The Not So Definite Article

The use of the definite article in at least one local context ground to a halt late last month when East Hampton Town highway workers removed two “Welcome to the Springs” signs on Springs-Fireplace Road that had greeted drivers for almost three decades.

After a long firestorm of controversy, and against the express wishes of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee, the town, in conjunction with a county repaving project, will refurbish the roadside signs and amend their greeting to say, simply, “Welcome to Springs.”

In doing so, East Hampton has taken a precarious stand in a matter that’s pitted neighbor against neighbor. To some Springs residents, the “the” in “the Springs” — or, even more boldly, “The Springs” — signifies historic authenticity and respect for the traditional freshwater bubbles of Pussy’s Pond. Others dispute the authenticity of the “the,” or point out that it was officially dropped more than half a century ago. They might also add that, to some ears today, “the Springs” sounds more like pretentious real estate upscaling than the historic natural feature for which the hamlet was named.

Generally speaking, linguists acknowledge that geographical names can be problematic when it comes to the use or non-use of the word “the,” noting that the definite article is usually included in the names of rivers, seas and islands, like the Rhine, the North Sea and the Cayman Islands, and in other cases has been abandoned over time, as in what used to be called “the Ukraine.”

Certainly, it would be The Height of Foolishness to weigh in on a matter about which some people feel so strongly, and for which there seems not to be a definitive answer. Suffice it to say that there is something endearingly sweet about the love of place and the feeling of belonging and ownership that make people care so deeply about this issue — people on either side of the “the” divide.