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I'm about to submit my thesis, and to do so I have to translate the title of the thesis into English. My main concern is about the use of the. My title reads as follows:

On relations between sth1, sth2 and sth3.

Is it correct or should it be "On the relations between..."?

JSBձոգչ
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usage
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    I'd use the relationship(s) – Luke_0 Jul 30 '12 at 21:10
  • Could you explain why? – usage Jul 30 '12 at 21:14
  • For a title, would you begin with "On"? Or simply, "The relationships between..."? – MrWhite Jul 30 '12 at 21:52
  • Are you talking about all of the relations (or relationships) that exist between the three things, or just some of them? – The Photon Jul 30 '12 at 21:54
  • @w3d It is very common to begin scientific paper with "on". E.g., On the Origin of Species – Luke_0 Jul 30 '12 at 21:54
  • I think this is too localised. It's just a title, and it can include either or both of "on" and "the", according to the writer's preference. – FumbleFingers Jul 30 '12 at 21:55
  • Go with "the" between "On" and "relations". Probably in your thesis you just describe that relations. –  Jul 30 '12 at 21:57
  • @Luke: Good example, but I don't think "On Origin of Species" could possibly fly even if we weren't distracted by knowing the more famous one. On the other hand, OP's thesis could be titled "On Relationships between A, B, and C" - it doesn't need the word "the". – FumbleFingers Jul 30 '12 at 21:58
  • @usage Here's what I was looking for. http://english.stackexchange.com/q/15208/24168 This explains the difference between "relation" and "relationship". – Luke_0 Jul 30 '12 at 21:58
  • @Luke: Before I even go and look at that link, I'll say that so far as I'm concerned, "relations" and "relationships" can be considered equivalent in OP's context. ... okay, I've looked. In fact, they're probably always equivalent in the plural (except when relations=kin :) – FumbleFingers Jul 30 '12 at 22:00
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    @ FumbleFingers I would rather distinguish relations and relationships according to link provided by Luke. – usage Jul 30 '12 at 22:08
  • @ThePhoton I consider some of the relations. – usage Jul 30 '12 at 22:09
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    Relation can mean a number of different things in different contexts; it would help immensely if you mentioned the scientific field the dissertation is in, and the type of relation(s) you're talking about -- social, historical, causal, correlational, military, diplomatic, etc, etc. I also see no particular reason to keep sth1, sth2, and sth3 a secret. By the way, you want a comma after the next-to-last one in an series like that; otherwise it's potentially ambiguous. – John Lawler Jul 30 '12 at 22:11
  • @JohnLawler The field is mathematics. The aim of putting sth's instead of triangles, squares and circles was to avoid distraction. – usage Jul 30 '12 at 22:19
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    If you talk about "the relations between squares and circles", it implies you will describe all of the relations between them. If you just talk about "relations between squares and circles" or "certain relations between squares and circles" you can talk about just some of the relations, with no claim of completeness. – The Photon Jul 30 '12 at 23:16
  • @ThePhoton I think that simply adding "certain" will be the most obvious an yet the best solution and it also resolves the ambiguity problem mentioned by JohnLawler. Thanks. – usage Jul 30 '12 at 23:36
  • @usage: That should be "triangles, squares, and circles". Two commas; otherwise a parse like Relationsbetween (triangles, And (squares, circles)) instead of Relationsbetween (triangles, squares, circles) can't be avoided. – John Lawler Jul 30 '12 at 23:46
  • No, "certain" does not resolve the ambiguity to which John Lawler was referring to. Infact that ambiguity is related to the problem named "serial commas". –  Jul 30 '12 at 23:50
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    I think *certain* relations is a good idea (provided you use the commas correctly). It promises less and can deliver more. Plus you have a theme for the introduction, delimiting the scope of the study, which is very important. My dissertation was on English generic expressions, and when I realized I wasn't going to explain everything about them, I titled it Studies in English Generics. – John Lawler Jul 30 '12 at 23:53
  • @JohnLawler & Carlo_R. Yeah, you are both right. In my last comment I was thinking a bit ahead - that is about the problem with material covering which JohnLawler stated in his last comment. Thanks. – usage Jul 30 '12 at 23:57
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    @Carlo_R.: Using the serial (or Oxford) comma is the preferred style in the US; not having the comma is the preferred style in the UK; for other varieties of English I don't know. – Mitch Jul 31 '12 at 00:11
  • possible duplicate of Why don't we use the definite article before these examples? – James Waldby - jwpat7 Aug 04 '12 at 20:23

1 Answers1

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Both

On relations between ...

and

On the relations between ...

are equally good but with slightly different meanings. The first refers to some relations, not necessarily all, the second refers to all relations (possibly not the mathematical all, but at least all that are reasonably implied depending on context). The determiner 'the' really points to the exact set, and so all of them. Leaving the determiner out renders it a more vague reference.

Mitch
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