syntactic analysis - A blinding light / blinding sunlight / a blinding sunlight


"Mornings came and cast a blinding sunlight over everything, and he felt like nothing worthwhile could be accomplished."


For some reason, I feel like "a blinding light" is ok, but if its sunlight, then I should drop the "a" and write "cast blinding sunlight", but I'm not sure why I feel this way.


Can anyone offer some enlightenment?


edit - alternate phrasing, closer to being a literal translation: "Mornings came without warning, flooding the day with a strong sun, and he felt like nothing worthwhile could be accomplished."


I would still like an answer to the technical question of whether I should drop the "a", but would also appreciate knowing if anyone thinks option #2 is a better choice.



Answer



You feel that way because "light" can be countable, but "sunlight" really can't. Thus, "a blinding light" is fine, but "a blinding sunlight" isn't.


(Regarding your edit: I don't really have an opinion either way. You're more aware of the full context, so you're better able to say whether the "without warning" part is really important or whether it can be left out in the interests of tighter phrasing. The only other thing is that I'm a bit bothered between the mismatch between plural "Mornings" and singular "day", but it's possible that the mismatch makes sense in context.)


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