... through literature, the movie, TV, American soldiers ...

[guzhao67]

Hi there, thanks for coming to help me, I don't understand the usage of the definite article (the underlined one) in the following sentence:
In fact, the Americans have exported a large number of theirs words and phrases to Britain - through literature, the movies, TV, Americans soldiers during both world wars and tourists.
My question is: In this sentence, only "movies" is modified by a definite article, and the other enumerated things (literature TV ...) are all preceded by a "zero article" to indicate a general sense. "literature" and "TV" are abstract words and I understand the usage of "zero article" in such a case, but why does the author put a definite article before "movies" and use "zero article" before "soldiers" and "tourists"?
Thanks again and have a nice day.

[See post #3 for source information]

 

[jutfrank]

This is because 'the movies' is a special idiomatic phrase. If you were to replace this phrase with 'films', you would need a zero article—in fact it would be wrong with 'the', as it is wrong to put 'the' before 'literature', 'TV', and 'American soldiers'.

 

[Skrej]

Please state the source of this sentence. It is a forum requirement.

I have temporarily hidden a response until we get the source. Once you provide the source, I'll restore the response. We need the name of the book and the author who originally wrote what you're asking about.

 

[guzhao67]

Please state the source of this sentence. It is a forum requirement.

I have temporarily hidden a response until we get the source. Once you provide the source, I'll restore the response. We need the name of the book and the author who originally wrote what you're asking about.

Background to the USA, Richard Musman 1982, Published by The Macmillan Press LTD.
Unit 4 American English and British English(page12)

 

[Skrej]

Thank you. In the future, please include source information in the first post.

I have restored the response to your question.

 

[guzhao67]

This is because 'the movies' is a special idiomatic phrase. If you were to replace this phrase with 'films', you would need a zero article—in fact it would be wrong with 'the', as it is wrong to put 'the' before 'literature', 'TV', and 'American soldiers'.

Thank you very much, it's a great help.