What is correct among "developments in information technology" or "the developments of information technology"

Question

I've found following sentence from one of books that I've read. However, what I cannot understand is the difference between "developments in information technology" and "the developments of information technology". Plus, my second question is why they haven't use "the" before "developments" in the following sentence.

We try to keep up-to-date with new developments in information technology.

The following sentence is the one that I've written in order to verify the meaning.

We try to keep up-to-date with the new developments of information technology.

The main reason for this is, as far as I'm concerned, we should use "the" when we describing a state, a quality, a process or a change "of something". But why they haven't use "the" before "development" in the first sentence?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

the new developments is a reference to some specific set of developments which were previously mentioned so that the reader knows which new developments the writer is talking about.

new developments is a reference to any or all new developments in general, completely unspecified — any new developments which come along, no matter which ones they are.

dileepawe should use "the" when we describing a state, a quality, a process or a change "of something"

I don't really understand this explanation. Here's how it works.

We use "the" when we know exactly which thing we're talking about and 1) we believe we have already said enough to specify that thing or 2) we believe anyone we might be talking to already knows which thing we're talking about through common sense knowledge of the world.

Generally speaking, if we use "the" and the person we're talking to asks "Which?" then we should not have used "the". It's not a good use of "the".

I see you in a library or a restaurant or wherever. The first thing I say to you is "The car is new". You ask "Which car are you talking about?" That tells me I should not have used "the". I haven't explained which car I'm talking about yet. I have to explain that first. Then, once you know which car I'm talking about, I can use "the car".

But I can say, "I took a taxi here. The driver was a very talkative woman". In this case there is nothing in what I said that allows me to use "the driver". But from common sense about the world you know that there is a driver for every taxi, so "the driver" really does tell you which driver I'm talking about, so "the" is OK.

Very briefly said, "the" is about "which?"

CJ

What is correct among "developments in information technology" or "the developments of information technology"

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions