Teacher Discussion Forums

I need a bit of help in explaining the 'it' in the following sentence.

In Marienplatz, she is excited to see the big clock with its life sized mechanical dolls on the New Town Hall.

I know 'its' refers to the clock and it means that it possess the dolls. If 'its' was taken out, it wouldn't change the meaning of the sentence, would it?

cheers

I guess the 'its' is just a "failsafe" back-up (as a 'with' alone might, though only might, be interpreted simply as 'and', i.e. the clock and dolls be seen as separate rather than as integrated things); then, the Marienplatz clock seems quite famous, so the 'its' is kind of serving as and/or making it sound a bit more like a "definite article", helping everthing cohere that bit more tightly as the famous clock with the/its life-sized dolls that we're talking about here.

Thanks fluffyhamster.