Re: USAGE: Internetese deviancy - the definite article

Muke Tever wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:02:30 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
> wrote:
>
>> In some variants of online slang, incl that of a forum I'm frequenting,
>> it's become customary to supply a definite article (typically spelt
>> |teh|)in some context where it would not normally be expected in
>> English; beforea personal name, and before a predicate adjective.
>>
>> So, frex, "Johnny is stupid" becomes "Teh Johnny is teh stupid". Fairly
>> redundant, really.
>
>
> I noticed this recently too, on a trip to Philadelphia.  The word "teh"
> (/tE(h)/ stressed, /t@/ unstressed--yes, it has passed into speech) has
> four or five functions:
>
>    1) as a jocular variant of "the"
>    2) used before proper names
>    3) creates nouns (with a sense of superlative) from adjectives
>    4) creates superlatives from adjectives ("teh hawt")
>    5) add a superlative, sometimes adjectival sense to nouns as well ("teh
> sex")
>
> "The" can already produce nouns from adjectives ("Blessed are _the meek_")
> but with "the" it's necessarily plural and collective, while with "teh" it
> can be singular. ("He is teh stupid" = "he is a (particularly) stupid
> person").
>
> I wouldn't consider it strictly a predicate adjective because I'm pretty
> sure <teh> + [adjective] constructions can function as the object of a
> transitive verb, even if <teh> + [adjective] is less likely to appear as
> subject.
How widespread is this?  I haven't come across it yet -- neither on the
-net, the movies or TV.  Will it be a necessary component of any
future English.

OTOH in Gothenburg dialect /gu:/ 'sympathetic, cozy, cuddly' has come
to mean 'stupid' or 'irritating', so anything is possible.

--

/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

         Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                             (Tacitus)

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