Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ShoHiro]

Dear teachers,

Which is better, (a) or (b)?

(a) John put the meat raw on top of the melon.

(b) John put the meat on top of the melon raw.

In (b), raw refers to not the melon but the meat.

Sincerely,
ShoHiro

[pugachevV]

b. is better I think.
Usually,I would say "John put the raw meat on top of the melon."

[Lorikeet]

[ShoHiro]

Dear pugachevV,

Thank you very much.

I understand your point. But my interest is how to use "secondary predicates".

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Dear Lorikeet,

Thank you very much.

Do you judge (b) to be more acceptable?


ShoHiro

[Lorikeet]

Of the two choices, I prefer b, but I would never say it and doubt I would hear it.

[ShoHiro]

Dear Lorikeet,

Thank you very much. I see.

How about the following sentence, though they are similar questions?

(1) a. John ate the salad dry.
b. John ate the toast dry.
c. John ordered his salad dry.

Are they acceptable?

ShoHiro

[ShoHiro]

Would you please ask a related question?

Can the sentence (1) be paraphrazed as (2)?

(1) Bill ate a fish whole.

(2) When Bill ate a fish, it was whole.

ShoHiro

[ShoHiro]

I would like to know about another case.

You can correctly say (1),

(1) Bill bought these stocks over-the-counter.

(Suppose that the sentence (1) is the answer to the question How did Bill buy those stocks?)

How about (2)?

(2) Bill gave Mary these stocks over-the-counter.


ShoHiro

[Lorikeet]

[Lorikeet]

[Lorikeet]