Re: Losing languages ...

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 07:37:05PM -0400, Doug Dee wrote:
> I think the distinction he's making is:
>
> (a) If there are exactly two candidates, and he has interviewed both, and you
> (the person he's talking to) _already know_ that there are exactly two, he
> can say  to you, "I've interviewed the both of them." (with "the")
>
> (b) If there are exactly two candidates, and he has interviewed both, but
> _you do not yet know_ that there are exactly two, then he'd say to you, "I've
> interviewed both of them." (without "the")
>
> That is, "the both" is appropriate only if the two-ness of the set of
> candidates has previously been established to the hearer as well
> as the speaker.
Exactly!  Thank you; I was having trouble getting this across. :)

So it's pretty much the same as the normal distinction between
"the" and no "the", except in this case the established thing pointed
out by the article is the "twoness" of the things, rather than the
things that there are two of.

-Mark

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