If I use an attitudinal Epithet [...] such as 'mighty' in 'along there came a mighty train', this is not defining and it does not become defining even following the specific Deictic 'the'. In 'the mighty train came thundering down the track', the word 'mighty' does not identify this particular train by contrast with some unmighty ones. Even in the superlative, which, with experential Epithets, is almost always used to define (e.g. 'ours was the longest train'), an attitudinal Epithet is still not defining. For example, 'he said the silliest things' is normally equivalent to 'he said some very silly things'. A word like 'silliest' can be used to define, as in 'the silliest things of all were said by the chairman'; but in that case it has an experential function.
- Halliday (1985), a pag.163