Wednesday, October 10, 2012

articles - Missing "the" - on the official page without any reason



From the official Autodesk page:




Create or open a document with the styles you want to copy to the style library.




From the official For Dummies page:





Create a new document or open a document with styles that you can recycle. (Without the in front of styles.)




It seems Dummies version is an error, isn't it?



Another option is that both versions are correct, with a subtle difference in the assumed meaning. But I really don't see any difference in the context of these examples, and therefore one of them should be wrong (to my opinion).


Answer



In the first case the styles are known to the reader, in the second one they're not.





Create or open a document with the styles you want to copy to the style library.




"Styles you want to copy" are predetermined in this context (since these are the ones you want to copy to the style library), and thus this sentence uses the definite article 'the'.




Create a new document or open a document with styles that you can recycle.





Here, the dependent clause is "styles that you can recycle". Adding the definite 'the' would suggest that these styles are known in advance, or that they are limited, and different from styles that you cannot recycle. Using no article implies generality.


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