What does "there" refer to in the sentence?

Question

I've read a sentence in a Burmese story.

"The medico went to the nearest village and there in the bazaar he found various kinds of meat and fish"

I wanted to know whether "there" refers to "the nearest village" or "in the bazaar"

Answer 1

In this context, it's both. If you need to pick one, pick the bazaar since the phrase in the bazaar defines there in that sentence, or at least constrains its location. That is, he found various kinds of meat and fish in the bazaar, which was located in the nearest village.

Assuming that villages are the larger unit, and that villages are not contained in bazaars, consider what happens when we switch the two locations:

• The medico went to the nearest bazaar and there in the village he found various kinds of meat and fish.

In this case, there would refer to the village, which happens to contain the bazaar. Interestingly, there is now no requirement that the meat and fish were found in the bazaar at all - the sentence allows the interpretation that they were found anywhere in the village.