LessonsIndefiniteness, Specification and Definiteness of the PredicateQuiz

«رَأَيْتُ أُسُودًا غَابُهَا الرِّمَاحُ»
I saw lions whose forest was made of spears.

The verse uses «أَسْوَدَ» for lions and imagines spears as their forest. It appears in the discussion of how known descriptions and the hearer’s familiarity govern rhetorical expression.

The expression also involves figurative imagery, so it should not be flattened into an ordinary textbook subject-predicate clause. Its effect depends on what visual and descriptive material is assumed to be accessible to the audience and how the imagery supplies a further characteristic.

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A poetic illustration of known descriptive meaning

Indefiniteness, Specification and Definiteness of the Predicate

«رَأَيْتُ أُسُودًا غَابُهَا الرِّمَاحُ»
I saw lions whose forest was made of spears.

The verse uses «أَسْوَدَ» for lions and imagines spears as their forest. It appears in the discussion of how known descriptions and the hearer’s familiarity govern rhetorical expression.

The expression also involves figurative imagery, so it should not be flattened into an ordinary textbook subject-predicate clause. Its effect depends on what visual and descriptive material is assumed to be accessible to the audience and how the imagery supplies a further characteristic.