أَجْمَعَ أَهْلُ الْحَقِّ عَلَى كَذَا
The people of truth agreed on this.
حَضَرَ أُمَرَاءُ الْجُنْدِ
The commanders of the army attended.
Annexation can identify a group without separately enumerating all its members, as in “the people of truth.” This is useful when individual naming is impossible or beside the point.
A collective expression such as “the commanders of the army” may also avoid suggesting precedence or superiority by naming some members before others.
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Al-Ta‘rif wa al-Tankir: Rhetorical Functions of Definiteness and Indefiniteness
أَجْمَعَ أَهْلُ الْحَقِّ عَلَى كَذَا
The people of truth agreed on this.
حَضَرَ أُمَرَاءُ الْجُنْدِ
The commanders of the army attended.
Annexation can identify a group without separately enumerating all its members, as in “the people of truth.” This is useful when individual naming is impossible or beside the point.
A collective expression such as “the commanders of the army” may also avoid suggesting precedence or superiority by naming some members before others.