Is it the definite article?

So, to reiterate, when it comes to when to use the “the”, the only universal rule is this:

Some rules (such as the two you’ve given) might hold 95%+ of the time, but unfortunately there may be weird and arbitrary exceptions that you’ll just have to learn.

Source: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/365074/the-use-of-the-definite-article-with-the-names-of-museums-art-galleries-etc/365083#365083

Is it capitalization?

Because a cursory look at the Wikipedia page for capitalization also reveals that it is not without its quirks.

For example:

planets and other celestial bodies: “Jupiter”, “the Crab Nebula”; and “the Earth”, “the Sun”, or “the Moon” should be capitalized according to the International Astronomical Union based on its manual of style, but style guides may suggest differently.[19]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization_in_English

Is it the fact the way something is written almost has no bearing on how it’s pronounced?

Please tell me your thoughts.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@slrpnk.net
    4·
    3 days ago

    Per formal linguistics, it’s “respectively”.

    Like: Bob, Alicia, and Siobhan are a teacher, plumber, and electrician, respectively.

    We know this means Bob is a teacher and Siobhan is an electrician, but trying to write rules for how English works that account for this usage is thorny.

    • Dookieman12@piefed.socialEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      Let me try writing a rule for it.

      “Given two lists, the word “respectively” indicates the n-th item in each list corresponds to the n-th item in the other list.”

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      3 days ago

      German has this too, “beziehungsweise”, but it replaces the “and” instead of being added to it. It is common enough that it’s usually abbreviated “bzw.”.

    • loppy@fedia.io
      1·
      3 days ago

      I don’t understand what the issue is/could be. “Respectively” is clearly functioning syntactically as an adverb, and the sentence “Bob, Alicia, and Siobhan are a teacher, plumber, and electrician” without the “respectively” is a valid sentence where its two noun phrases happen to be conjunctions of other nouns.

      A sentence like “Bob, Alicia, and Siobhan are a teacher, plumber, electrician, and astronaut, respectively” is equally valid syntactically, it’s just invalid semantically.