The or not

the English language


But: English music, English literature, English art


CB

Cool Breezethe English languageBut: English music, English literature, English artCB

Why do we say "The English language is difficult," but we say "English literature is read throughout the world"?

THANK YOU

Hi James M. According to Leech & Svartvik's A Communicative Grammar of English;

It's about generic and specific use. This following example illustrates generic meaning with abstract mass nouns; I like music, English literature, contemporary art,...

In specific use, these nouns take the definite article(the);

The acting was poor, but we enjoyed the music.

Thank you very much, Nugso, for the helpful information.

We use "the" when specifying the full (official) name of a language. Thus, the English language is the full name of a language. English literature can be seen as a (sub)division within world literature. It is all the literature written in English. English literature is not really a name; it is rather a kind of literature much like **** literature, langauge literature, IT literature and so

Hello, Globus:

Your question really interested me because I could not give myself a good answer.

Thanks to Cool Breeze, Nugso, and Ivanhr, I now understand it much better.

*****

I have also searched the Web like mad, and I have found an answer that I wanted to share.

This person explains that we usually do not use the definite article with school sub

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