The tiny octagons
From The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett:
Wizards, even failed wizards, have in addition to rods and cones in their eyeballs the tiny octagons that enable them to see into the far octarine, the basic colour of which all other colours are merely pale shadows impinging on normal four-dimensional space. It is said to be a sort of fluorescent greenish-yellow purple.
Could you explain why there is "the" in front of "tiny octagons"? They have never been mentioned before, for instance.
Top answer
Lerethel Could you explain why there is "the" in front of "tiny octagons"? It's because the defining clause which follows 'tiny octagons' says which tiny octagons are being referenced, in other words ' those tiny octagons that enable them to ... ' (and not any other tiny octagons).
- Lerethel Could you explain why there is "the" in front of "tiny octagons"?
- It's because the defining clause which follows 'tiny octagons' says which tiny octagons are being referenced, in other words ' those tiny octagons that enable them to ...
- ' (and not any other tiny octagons).
- 'the' frequently occurs in this pattern.
- It doesn't matter whether the noun has been mentioned before or not.
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LerethelCould you explain why there is "the" in front of "tiny octagons"?
It's because the defining clause which follows 'tiny octagons' says which tiny octagons are being referenced, in other words 'those tiny octagons that enable them to ...' (and not any other tiny octagons).
'the' frequently occurs in this pattern. It doesn't
0It's funny how much import the little words can convey, especially articles. It is equally funny how hard it is for a native speaker to say just what that import is, even though it seems obvious when we first go to frame an answer.
If Pratchett had said merely "tiny octagons", the sentence would have been about them. With "the", the sentence is about the color octarine.
0
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