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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Role or function of the definite article here

Hi. Please tell me what the roles/functions of the definite articles in the following sentences are. I think English articles usually modify nouns. Thank you in advance for your help.

The more he has it, the less he has of this.
The faster one goes, the slower the other one goes.
  

Top answer

This is a special use of "the" before comparatives. It is not a definite article in the usual sense. Dictionaries seem to classify it separately as an adverb, and it seems to have a slightly different (albeit related) etymology.

— GPY

  • This is a special use of "the" before comparatives.
  • It is not a definite article in the usual sense.
  • Dictionaries seem to classify it separately as an adverb, and it seems to have a slightly different (albeit related) etymology.
  • com/dictionary/english/the (scroll down to the "adverb" section).
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3 Answers
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This is a special use of "the" before comparatives. It is not a definite article in the usual sense. Dictionaries seem to classify it separately as an adverb, and it seems to have a slightly different (albeit related) etymology. For example, see http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/the
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AnonymousPlease tell me what the roles/functions of the definite articles in the following sentences are.
“Definite article” is not really an appropriate term here, since the is not marking a noun phrase as definite (which is not a type of modification, by the way). I’d say it’s a determinative functioning as d?gr?? mod?f??r to th? follow?ng ?om??r?t?v?
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AnonymousThe more he has of that, the less he has of this.
Insofar as he has more of that, he has (proportionally) less of this.
AnonymousThe faster this one goes, the slower the other one goes.
Insofar as this one goes faster, the other one goes (propor
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