nervousness coming in where Angus just wanted to get on with it.

[Vladv1]

"Counting to 10 before speaking, Ian took Brian upstairs to meet the band. ‘He was smoking when he came in, which went down well with the brothers, who introduced themselves. And then he realised who they were. They sat around chatting and you could see that nervousness coming in where Angus just wanted to get on with it."
Mick Wall "Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be"

Could you please reword the bolded? The context-Brian Jonson comes for a rehersal for a potential place as the AC DC singer, Angus being the legendary AC DC guitarist.

 

[jutfrank]

Brian was nervous and so was probably delaying things a little. Angus wanted to get on with it.

 

[Vladv1]

Brian was nervous and so was probably delaying things a little. Angus wanted to get on with it.

Is "that" a demosntrative" here? Like "this, that" , if so, what is its function in the context?

 

[emsr2d2]

Is "that" a demonstrative" here, like "this, that"? If so, what is its function in the context?

Are you talking about "... you could see that nervousness coming in"? If so, it appears to refer to an earlier mention of nervousness. That's indicated by "Counting to ten before speaking". It suggests that he had to take a deep breath and count to ten before he spoke, due to his being nervous.

 

[Vladv1]

Are you talking about "... you could see that nervousness coming in"? If so, it appears to refer to an earlier mention of nervousness. That's indicated by "Counting to ten before speaking". It suggests that he had to take a deep breath and count to ten before he spoke, due to his being nervous.

It was not Brian who was couting to ten, but the manager. So they are talking about different kinds of nervousness.

 

[jutfrank]

Is "that" a demosntrative" here? Like "this, that" , if so, what is its function in the context?

It's a determiner, determining nervousness, and yes, it's demonstrative.

 

[Vladv1]

W

It's a determiner, determining nervousness, and yes, it's demonstrative.

Would it be the same if we said " a nervousness"?

 

[jutfrank]

Are you asking whether 'that' and 'a' are identical? No, of course not.

From this limited context, we can't see why Ian (I guess it's Ian who's being quoted) chose to use 'that' in this sentence. All we can say for sure is that for whatever reason, he thought the nervousness he's referring to had either already been mentioned or didn't need to be mentioned.

If I say to you: "Vlad, could you pass me that pen?", I'm hoping that you'll understand exactly which pen I'm talking about. If you don't understand which one I mean, I've failed. There are two chief ways for you to know which pen I mean: first, because I'm pointing to it with my hand, and second, because we've already talked about its existence in some way and I'm reminding you about it.

 

[Vladv1]

Are you asking whether 'that' and 'a' are identical? No, of course not.

From this limited context, we can't see whay Ian (I guess it's Ian who's being quoted) chose to use 'that' in this sentence. All we can say for sure is that for whatever reason he thought the nervousness he's referring to had either already been mentioned or didn't need to be mentioned.

So if something does not need to be mentioned one can use "that"? Can't get it,

 

[emsr2d2]

Would it be the same if we said "a nervousness"?

Don't put a space after opening quotation marks.

So if something does not need to be mentioned, can one can use "that"?

Remember the correct word order for a question.

Can't get it.

Do you mean "I can't understand it"?

 

[jutfrank]

If something doesn't need to be mentioned it's because the speaker knows that the listener knows which thing the speaker is talking about.

Imagine we're good friends, and I say to you:

F: Hey, Vlad. Remember that girl we met?
V: Oh, yeah. What about her?

In this short exchange, Vlad knows which girl Frank is talking about, without Frank needing to mention it.