Why not use "a friend and a liberator of the old" but "a friend and liberator of the old"?

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Context:

We have a place, all of us, in a long story. A story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 3,123 • Replies: 25

[+3] - contrex - 01/22/2012[quote="hawkeye10"]Inquiring minds would like to know. [/quote] Rather, a trolling prick would like to know.

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

The two phrases have slightly different meanings.

1 Reply

@McTag,

Please continue, McTag.

0 Replies

@oristarA,

Here's the difference, Ori. The way the sentence stands, it means "a friend" of all and "a liberator of the old." If you take out the second indefinite article ("a") it changes the meaning. Now the person ebcomes "a friend" of the old only. By identifying him as "a liberator of the old", you're not taking away the posibility that he is a friend to more than just the old.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

ORIGINAL:

We have a place, all of us, in a long story. A story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

Quote:

LA writes: The way the sentence stands, it means "a friend" of all and "a liberator of the old." If you take out the second indefinite article ("a") it changes the meaning. Now the person ebcomes "a friend" of the old only. By identifying him as "a liberator of the old", you're not taking away the posibility that he is a friend to more than just the old.

I'm confused, Merry. The way the sentence stands, was written, there is no second indefinite article.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Good catch, JTT. I got it backwards. It's Oristar who is asking why not put a second indefinite article in there. Apparently the meaning is intended to be that this abstract personification -- "the world" -- is a friend of the old (not necessarily of anyone else)as well as a liberator of the old. If you put in that second article ("a"), you're implying that "the world" is a friend to all but a liberator specifically of the old. And that's not the intent of the writer.

Better?

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@Lustig Andrei,

better, no not at all, Merry. I must admit that I'm now more confused, on more grounds.

Putting aside for the moment that it is all a lie of the first order, I think that we've got to get the facts straight before we can toss about ideas on the meaning.

As I see it,

We have a place, all of us, in a long story. A story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world [the US] that became a friend and liberator of the old [world, ie. Europe], a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

1 Reply

@JTT,

I'm sorry, JTT. I was trying to help Oristar understand the difference between "a friend and benefactor of the old"and "a friend and a benefactor of the old," not political theory, not polemics, not yor particular brand of horseshit. If you feel you can help explain the grammatical structure of the two phrases in better terms, please be my guest.. But if you want to just take up space with your particular brand of propaganda, I'm outta here.

Oh, and please don't bother replying. I automatically collapse at least 75 percent of your posts anyway.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

I was trying to help Oristar understand the difference between "a friend and benefactor of the old"and "a friend and a benefactor of the old,"

How might you have been doing that, Merry, when you couldn't even understand the sentence in question?

Do you disagree with the words I added? Do you believe that I'm mistaken in describing the situation accurately? If so, simply say so.

You are simply scared shitless for a number of reasons, so, once again, you take Merry Andrew's patented, coward's way out.

0 Replies

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

Good catch, JTT. I got it backwards. It's Oristar who is asking why not put a second indefinite article in there. Apparently the meaning is intended to be that this abstract personification -- "the world" -- is a friend of the old (not necessarily of anyone else)as well as a liberator of the old. If you put in that second article ("a"), you're implying that "the world" is a friend to all but a liberator specifically of the old. And that's not the intent of the writer.

Got it!

Thank you.

BTW, why not use "the story of a slave-holding society" but " a story of a slave-holding society"?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

BTW, why not use "the story of a slave-holding society" but " a story of a slave-holding society"?

Beacuse there were -- and are -- other slave-holding societies and other stories about them. The writer makes it clear that the reference is to one specific such society and that this is just one such story .

1 Reply

I was wondering what you oristar A intend to do with your english language skills that you are learning here.....would you care to clue us in? Is this part of a program for you getting ready to be part of the rebuilding of Chinese Empire, to the point of over-running America? Inquiring minds would like to know.

2 Replies

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

oristarA wrote:

BTW, why not use "the story of a slave-holding society" but " a story of a slave-holding society"?

Beacuse there were -- and are -- other slave-holding societies and other stories about them. The writer makes it clear that the reference is to one specific such society and that this is just one such story .

How cool is such accuracy.

0 Replies

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

I was wondering what you oristar A intend to do with your english language skills that you are learning here.....would you care to clue us in? Is this part of a program for you getting ready to be part of the rebuilding of Chinese Empire, to the point of over-running America? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Where you from, Hawkeye?

American Dream is shared by all who's created equal in God's image. Freedom and Democracy are what I love, and English language is a tool that helps to sharpen/deepen my faith on them.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Rather, a trolling prick would like to know.

0 Replies

@oristarA,

Quote:

Where you from, Hawkeye?

Rockford, IL

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
Where you from, Hawkeye?

Rockford, IL

Cool.
Do you know the name of the bridge in the pic below?

http://www.rockfordilrealestate.org/images/rockford.jpg

1 Reply

@oristarA,

That is the Jefferson St Bridge....just to the other side of it on the opposite side of the river is the Riverview Ice House, where I once watched the Figure skater Janet Lynn skate, though her training rink was up at the Wagon Wheel Resort in Rockton, where my best friend worked one summer driving the little train....this of course being before most of the place burned down. Is there any other Rockford trivia that I can help you with?

2 Replies

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

That is the Jefferson St Bridge....just to the other side of it on the opposite side of the river is the Riverview Ice House, where I once watched the Figure skater Janet Lynn skate, though her training rink was up at the Wagon Wheel Resort in Rockton, where my best friend worked one summer driving the little train....this of course being before most of the place burned down. Is there any other Rockford trivia that I can help you with?

It's the Chinese New Year's Eve here. So what I want to see is those splendid landscape of your city if you'd like to post them (or some links) here. The Google photo search result about it sucks .
By the way, is it snowing there?

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Is there any other Rockford trivia that I can help you with?

Is there any other Rockford trivia?

0 Replies

Why not use "a friend and a liberator of the old" but "a friend and liberator of the old"?

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