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I came across the following sentence:

In my great-grandparent's time people didn't have the distractions of television, the Internet or all the other technological marvels which compete for our attention today.

According to grammar, "The other with a plural noun means the remaining people or things in a group or set". But in my context I doubt that the speaker really had the finite number of technological marvels in his head.

So my question is, why he said "all the other technological marvels" instead of "all other technological marvels"? Has it anything to do with the use of the pronoun "all"? Indeed, I noticed that after "all" we usually tend to use the definite article in some instances, even if sometimes it doesn't seem to be justified. Am I correct in my guess?

Thank you so much in advance for your answer.

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    You were right first time. The writer knows there's a finite set of technological marvels that compete for our attention. But the construction doesn't require the person to have a specific list of things. Similarly "I went to London Zoo to see the animals" because there's a certain set of animals clearly defined by being in the zoo. Commented Feb 3 at 10:15
  • I didn't have the 'distraction' of TV until 1960, when my parents bought a set, and no internet until 1998. But I'm not anyone's great-grandparent yet! Commented Feb 3 at 11:15

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You are interpreting the remaining people or things in a group as referring only to a group of a defined size. But the other [things] can also refer to a general category without needing to consider the exact number of things in that category.

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But in my context I doubt that the speaker really had the finite number of technological marvels in his head.

I'd disagree. They may not have been interested in listing them all, but yes, the sentence suggests that there is a finite, though perhaps very large, number of marvels. Just like "our sun is different than all the other stars in the galaxy," even if that number is several billion and is not known for sure.

Meanwhile, the speaker could just as easily have said "... or all other technological marvels," without changing the meaning much. In this version, it could also include any that don't exist yet but are about to (especially if they hadn't included "today").

To make it simpler: Before Santa honored Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, "all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names." That's understood to be the local reindeer population at the North Pole, perhaps specifically those Santa employs. But if "all other reindeer" mocked Rudolph, it means he could expect mockery wherever he went, even from strangers.

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