Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

The passage below is the beginning of a story told by Joseph, who is from Kenya.

I�m going to tell you a lion story.

In northern Kenya, the lion is a symbol of bravery and pride. If you kill a lion, you are respected by everyone. It is every warrior�s dream to kill a lion. But at the time of this story, when I was about 14, I�d never come face to face with a lion.

I was at a cattle camp. That evening, after the cows got back from grazing, we sat together around the fire, sang songs, and told stories.
In the middle of the night, I woke to this very big sound－like rain, but the sound was not rain but all of the cows starting to pee. All of them, in every direction. And that is the sign of a lion. They don�t act that way around any other animal. Only the lion. Right then, a cow made a terrible sound, and we knew that the lion had it by the throat.

The latter half of the last sentence, above, is #1, below. I wonder if it should have been #2, below. What do you think?
1. �we knew that the lion had it by the throat.
2. �we knew that a lion had it by the throat.

[Bob S.]

The lion is correct. The lion was first mentioned in the sentence:
And that is the sign of a lion.
After that, we know there is a lion somewhere, so we use the article the.
_________________
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper

[fw]

Thank you for your reply, Bob S.

Bob S. wrote:
The lion is correct. The lion was first mentioned in the sentence:
And that is the sign of a lion.
After that, we know there is a lion somewhere, so we use the article the.

I think �And that is the sign of a lion. They don�t act that way around any other animal. Only the lion.� is a general statement and �a lion�, and even �the lion�, in the statement does not refer to a particular lion. Since no particular lion has been mentioned, I feel it should have been #2( �we knew that a lion had it by the throat.).

Am I wrong?

[Bob S.]