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Definite article in 'of phrases'

English Language & Usage Asked by Zheng Li on December 20, 2020

I feel it is very confusing when I see sentences such as this one in papers published in prestigious scientific journals (written by native speakers):

35S:ZPR2-GFP plants often showed termination of meristem activity and the formation of a pin-like structure.

Someone please tell me why there is no ‘the’ before ‘termination’ while there is a ‘the’ before ‘formation’?

Here are two more similar sentences that I noticed in another paper:

  1. Formation of mature GCs in rice requires the stomatal maturation bHLH OsFAMA.
  2. Here, we identify a locus responsible for the formation of SCs in Brachypodium.

I really don’t know why the definite article ‘the’ only appears in the second sentence (before ‘formation’) but not in the first one (at the beginning).

One Answer

My guess is that it first came from how scientists wrote their notes of ongoing experiments. Most likely they used a telegraphic notation, as these were just lab notes, where certain articles just disappeared; and this eventually seeped into scientific language.

edit

@Zheng Li: Why not, people aren't always consistent about how they wrote. Take the above, I almost wrote 'scientific language proper'; and this is not correct English, but it is used in scientific English. It's possible to think of scientific English as an argot smuggled into proper English.

Answered by Mozibur Ullah on December 20, 2020

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