Timeline for Articles in a list
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 2019 at 15:31 | comment | added | chaos | Yes, in 2012 it was enough to be right, rather than needing to be right and also jump through argumentum ad verecundiam hoops. | |
| May 22, 2019 at 14:36 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | While I wouldn't say that the answer is incorrect, it doesn't meet ELU standards, citing no authoritative evidence. | |
| Jun 19, 2012 at 22:49 | vote | accept | domino | ||
| Apr 2, 2012 at 19:23 | comment | added | Mitch | As an AmE speaker (re @AndrewLeach's comment), I don't know what to make of 'I saw a bear, lion, and donkey.' That is, it doesn't have a coherent meaning (and doesn't have the one you gave)). I think every article is needed. I don't have enough introspection available to say anything intelligent about why I think that. | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 17:50 | comment | added | Jay | Hmm. I would write, "Across the street I saw a man, a woman, and a child." On the other hand, "Every man, woman, and child on the street saw the bear." Or "The bear attacked a man, woman, and child." Maybe. I'm not sure there are clear rules here. | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 15:31 | comment | added | J.R. | +1 for "This connotation isn't inescapable..." | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 15:26 | comment | added | chaos | @AndrewLeach: I would tend to expect that, yeah, because it's implied that they're in a group and that's weird. If someone said it without the articles, though, I wouldn't think it was incorrect, I would think they were highlighting how odd it was to find those three associating with one another. | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 15:19 | comment | added | Andrew Leach♦ | Hmm. In that case, it's a bit more nuanced. One might expect Across the street we saw a bear, a lion and a donkey -- perhaps because that's rather unusual. | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 15:16 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Andrew Leach: I'm UK too, but I incline towards the distinction chaos makes here. Not that it's definitive (though I doubt it is to Americans either), but I certainly wouldn't expect "Across the street we saw a man, a woman, and a child" in normal speech. | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 14:57 | comment | added | Andrew Leach♦ | I wonder if that's an American English thing. British English would tend to add the indefinite article to all of them, and not make the same/different time connotation (which needs to be stated explicitly if it's important and not apparent from the context). | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 14:16 | history | answered | chaos | CC BY-SA 3.0 |