Too-Definite
Article Revisited
A
couple of months ago, we discussed the tendency of advertisers to use definite
articles in inappropriate (or at least unnecessary) situations (as in "Unguent
de Myrrh for the skin"). We might have added that something similar occurs in
certain academic disciplines, where courses all too frequently address "Postmodernism
and the Law" or "Advanced Study in the Calculus." Do the authors of these phrases
have anything more in mind than "Postmodernism and Law" or "Advanced Study in
Calculus"? Well, yes. The implication seems to be that whereas "law" or "calculus"
alone is unsatisfactorily vague, amorphous, and inclusive, "the law" or "the
calculus" refers to a recognizable body of rules whose very definiteness heightens
its coherence and its worthiness--and by extension, the worthiness of those
on familiar terms with it. On the other hand, people not initiated into the
mysteries of "the law" or "the calculus" may find this usage laughably pretentious.
'Twas ever thus with the syntax.