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From: mcmillan@eosp1.UUCP (John McMillan)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Do "a" and "the" mean anything?
Message-ID: <557@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Jan-84 18:06:12 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.557
Posted: Mon Jan 30 18:06:12 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Feb-84 12:18:41 EST
References: <923@proper.UUCP>
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 11

You can't generalize for all languages.  In Latin for example, where all
nouns and verbs are inflected, it is generally possible to associate all
words properly regardless of many different word orders that are permissible
in a sentence.  "A" and "the" don't add much to the wealth of information
conveyed by noun endings.  In English there is little inflection, and
you can often chnage the meaning of a sentence by changing "a" to "the".
					- Toby Robison
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