"The bigger, the better"

What is the function of "the" in these kinds of phrases? It cannot be the definite article.

Can someone analyze this? It's common and definitely standard but seems to elude any grammatical explanation.

Solution 1:

"Bigger" and "better" are the comparatives of adjectives, but simply juxtaposing them will confuse English speakers because they are going to look for a noun to take the modifiers: "a bigger better burger."

One workable locution separates the words with a copulative verb:

Bigger is better.

Now you've got an easy parse of Subect-Verb-Complement, and "bigger" will be understood to be a noun in the figurative sense of "state of being bigger" or "the bigger ones as a class."

Your example keeps the juxtaposition (sans verb) by marking the comparatives' nominal usages with the definite article as a determiner.

The bigger, the better.

This is a general idiomatic usage. If X and Y are adjectives, and C(x) and C(y) are their comparatives, then

The C(x), the C(y)

means

The C(x) one/ones is/are C(y) than C(~x) one/ones.

where ~x means the opposite of x. Let's try it with another example:

x = "small"
~x = "large"
C(x) = "smaller"
C(~x) = "larger
y = "fast"
C(y) = faster

The C(x), the C(y) <-> The smaller, the faster.

The C(x) ones are C(y) than C(~x) ones <-> The smaller ones are faster than the larger ones

The elisions implied by the idiom make it difficult to diagram the idiomatic sentence directly.

Solution 2:

When used against a comparative it is an adverb. Webster's Revised Unabridged 1913 Dictionary has this definition of The Word:

The, adv. [AS. \'ebē, \'eb\'df, instrumental case of sē, seó, \'ebæt, the definite article. See 2d The.] By that; by how much; by so much; on that account; -- used before comparatives; as, the longer we continue in sin, the more difficult it is to reform. Yet not the more cease I." Milton.

So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate. Milton.

In this case it seems to mean "[How much] bigger, [is by how much] better." It should probably be written "The bigger it is, the better it is." but then it would lose its potent brevity.

Solution 3:

(1) The in the bigger, the better not only can be, but is the definite article. There is no other the in English. However, there are many, many uses for the definite article, beside the one the textbooks mention. That's not a definition of the definite article; that's just one of its properties. Mostly articles do odd jobs in English; they don't have meanings or definitions -- they just have functions.

(2) The bigger, the better is an example of a Construction in English. It's a shortened version of

• The bigger it is, the better it is,

or possibly of

• The bigger you make it, the better I'll like it,

or something else along the same lines.

The point is that something has been left out, to be filled in by context and convention,
and if we're not there then, we'll never know what's missing.

The construction itself (it doesn't have a specific name, as far as I know -- there are thousands of these in English; probly "The bigger the better" construction is as good a name as any) has the form

• the comparative phrase or clause, the comparative phrase or clause

The comparatives themselves can be just about anything

• The smaller the Statue of Liberty seems to be, the farther away you are from it.

The meaning of the construction is to announce a continuous relation between two variables, each changing with the other. The change can be positive, like the bigger, the better, or negative, like the more freebies we give out, the less money we take in.

(3) The function of the in this construction is to mark that it's this construction and not a different one.