[Colette lights up. It's not often she gets consulted on battle techniques; not that anyone's ever doubted her ability to defend herself. She still isn't one of the warriors.]
Of course! It's all in the balance. It's like throwing a frisbee for a puppy -- a really good frisbee-thrower will know exactly how high and far to throw it depending on the size and age of the dog. And you need to know when and how you use your hips, or the frisbee won't go as far, or be nearly as controlled.
[Lloyd, meanwhile, is concentrating hard on the slate, mouthing to himself.]
Okay. So adverbials are the style of a technique -- like how Uncle Yuan's sword is really different from mine, so he has to use different patterns. But then what are the the ... z? Things? They're just kind of ... there.
[Kratos pauses for a moment. Lloyd's right, of course, for all that those words are part of the sentence, it's easy to skip over them. It says well of Lloyd that he does notice they were left out.]
When you're in the village, is there anything which is 'just there'? Something which has always been there, so you no longer notice it?
Uh ... yeah, probably.
That's what those are. They're called 'determiners'. You can write that down with the others.
[Lloyd does that, then looks expectantly up at Kratos. The expression puts an abrupt and fierce tightness in Kratos's chest; it takes away the breath he intended to use for his explanation, so it comes slightly delayed.]
Think of them as the buildings in your village; they provide structure and layout to the village, but when you are accustomed to them, they are merely part of the scenery. There are a great many kinds of determiners, and they all work in different ways. These ones are the most common, and are necessary to the construction of a sentence, just like some buildings are necessary to the autonomy of a village.
[Lloyd scribbles a note to add to the others flanking the terms. 'Buildings' joins 'Frank', 'choice', 'clothes', 'villagers', 'titles' and 'craftmanship'.]
exactly
Of course! It's all in the balance. It's like throwing a frisbee for a puppy -- a really good frisbee-thrower will know exactly how high and far to throw it depending on the size and age of the dog. And you need to know when and how you use your hips, or the frisbee won't go as far, or be nearly as controlled.
[Lloyd, meanwhile, is concentrating hard on the slate, mouthing to himself.]
Okay. So adverbials are the style of a technique -- like how Uncle Yuan's sword is really different from mine, so he has to use different patterns. But then what are the the ... z? Things? They're just kind of ... there.
[Kratos pauses for a moment. Lloyd's right, of course, for all that those words are part of the sentence, it's easy to skip over them. It says well of Lloyd that he does notice they were left out.]
When you're in the village, is there anything which is 'just there'? Something which has always been there, so you no longer notice it?
Uh ... yeah, probably.
That's what those are. They're called 'determiners'. You can write that down with the others.
[Lloyd does that, then looks expectantly up at Kratos. The expression puts an abrupt and fierce tightness in Kratos's chest; it takes away the breath he intended to use for his explanation, so it comes slightly delayed.]
Think of them as the buildings in your village; they provide structure and layout to the village, but when you are accustomed to them, they are merely part of the scenery. There are a great many kinds of determiners, and they all work in different ways. These ones are the most common, and are necessary to the construction of a sentence, just like some buildings are necessary to the autonomy of a village.
[Lloyd scribbles a note to add to the others flanking the terms. 'Buildings' joins 'Frank', 'choice', 'clothes', 'villagers', 'titles' and 'craftmanship'.]
Okay. What kind of buildings are they?