On 28 Aug 2006 at 14:01, Andrew Stiller wrote: > Now, as to the names of pop groups headed by the leader's name. For > the past 50 years or so, these generally take the form "X and the Y." > There is no case in which that form would be incorrect. However, you > can, optionally, leave out the "the" if the group name is one, > singular noun or verb, together with any modifiers associated with > that word. This is especially appropriate if the group has or had an > independent existence separate from the current leader (as: Neil Young > and Crazy Horse). > > Now as to your group: You've got two nouns there, "A-NO-NE" and > "Trio," and that forces a "the." There is no logic to this, no > overwhelming syntactical reason why this must be the case; it's just, > as my father used to say, that "them's the conditions that prevail," > and if you don't put in "the" your name'll sound like translationese.
It's complelely logical if you break down the construction into noun and specifying adjective. It would be Hiro Honshuku and A-NO-NE" if the name of the group stood by itself (other examples would be "Eighth Blackbird" and "Alarm Will Sound"). But once "trio" is there, the definite article applies to the noun "trio" and A-NO-NE specifies which particular trio. Membership in the group is not really the distinguishing feature here, but whether or not the name stands by itself or is a modifier of a more generic term. If it were "Eight Blackbird Ensemble" (which it is not) then that would always have the definite article, regardless of whether one of its members got top billing for some reason (which would rather go against the grain of that group, so would never happen, I think). -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
