articles - "This essay was translated from the Chinese" — what does this "the" do?



Chen Guangcheng is a special student at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at the New York University School of Law. This essay was translated from the Chinese.



Why don't they write: "This essay was translated from Chinese"? (Omitting the "the" before "Chinese".)



Answer



The name of a language is sometimes preceded by the in this way, particularly in academic texts. It seems to be an ellipsed form of the Chinese orginal.


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