used against the
> man, while in the second case it seems that the clown hit, with some unknown
> weapon, the man who was holding the cream pie.
>
> E.G:
>
> The clown hit the man with A baseball bat.
> The clown hit the man with THE red hat.
>
> --gary
>
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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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