Definite article usage from exercise

Question

I'm learning articles and doing some exercises.

Here are my problem sentences:

A: What is a "capital city"?

B: Well, a "capital city" is the political center of a country.

My question is about 'the' in the second sentence. I'm don't see here any 'definiteness' of the center. From my point of view it is as indefinite as the country and city words.

A center is unique. A circle can have only one center: that's part of the very definition (and utility) of the concept center. By analogy, "the political center" of a country lies at the very heart of that country's power structure. Washington, D.C. is the political center of the United States. New York City is its financial center. L.A. is its (shudder) cultural center. And so on. — , Aug 20 '14 at 22:24
@Dan LA is a cultural centre? Presumably you mean in the same sense as a bowl of yoghurt is a cultural centre? — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Aug 20 '14 at 22:27
But the capital is unique too. I don't see here any differences. — , Aug 20 '14 at 22:29
@Janus, I wish SE had a comment hall of fame, just so I could put that in it. — , Aug 20 '14 at 22:30
@Nosturion The capital city of a country is unique. The notion of a city being capital is not unique—note how it says “capital city” in quotes. It's talking about the concept of a capital city (not of any specific country, but in general). It could just as well have said, “What is a ‘political centre’?” A capital city is a political centre. The capital city of the US is the political centre of the US. That means it's also a political centre. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Aug 20 '14 at 22:33
Another way to put it: in the US, there is only one city with the political clout of Washington, D.C., and that's Washington, D.C. There is no other city in the US with the political clout of Washington D.C.. In that way, Washington D.C. is unique. Therefore, Washington is *the political center* of the United States — , Aug 20 '14 at 22:40
@JanusBahsJacquet: You might not like the culture (or yogurt, for that matter), but yes, L.A. is a center of western culture - bordering on world culture. It has been so, and increasingly so, for more than 60 years. Yes, that is only a historical instant. (And who knows how long it will continue?) But the transformative effect in that short time has been extraordinary. Any of us might choose to say Alas! (ou Helas !), but 'tis a fact of life. Fini, la Belle Epoque. (Or at least it seems to be taking a timeout.) — Drew, Aug 21 '14 at 01:31
@DanBron: No, a center is not unique. If it were, it would be the center. The center of a particular circle or sphere is unique. Like a maximum or a minimum, a center can be relative. Put differently if you prefer, different spheres can have different centers. Everything is not concentric. And yes, I know you realize this, precisely because of the examples you gave - of different things with different centers. — Drew, Aug 21 '14 at 01:36
For each country, there is one, unique political center. So we use the when the context is a single country, because it's unique in that context. So London is a capital city, but it's the capital city of England. — Barmar, Aug 21 '14 at 04:20
How about a country where the capital is not the political centre? Like, the government, parliament etc, are in City A, but the capital is city B? — oerkelens, Aug 21 '14 at 10:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 21 '14 at 04:26

We use the definite article the when we're referring to something specific or unique. While there are many political centers in general because there are many countries, the prepositional phrase of a country sets the context to being a single, although unspecified, country. For that country there's only one political center, so we use the rather than a.

As another example, we could say:

A nose is the organ in the center of a face.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:55

By using the instead of a, we can readily see that, in general, countries only have one* capital city.

Note that the definite article (i.e., the word "the") has several uses outside of "definiteness". Using "the" instead of "a" can indicate uniqueness, generalization, sufficiency, or members of a group. (I wrote more about this in my answer here.)

*Bolivia is sometimes said to be a noted exception, though some say that would be erroneous. (Nonetheless, this conversation is about grammar, not geography.)

Definite article usage from exercise

2 Answers2