Re: USAGE: Internetese deviancy - the definite article

Gary Shannon scripsit:

> I still haven't figured out how the British decide to DROP "the"
> in so many odd places like "going to hospital" instead of "going to
> THE hospital."  Does anybody know what the rule is for when to drop
> "the" in order to speak proper British?  For example, does one say
> "I'm going to the city", or "I'm going to city"?
The former.

The rule is precisely the same as that applied on both sides of the Pond
with "jail".  Elvis was in the jail (where "Jailhouse Rock" was made);
he was never in jail (imprisoned).  Likewise, it is one thing to go to
college, and another to go to the college.  U.K. English simply extends
this to a few more nouns that name institutions.

I suspect that the overuse of "the" in American English (where "in the
hospital" can mean either "inside the hospital" or "undergoing hospital care")
is an influence from Hiberno-English, where the definite article is used
a great deal more even than in American English ("I am good at the Latin", e.g.)

--
John Cowan  cowan@ccil.org  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
[R]eversing the apostolic precept to be all things to all men, I usually [before
Darwin] defended the tenability of the received doctrines, when I had to do
with the [evolution]ists; and stood up for the possibility of [evolution] among
the orthodox -- thereby, no doubt, increasing an already current, but quite
undeserved, reputation for needless combativeness.  --T. H. Huxley