>===== Original Message From tom@wolframite.net =====
>>If I wanted to say the 'the' version without the definite article, I'd use a
>>pronoun: "the year minus its nineteen". I think that one isn't ambiguous
>>because 1977 as a value isn't likely to have that kind of possession
ascribed
>>to it.
>
> Indeed - but you haven't made "nineteen" indefinite by using "its". A
>possessive makes a word definite just as the word "the" does. After all, if
>you say "her car" you are still implying that there is just one car to which
>you are referring.
Now, I didn't say I wanted to make it _indefinite_, I said I wanted to say it
without the definite article. ;p What I had in mind (but apparently decided
not to put in the message) was how I might express that kind of construction
in a language without a definite article.
*Muke!