Article use in English is very subtle.  It's not simply a distinction
between establishing a referent (indefinite) and established reference
(definite).  In this case it also involves knowledge of a domain, the
domain being "parade", and note that parade is indefinite.  Given what
we know about parades, we can assume that their sound is known or
inferred and therefore can take a definite article.  There's a lot more
to articles than this, but this addresses the immediate question.

Herb Stahlke


A student asks about the 'There is ... structure.'

"This structure is used when we introduce something new in 
the context, so 'there' is usually followed by a noun 
group which is not specified by the definite article or 
possessives.""

S: "This is what I learned in school."

See the following sentences from "Alice in Wonderland."

Alice came to a beautiful garden. She was just going to 
look at the flowers there closely, but suddenly a cry was 
heard, 'The Queen! The Queen!' There was the sound of a 
parade. When it was in front of Alice, they all stopped 
and looked at her, and the Queen said, 'Who is this?'

Why is the sentence 'There was THE sound of a parade' 
possible?

Would you please tell me why 'the' is used instead of 'a'?

Thank you

Peace,

David Brown

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