Huh, even when I was in school, people said "going to prom". Remember the line from Pretty in Pink: "What about prom, Blaine? What about prom?!" :D
Methinks those who drop the "the" are speaking as if "prom" a proper noun. As in: "Get burgers from McDonald's" instead of "Get burgers from THE McDonald's."
Of course, in British, you can say "we're going to hospital" and nobody bats an eyelash... even though they reportedly call that dance "the promS"... agh!
In usage terms, less formally, my feeling is that saying "the" implies that you have to use that otherwise-unspoken word "dance"...
So, to me at least, "We are going to homecoming." sounds just as good as "We are going to the homecoming dance." but both sound a LOT better than "We are going to the homecoming." (the homecoming what? dance? game?)
As for prom specifically... it's already short for "promenade", so I can imagine some generation even older than ours saying, "Kids today! They say they're going to 'the prom' when they're really going to 'promenade'! Fah!"
Anyway. The whole "The Prom" vs. "Prom" reminds me of similar discussions about highways -- would you say "take the 95" (west coast style) or just "take 95" (east coast style) when giving directions? Myself, being an easterner, I say "Take 14th Street"... but for landmarks, I swap it out: "Take the 14th Street bridge"... whee!
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-12 12:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-12 01:25 am (UTC)IANAL = I Am Not A Linguist
Date: 2006-04-12 10:34 pm (UTC)Methinks those who drop the "the" are speaking as if "prom" a proper noun. As in: "Get burgers from McDonald's" instead of "Get burgers from THE McDonald's."
Of course, in British, you can say "we're going to hospital" and nobody bats an eyelash... even though they reportedly call that dance "the promS"... agh!
In usage terms, less formally, my feeling is that saying "the" implies that you have to use that otherwise-unspoken word "dance"...
So, to me at least,
"We are going to homecoming."
sounds just as good as
"We are going to the homecoming dance."
but both sound a LOT better than
"We are going to the homecoming."
(the homecoming what? dance? game?)
As for prom specifically... it's already short for "promenade", so I can imagine some generation even older than ours saying, "Kids today! They say they're going to 'the prom' when they're really going to 'promenade'! Fah!"
Anyway. The whole "The Prom" vs. "Prom" reminds me of similar discussions about highways -- would you say "take the 95" (west coast style) or just "take 95" (east coast style) when giving directions? Myself, being an easterner, I say "Take 14th Street"... but for landmarks, I swap it out: "Take the 14th Street bridge"... whee!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-12 01:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-12 07:19 am (UTC)(see icon)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-12 04:51 pm (UTC)