If I were to talk about “the Queen”, devoid of context, in the U.S., would it be assumed I was talking about Elizabeth II? I suppose for every country that has monarchy it would be assumed i’d be talking about theirs, but i’d be interested to know what the assumption would be over there. Not sure if this is really a GQ though.
As another question, when the news/newspapers mentions our Queen, do they normally specify her or do they just leave it as “the Queen” and assume people will know which one?
With people just talking, you can say “the Queen” and have a 90-something percent certainty that they will assume it’s Elizabeth. There’s a few pedants and numbnuts out there who keep it from being closer to 100%.
In formal use (and in the media, as well…BA-DA-BOOM!), though, you’d most certainly have to be more descriptive, “England’s Queen Elizabeth”, etc.
But the OP did say devoid of context, so I may fall into the numbnuts group if you just come out of the blue and said the queen killed a worker, especially if we’re studying the gathering characteristics of ant colonies at the time. But, I imagine that’s a type of context, too. Maybe, well, what would be an occasion where something’s completely devoid of context? It doesn’t take a lot to figure out you mean the Queen of England. Maybe the complete lack of all other context would be an implied context leading toward The Queen.
The Queen = The Queen is likely Elizabeth,but we do have other queens show up. The phrase the Queen would refer to the Queen of Norway if she was currently in the news and not Elizabeth. The Queen of Norway is in our local papers sometimes. The Kensington Rune Stone, is believed authentic by her. She was at the dedication of a Norwegian building in New World Wisconsin once.
I suppose somebody may also think the Queen to refer to Queen Latifah. Queen Latifah
Yes. I suspect that there is a large proportion of Americans who are not aware that there are any other queens extant.
In news articles, American newspapers will generally use “Queen Elizabeth II” on first reference. On subsequent references, they might say “the Queen” or “Elizabeth.”
I think even the people in the remote backwaters of the U.S. would assume that it is Elizabeth II. The U.S. isn’t generally known for knowledge of foreign affairs but UK royalty does get a lot of press even in supermarket trash tabloids. I don’t think it has much to do with alli status. People in the U.S. have maybe a 15% chance at most for naming the Prime Minister of Canada and we are fairly close to being the same country. Naming the Prime Minister or whatever it is of Australia would only make it up to 3% at most. I can’t do either myself and I read a lot.
Since we’re speculating, I think you singled out the wrong group-- they’re the ones who would reliable think of Elizabeth first. It’s the more well traveled and cosmopolitan people who are likely to know that there are other Queens out there, or who would try to be pedantic about it.
When you say The Queen, it’s going to be Elizabeth. If you said A Queen died today, it might not be so obvious, and might actually make people think it was someone other than Elizabeth.
I’d assume some low level functionary had spilled tea all over Elizabeth, and she responded with her super secret SAS training to shove his nose into his brain.