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From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Monday, 06 of August, I read your message to alexander koryagin
about "smelled like horse"

 AH>> Context, Alexander... context!! I'm unacquainted with anybody
 AH>> named "Arthas" & I have no idea who the Lich King might be. You
 AH>> could have told us more about where the quote came from, so we
 AH>> wouldn't have to look it up. ;-)

 ak>> Well, Arthas is a boy of 11, a prince. Let me give a small
 ak>> fragment:

 AH> --> Arthas was silent and did not look up at Uther.
<skipped>

 AH> Ah. What I was curious about was the setting, i.e. when & where the
 AH> story takes place, because that might help explain the omission of
 AH> the article.

 AH> "Uther Pendragon" is a name I recognize from tales about King
 AH> Arthur (sixth century)... so the name "Uther" is an important clue
 AH> AFAIC. While there are British names which have survived more or
 AH> less unchanged to the present day this doesn't seem to be among
 AH> them. The other details you've just added... the young scion of the
 AH> upper classes being trained in horsemanship, the routine use of
 AH> herbal medicine, and the expected attendance at a church service...
 AH> are also reminiscent of the medieval period. My understanding is
 AH> that WORLD OF WARCRAFT occurs in a fictitious time & locale but the
 AH> weapons used tend to be similar to those used in Britain and/or
 AH> continental Europe during medieval times.

The world of warcraft is not real at all. For instance, there are orcs there,
and they cannot be accociated with any people on Earth.

 AH> Now, following up on Mark's diagnosis of "poetic licence"... I
 AH> think that's it in a nutshell. Awhile back you cited a passage from
 AH> IVANHOE, a novel in which the events occur several hundred years
 AH> after King Arthur. Recognizing that even the English majors among
 AH> us might need a cheat sheet to make sense of Middle English,
 AH> however, the author employed old-fashioned turns of phrase such as
 AH> one might see in the works of Shakespeare or in the King James
 AH> Bible... both of which would have been very familiar to his
 AH> audience. I suspect the same may apply here. In the example of
 AH> Middle English which I can most easily lay hands on, articles are
 AH> noticeable by their absence. Golden & others may be trying to
 AH> establish the mood in whatever way they think their readers can
 AH> relate to.: - )

I like this idea. There is some ground for an excuse when I omit one.  I'll
say that I like Middle English.

 ak>> Probably articles are not so necessary as many think. For
 ak>> instance, people don't put articles in newspaper titles, in TV
 ak>> line news; and everybody finds it perfectly OK.
 AH> Uh-huh. Telegrams are another example....: - )
 ak>> Although... that were the words of the author, and he was a
 ak>> writer. 

 AH> As was Sir Walter Scott. We're referring to historical fiction &/or
 AH> fantasy, in which it is sufficient to give the reader a bit of the
 AH> "feeling" of the period. A few folks may be inspired to examine the
 AH> history in more detail. But if the author wants to make a living,
 AH> he must reach a larger audience. ;-)

In short, you've confirmed my idea on how learning the English articles. First,
 you must learn where to put them. Then, you must learn where Englishmen omit
articles in places they must be. 

[...Why am I so kind? I haven't enough malice for all]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012 



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