Subj : articles are a good subject
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Anton Shepelev
Date : Thu Oct 05 2017 00:34:52

Alexander Koryagin:

AK> We  haven't  talked of articles for a long time.
AK> It should be mended. ;)
AK>
AK> Which article should be before "heart" below?
AK>
AK>   1.  Meldonimum  is  a  drag  to   make   heart
AK>       healthy.
AK>
AK>   2.  Meldonimum  is  a  drag  to make the heart
AK>       healthy.  (A human have only heart?)
AK>
AK>   3.  Meldonimum is  a  drag  to  make  a  heart
AK>       healthy.

It  is  a  shame you so dislike serious reading, for
Goold Brown answers your very  question  in  a  mere
paragraph:

  With  the  definite  article, the noun is applied,
  sometimes  specifically,  sometimes  individually,
  but  always definitely, always distinctively. This
  article is demonstrative. It marks either the par-
  ticular     individual,    or    the    particular
  species, -- or, (if the noun be plural,) some par-
  ticular  individuals  of  the species, -- as being
  distinguished from all others. It sometimes refers
  to  a  thing  as having been previously mentioned;
  sometimes presumes upon the  hearer's  familiarity
  with  the thing; and sometimes indicates a limita-
  tion which is made by subsequent  words  connected
  with the noun. Such is the import of this article,
  that with it the singular number of  the  noun  is
  often  more  comprehensive,  and  at the same time
  more specific, than the plural. Thus,  if  I  say,
  "The  horse  is a noble animal," without otherwise
  intimating that I speak of some particular  horse,
  the sentence will be understood to embrace collec-
  tively that species of  animal;  and  I  shall  be
  thought  to  mean, "Horses are noble animals." But
  if I say, "The horses are noble animals," I use an
  expression  so  much  more  limited, as to include
  only a few; it must mean some  particular  horses,
  which  I  distinguish  from  all  the  rest of the
  species. Such limitations should be made, whenever
  there  is occasion for them; but needless restric-
  tions displease the imagination, and ought  to  be
  avoided;  because  the  mind naturally delights in
  terms as comprehensive as they  may  be,  if  also
  specific.

Observe also that he wrote "the mind delights in..."

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 * Origin: *** nntp://fidonews.mine.nu *** Finland *** (2:221/6.0)

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