Timeline for Why is the definite article used in: ”What happened to the rest of "the" soup”?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
27 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 29, 2021 at 16:31 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Mar 29, 2021 at 21:59 | |||||
| Mar 14, 2021 at 20:02 | answer | added | Greybeard | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 14, 2021 at 18:36 | answer | added | Tinfoil Hat | timeline score: 0 | |
| Mar 13, 2021 at 7:00 | vote | accept | user48754 | ||
| S Mar 13, 2021 at 7:00 | history | bounty ended | user48754 | ||
| S Mar 13, 2021 at 7:00 | history | notice removed | user48754 | ||
| Mar 12, 2021 at 23:37 | comment | added | Drew | Generally, we don't say first of X, rest of X, etc. We include the. Is your question general enough to be asking why we do that? | |
| Mar 11, 2021 at 2:22 | answer | added | BoldBen | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 10, 2021 at 17:54 | answer | added | jsw29 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 10, 2021 at 9:46 | answer | added | Sadegh | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 10, 2021 at 8:23 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Mar 10, 2021 at 12:30 | |||||
| Mar 10, 2021 at 8:13 | answer | added | cpit | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 10, 2021 at 7:27 | history | edited | Mari-Lou A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
made title less generic, grouped paragraphs
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| Mar 9, 2021 at 20:38 | comment | added | Lambie | This has nothing to do with countability. It has to do with specificity. We ate (a) soup we found in the fridge. What happened to the rest of the soup. The soup has become specific. The one from yesterday. All these moves to specificity and "the" are the same in English> I have a car. The car is nice. I have a house, The house is big. I have coffee in my cup. The coffee tastes good. | |
| Mar 9, 2021 at 20:17 | answer | added | herisson | timeline score: 0 | |
| Mar 9, 2021 at 18:09 | answer | added | FeliniusRex - gone | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 9, 2021 at 13:02 | comment | added | user48754 | My question is about the semantic scope of "the" in this particular instance. Soup is an uncountable noun (unless a special focus is placed on its variety), so the possible choice here could be the definite or zero article. But either way, the sentence appears awkward to me. However unfit it might seem, though, my grammatical instinct calls for the use of the definite article here, anyway. This, however, causes a semantic quagmire as noted in the question section. | |
| Mar 9, 2021 at 11:52 | comment | added | A. Kvåle | I'm a bit confused at your question. Your title, among other things, seem to wonder why the article the is used, the other alternative being a. I don't see how there is any ambiguity as to whether a or the is the right article, as "What happened to the rest of a soup..." is ungrammatical. However, that the sentence at hand is confusing, I understand. I just don't see how that confusion is related to the question of what article choice is correct. The question in your title is a grammar question, and the other question posed is a logical and semantical question. | |
| Mar 9, 2021 at 9:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1369211360740016129 | ||
| S Mar 9, 2021 at 8:28 | history | bounty started | user48754 | ||
| S Mar 9, 2021 at 8:28 | history | notice added | user48754 | Draw attention | |
| Mar 8, 2021 at 6:03 | history | edited | user48754 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Mar 7, 2021 at 18:23 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | [That] we ate yesterday is simply a relative clause modifying soup. You could just as well use an adjective to modify soup: What happened to the rest of the pea soup? What happened to the rest of yesterday's soup du jour? | |
| Mar 7, 2021 at 16:20 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | (2) 'The soup that we ate yesterday' can mean either 'the soup that we totally devoured yesterday' or 'the soup some of which we ate yesterday but some of which remains'. // (1) Mostly, there is no doubt about where a noun (some would say determiner-) phrase is specifying. The green book (not the red, blue, or green ones). The faster car. The highest peak. The man with an umbrella. The biscuit I ate this morning. All clearly need the definite article when used to specify a certain example. With 'the soup that we ate yesterday' there is specification, in spite of the ambiguity. | |
| Mar 7, 2021 at 12:30 | comment | added | user414952 | A correction for the beginning of your first sentence. Instead of 'I has been...' you should use 'I have been....' | |
| Mar 7, 2021 at 5:52 | comment | added | BoldBen | You have provided the correct answer to this yourself when you wrote "There was soup. We ate some of it and left the rest over. What happened to the rest of the (whole) soup" the idea is that a batch of soup was made and we ate (or drank or had) some of it. The question is then about the whole batch. Perhaps it makes more sense when talking about solids, for example "What happened to the rest of the turkey we ate yesterday?" There is usually leftover turkey, they're huge. Having said that I think 'had' is more common than 'ate' in this context and avoids the logical conundrum. | |
| Mar 7, 2021 at 5:32 | history | asked | user48754 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |