Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

En réponse à Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

>
> (def.) "As for the elephant (we were discussing), it has a very small
> trunk"
> vs.
>
> (indef?) "As for elephants, they have trunks"-- though perhaps generic
> statements are a sub-class of definite, since this could be paraphrased
> "As
> for the elephant (in general), it has a trunk", so that "generic" =
> "the
> definite/defined class of all known examples of X"???
>
That's exactly why generalities always take the definite article in French. Not
because the definite article has become syntactic sugar, but because
generalities *are* definite (when you talk about elephants in general, you're
talking about *the* species "elephant", it's something quite specific and well
defined already, and thus definite).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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