Re: The.

>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
>Adrian Morgan scripsit:
>
>> Consider this. If I said that my waist measurement in centimetres is my
year
>> of birth minus the nineteen (minus definite article nineteen), that's
>> seventy-seven centimetres.
>
>It took me many minutes of pondering to get this; the trouble is not
>the "the", but the equivocation over "minus", which in this case does
>not have its technical meaning, but is a synonym for "without".
I wouldn't put it that way... For me, 'minus' means 'take away' (in either
case), and the equivocation is between 1977 as a value (one less than 1,978)
and 1977 as a written numeral (made of 1, 9, and two 7s).

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.

     *Muke!