Paul,
You can sit on a guitar, but it’s hard to sit on “guitar.” “Guitar” can be construed as a physical instrument or as something much more abstract.
I can own a classical guitar (I do) but play a different kind of “guitar” (blues?) when I pick it up. “What kind of guitar do you play?” can be an ambiguous question.
“I bought the guitar last fall. I learned guitar when I was young.”
I don’t know if it makes sense to reduce all this to rules. Some of what we mean is hard to explain even when we feel we know it. Some of it (Why “the Bronx”?) might be historical accident.
Craig
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 9:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Definite Article Question
I can play the guitar (classical, natch), and Paco can play flute. Is there even a rule for this flexibility?
Paul
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
________________________________
From: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Mon, September 12, 2011 8:18:41 PM
Subject: Re: Definite Article Question
Or instruments: Why does Jamie play guitar but Paco plays the flute?
Sent via DroidX2 on Verizon Wireless™
-----Original message-----
From: Jane Saral <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 23:40:59 GMT+00:00
Subject: Re: Definite Article Question
Or what about Interstates? We say The 5 and The 15 but 75, 85, and 95.
Jane
On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 7:19 PM, T. J. Ray <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Someone asked why we supply "the" before some business names and not before
others. In this town we have restaurants with names such as Snack Shack, Boure,
Downtown Grill, McDonald's. Why would someone need to say "I'm going to eat at
Boure" as opposed to "I'm dining at the Snack Shack"?
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