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Feedback loops between poverty and illness put a strain on public healthcare systems.

The feedback loops between poverty and illness put a strain on public healthcare systems.

I would like to know if "the" has to be used or not at the beginning of the sentence, and why. What is more idiomatic? I have been giving it some thought and I am lost because I see using it and not using it as possible.

My reasoning: On the one hand, this is a general statement so no "the" is needed. On the other hand, this refers to a specific type of feedback loops (those between poverty and illness) so maybe "the" is needed...

skifls
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    Why restrict yourself to *feedback loops? There's no reason why public healthcare systems* shouldn't have an article. See this NGram showing that *transportation systems* are about equally likely to have an article or not - and I'm sure it's always *the same systems, so "context" doesn't really make much difference with this particular stylistic choice*. – FumbleFingers Mar 11 '23 at 12:09
  • @FumbleFingers Not the blessed ngrams again. You cannot use an ngram to compare two things that are both correct but contextually different. Well, you can, but it means absolutely nothing except that the context where one is correct occurs in language more often that the context where the other is correct. It's like saying the word 'zebra' is wrong because you don't hear it as often as the word 'dog'. – Astralbee Mar 11 '23 at 14:22
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    Voting to close as there are countless questions about 'definite article vs zero article' but not many have accepted answers because nobody ever seems to believe us native speakers. This one does have an answer, and while the word choice is different, the principle is the same: definite article or zero article? – Astralbee Mar 11 '23 at 14:24
  • @Astralbee: You really don't like my use of NGrams, do you? Note that I explicitly pointed out in my first comment that "[the] transportation systems" are *always the same systems. If you don't agree with that assertion, how about some reasoned argument (maybe even backed up with examples) as to why those transportation systems that get referenced with* the article are somehow "different" to [the same] systems *without* the article? – FumbleFingers Mar 11 '23 at 14:30

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With a plural, we use "the" to indicate some specific set.

For example, suppose I said, "Some of the boys in our school are very tall. Tall boys are good basketball players." Because I didn't use "the" in front of "tall boys", I mean that all tall boys are good basketball players. (Not literally true of course but I'm just trying to make an example.) So I'm saying that as some of the boys in our school are tall, and tall boys are good basketball players, that these boys must be good basketball players.

But suppose instead I said, "Some of the boys in our school are very tall. The tall boys are good basketball players." By using "the", I am limiting the meaning to some specific tall boys. In context, the tall boys in our school. So in this case I am not saying that all tall boys are good basketball players, but only that the tall boys in our school are good basketball players. Other tall boys may or may not be good basketball players.

In your example, without more context I can't say which meaning is meant. Does the writer mean to say that some specific feedback loops that he is talking about in context cause this strain? Or does he mean that any feedback loop causes this strain?

In some cases the meaning may not really be changed. If in context he was talking about all feedback loops, then whether he says "feedback loops" in general or "the feedback loops" specifically, he's still talking about all feedback loops.

Jay
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    Your last statement is correct. Yes, one could justify "the" as restricting the set to only those between poverty and illness, etc. It occurs to me that if he had talked about other kinds of feedback loops, like feedback loops between poverty and crime or some such, then saying "the" here would be appropriate to emphasize that he has talking about the feedback loops between poverty and illness and not other feedback loops. – Jay Mar 11 '23 at 23:33
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    In that case either would be correct and they would mean the same thing. I would probably use "the" to emphasize that I am talking about these particular feedback loops, but fluent speakers might go either way. – Jay Mar 12 '23 at 16:54