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Anonymous Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

Is This New Information Or Old Information?

You don't want her settling in, or even worse, falling in love, right? And there's also the chance you'll fall in love with her.

As far as I know, the subject in there constructions is supposed to be new information. But as you can see, that's not 'a chance' but 'the chance'. In this case, can I call the chance new information even 'the' is before chance? To me, this 'the' doesn't seem to be completely new information or totally old information, which I'm ambivalent about. It feels like it's quasi-new, quasi-old information. It seems like the speaker's introducing a (new) subject that the listener already knew in the back of his mind.

  

Top answer

anonymous In this case, can I call the chance new information even 'the' is before chance? Yes, I would say so.

  • anonymous In this case, can I call the chance new information even 'the' is before chance?
  • Yes, I would say so.
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3 Answers
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anonymous In this case, can I call the chance new information even 'the' is before chance?

Yes, I would say so.

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There's also the chance that ...

may be paraphrased as

You should also consider the possibility that ...

There is nothing to be gained by agonizing over whether that's new or old information.

While the there construction normally takes an indefinite noun phrase (a / an), it can also take a definite one (the). In the latter case, the m

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anonymousYou don't want her settling in, or even worse, falling in love, right? And there's also the chance you'll fall in love with her.

Isn't "the" for emphasis (spoken as "ði?") in that sentence?

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