Hello again, dear reader. My previous post proved perspicacious: I have indeed been rather busy of late, mostly with the new day job – about which I will soon write more – but also with occasionally contributing to the Spectator's Culture House blog. Like a preacher who by day rails against every sin under the sun then by night smokes crack with rent boys, so I murder everyone else's darlings in a professional capacity then spawn a surfeit of my own for fun.
Anyway, I forget how the conversation started, but a pal and I the other day were pondering which countries officially prefix their names with the definite article. I Googled this, and the answer is that there are only two: The Gambia and The Bahamas. (Later, at work, I and a couple of our writers agonised over whether 'Maldives' should take an informal 'the'; opinion was divided, but the majority thought it should.)
The BBC article that answered our question also turned up this interesting quote, which I thought I'd share with you. You can consider it an early example of hard nominative determinism.
One day, a disciple asked Confucius: "If a king were to entrust you with a territory which you could govern according to your ideas, what would you do first?"
Confucius replied: "My first task would certainly be to rectify the names."
The puzzled disciple asked: "Rectify the names? Is this a joke?"
Confucius replied: "If the names are not correct, if they do not match realities, language has no object. If language is without an object, action becomes impossible – and therefore all human affairs disintegrate and their management becomes pointless and impossible. Hence, the very first task of a true statesman is to rectify the names."
