A speaker may already have made the referent perfectly clear and still add an attribute to honor that person. This is description for praise (madḥ).
جَاءَنِي زَيْدٌ الْعَالِمُ
Zayd the learned man came to me.
If the hearer already knows which Zayd is intended, «العالم» can foreground his learning as an admirable quality. But the same epithet could be used to distinguish two men named Zayd. Praise depends on communicative purpose, not an automatic property of every modifier.
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Description and Emphasis of the Subject: Rhetorical Purposes and Fine Distinctions
A speaker may already have made the referent perfectly clear and still add an attribute to honor that person. This is description for praise (madḥ).
جَاءَنِي زَيْدٌ الْعَالِمُ
Zayd the learned man came to me.
If the hearer already knows which Zayd is intended, «العالم» can foreground his learning as an admirable quality. But the same epithet could be used to distinguish two men named Zayd. Praise depends on communicative purpose, not an automatic property of every modifier.