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The following quotation is the sequel to the citation in

"But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a september evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy towards those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time."

1)The definite article of "the man" is used to personify all men who "arrive(s) there on a september evening...". It doesn't mean the concrete individual person. Is that right?

2)I don't understand the reason why the present tense was selected in the sentence of "...the man who ~ cries ooh!".

3)Does "the food stalls(definite article x Plural) imply all food stalls in the city?

4)What is the rhetorical function of putting "that time" on the very end of the text and of setting apart by the comma?

Thanks in advance

Andriy Lapin · Accepted Answer

Greetings,

aramahosi1)The definite article of "the man" is used to personify all men who "arrive(s) there on a september evening...". It doesn't mean the concrete individual person. Is that right?

- Right, such a use is known as generic reference;

aramahosi2)I don't understand the reason why the present tense was selected in the sentence of "...the man who ~ cries ooh!".

- I see it as an instance of habitual present, the verbs describing actions that happen habitually there at the time indicated in the narrative;

aramahosi3)Does "the food stalls(definite article x Plural) imply all food stalls in the city?

- I don't think the emphasis is placed on the total amount of food stalls, but rather on their location.

aramahosi4)What is the rhetorical function of putting "that time" on the very end of the text and of setting apart by the comma?

- The author clearly meant to highlight that part, and in my view, s/he thus intended to show a sharp contrast between the evenings people spent there in the past and the one the narrator is living through, implying that this evening is head and shoulders above those ones.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

Aramahosi · Answer

Thanks for the answer! I have more questions.

Gleb_ChebrikoffI don't think the emphasis is placed on the total amount of food stalls, but rather on their location.

1)What does "(the emphasis is placed) on their location" mean? I wonder why "food stalls" needed a definite article here although they aren't reffered in the previous text.

2)
Gleb_Chebrikoffthis evening is head and shoulders above those ones. I cannot grasp the meaning of the sentence. What's head and shoulders?

Andriy Lapin · Answer

Good evening,

the food stalls are apparently seen by the author as an attribute of that city, together with 'the lamps' and what not which form the city's atmosphere. Even if they haven't been mentioned before, the author may think of indirect anaphora, where the earlier noun is not repeated ('city', for instance), but an associated noun ('food stalls', that is) is used with 'the':

The Mercedes took a hard bounce from a pothole. 'Christ,' said Sherman, 'I didn't even see that.' He leaned forward over the steering wheel. The headlights shot across the concrete columns in a delirium.

The wheel and headlights are part of the Mercedes, exactly as the food stalls are part of the city, from the author's perspective.

Head and shoulders above means 'outstandingly superior to: "in intelligence he was head and shoulders above the others in his class"

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

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