LessonsSupplementary Practice 17: Market Inspection, Evidential Scope, and Rhetorical PrecisionQuiz

وَجَدَ الْمُرَاقِبُ مِيزَانًا مَعِيبًا، ثُمَّ أَعَادَ فَحْصَ الْمِيزَانِ.
The inspector found a defective scale, then examined the scale again.

The first indefinite mīzānan introduces a new referent; the definite al-mīzān may then point back to that same referent through anaphoric definiteness (ʿahd dhikrī). The adjective maʿīban describes the newly introduced scale.

A second indefinite could allow another scale to be intended. Definiteness therefore shapes reference-tracking and information flow, not merely grammatical surface form.

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Indefinite introduction and anaphoric definiteness

Supplementary Practice 17: Market Inspection, Evidential Scope, and Rhetorical Precision

وَجَدَ الْمُرَاقِبُ مِيزَانًا مَعِيبًا، ثُمَّ أَعَادَ فَحْصَ الْمِيزَانِ.
The inspector found a defective scale, then examined the scale again.

The first indefinite mīzānan introduces a new referent; the definite al-mīzān may then point back to that same referent through anaphoric definiteness (ʿahd dhikrī). The adjective maʿīban describes the newly introduced scale.

A second indefinite could allow another scale to be intended. Definiteness therefore shapes reference-tracking and information flow, not merely grammatical surface form.