Unique nouns
A. Most nouns considered unique are used with the definite article the ( uniqueness
and the definite character being related),
e.g.: The Cosmos is the world regarded as an orderly, harmonious system.
The Milky Way is one of the many galaxies in the Universe.
The Earth turns round the Sun in 12 months; it has only one natural satellite -
the Moon.
The sky looks blue because of the atmosphere.
The Saviour says that the narrow way is the way that leads to life.
We all know that the human action on the environment has very often
deleterious effects.
Agriculture depends largely on the weather.
The oldest building in this village is the Town Hall.
The role of the Government is to rule with authority.
They shook hands with the Prime Minister.
Our delegates will meet you at the airport.
We shalll see you to the station.
the Town hall, the Government, the Prime Minister are unique in the town, respectively in the country; the station and the airport were initially unique in a town and the language has perserved the way of using them preceded by the definite article.
B. Some other unique nouns are never preceded by the definite article,
- parents and grandparents,
e.g.: Mother will scold you for what you have done.
I shall tell father that you've been naughty.
Grandmother and grandfather are coming for the weeekend.
- God, mankind, nature; society,
e.g.: The most godlike knowladge of God is that which is known by unknowing.
(St. Dionysius)
Many [beginners] want God's will to be what they want, and they are
upset at having to do God's will. (St. John of the Cross)
Since the day when the atomic bomb outshone the sun over Hiroshima,
mankind as a whole has had to live with the prospect of its extinction.
(Arthur Koestler)
No selection pressure arose in the prehistory of mankind to breed inhibitory
mechanisms preventing the killing of conspecifics. (Konrad Lorenz)
Nature abhors a vacuum. (Baruch Spinoza)
Science now begins to focus on the convergence of man and nature.
(Roger Sperry)
The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence
of all things and events.(Alan Watts)
Such people are a danger to society.
nature may be used with the definite article but then it means character or essential quality; essence,
e.g.: She muttered something in the nature of an apology.
His invitation was of the nature of a command.
It is in the nature of the birds to fly.
It depends on the nature of the case.
Philosophy is the search for the true nature of things.
being "unique", these nouns will not be used in the plural, with the exception of society and world which, due to their various degrees of generality, may be used as a Countable Nouns as well:
1) society with the narrowed sense of:companionship, company, social class ( = the
wealthy, fashionable persons), organized group of persons associated for religious,
benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
2) worlds preserving its meaning, i.e. any complex whole perceived as resembling the
universe, or restricting it to: any spfere, realm, or domain with all pertaining to it.
(Due to its various degrees of generaly, it may be used as a Countable Noun as well),
e.g.: A microcosm may be thought of as a world in minature.
The three worlds (or groupings) of physical nature - the animal world, the
mineral world and the vegetables world - are interrelated.
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