NAMES OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHICAL PLACES AND ARTICLES USED WITH THEM NAMES OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHICAL PLACES AND ARTICLES USED WITH THEM

of the The analysis of the historical


Introduction
Generally, the functioning of articles in the English language is far from being clear. As for geographical names, the rules for the use of articles with these lexemes have been summarized and are easy to be found in any book on English grammar. Nevertheless, the use of articles with historical geographical place names is the area which has not been covered yet. Due to the large amount of the gathered material, we were bound to concentrate only on two historical periods -prehistoric and ancient times.

Various approaches to the use of articles with geographical names
Studying the essential prescriptive grammars of the English language we have found the following information: The Heinemann ELT English Grammar (1998, p. 172) suggests the zero article for the following geographical names: continents (Africa); countries, states, departments (England, California, Hampshire); cities, towns, villages (Sydney, Bilbao); individual islands (Crete); lakes (Lake Geneva); individual mountains (Mount Fuji) and streets (Oxford Street). However, the definite article is introduced for: countries and states when they include a countable noun (the Federal Republic of Germany); plural place names (the West Indies) and for names such as the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Far East, the Costa Brava.
The definite article is to be used with the names of oceans, seas (the Pacific); rivers (the Mississippi); canals (the Panama Canal); deserts (the Sahara); island groups (the Canaries); hotels, cinemas (the Plaza Hotel, the Cannon Cinema); museums, clubs (the Prado Museum, the Black Cat Club) and restaurants, pubs (the Hard Rock Café).
Names of hotels, restaurants named after the people who started them + the possessive's (Marcy's Hotel) and churches named after saints + the possessive's (St Peter's Church) represent the exceptions to the above mentioned rule.
According to Murphy (1989, p. 148), the definite article is obligatory also in these instances: mountain ranges (the Rocky Mountains, the Rockies); galleries (the National Gallery); bridges (the Golden Gate Bridge) and cardinal points (the north of Mexico).
Moreover, articles are not applied in the following geographical names: roads, squares, parks (North Road, Time Square, Central Park) and names of important buildings and institutions when the first word is the name of a person or a place (Lincoln Centre). Eastwood (1994, p. 210) introduces the definite article in these cases: the Gambia, the Ukraine, the Matterhorn, the Eiger, the Hague, the Bronx, the Mall, the Strand and also for the names of by-passes, motorways (the York by-pass, the M6). The definite article is not placed before the names of most bridges (Westminster Bridge). If the name is premodified by an adjective, the definite article is to be used (the Royal Opera House).

The use of articles with the analysed geographical names and related issues
The table below aims to present the list of geographical names and related issues covering two historical periods -prehistoric and ancient times as found in the following books: The Concise History Encyclopaedia and The Western Experience. Articles with individual geographical names and related issues, as they occurred in the analysed texts, have been included, as well. The geographical names are classified according to their reference in the given books. The rule that the definite article is used with countries when they include a countable noun applies according to our analysis to the names of empires and kingdoms, as well (the Assyrian Empire, the Akkadian kingdom). When the name of an empire or kingdom does not contain a common noun, the zero article is suggested (Sumer, Upper Egypt). The indefinite article is used only in constructions like to become an Athenian empire, a Persian empire. The use of articles with the names of historical states is based on the above mentioned general principles (the Chaldean state, Han China).

Empires
As for the names of cities, towns, and villages, all the analysed lexemes are combined with the zero article, except for the names with of-construction (Uruk, the city of Ebla, the town of Sheckem, the polis of Thebes, the village of Plataea).
The articles preceding the names of valleys (the Indus Valley), mountain ranges (the Taurus Mountains), mountains and hills (Sinai), rivers (the Euphrates), seas (the Aegean) and continents (central Africa) correspond with the generally prescribed rules; the only exception is the Pnyx (mountain).
Concerning the names of deltas, only one instance was found, namely the Mekong delta with the definite article.
Several instances of important buildings and monuments occurred, all with the definite article (the Acropolis, the Wailing Wall, the Great Pyramid, the Tower of Babel).
The names denoting regions are determined in two ways, either with the definite article (the Near East, the Delta, the Levant), or with the zero article (Asia Minor, Nubia, Anatolia). The use of the definite article with the of-construction is obvious (the region of Ionia, the territory of Messenia). It may be assumed that certain geographical names of regions (similarly to the names of moun-tains) penetrate into English in their original form i.e. with the article or not, e.g. Asia Minor taken from Latin.
Based on the general rule the definite article is applied with the names of nationalities and tribes if they refer to nations (or tribes) as a whole (the Semites, the Mesopotamians, the Aztecs). Only two instances with the zero article (not referring to the whole nation) occurred (modern Jews, Celtic peoples known as Gauls).
Concerning the names of peninsulas they are used with the definite article in all the found instances (the Sinai Peninsula, the Peloponnnese). When being a part of the of-construction the names of islands are combined entirely with the definite article (the island of Salamis, the island of Sicily).
The use of articles with other found geographical names of coastline and deserts is based on the general rule, i.e. the definite article is applied (the Atlantis seaboard, the Dardanelles, the coast of Attica, the Judaean desert). The following three non-classified geographical names are accompanied with the definite article (the Asia-North America land bridge, the Indian subcontinent, the Silk Road).

Conclusions
The analysis of the gathered material shows that general rules for the use of articles with geographical place names are applicable to the names of historical (some of them not existing any more) geographical places, as well. Our aim is to continue in this field of research focusing on further periods of human history, namely the Middle Ages and the New Age in order to cover the use of articles with remaining historical place names.