Sunday, February 7, 2016

definite articles - quote from the TV show Terra Nova



Here's the scene.
Two teens are sitting at a bank of a river and cutting some cretaceous fruits for moonshine.




The guy: What is this? (meaning the thing he's cutting the fruits with)
The girl: It's the barb from slasher tail.




slasher is a nickname for a kind of dinosaur.




Why does she say the barb not a barb?Clearly from the conversation, it's never been mentioned before, no shared knowledge, no implication, nothing. She uses the. Why?


Answer



It should be a barb



If there is only ONE barb on a slasher's tail the barb would be correct.
Since there seem to be more, then it could be a misprint in the dialogue or the actor said her line wrong.




Male Slashers have sharp barbs on the end of their tails which can slice open human flesh




No comments:

Post a Comment