Teacher Discussion Forums

dear teachers,

hi! could someone help me with the constituent structure ( or even a tree diagram ) of the sentence:
i saw an old woman with a child with ginger hair.


thank you,
david e. sitler

(quote)I saw an old woman with a child with ginger hair.


I = subject

saw = verb

an old woman = object

with a child = prepositional phrase modifying the object head word" woman"

with ginger hair:

I think there are two possibilities:

it modifies "child" or "woman".

Does the child have ginger hair?
or
Does the woman have ginger hair?

I am not sure.
I hope any native speaker of English tells about this.

I want to check which is correct between these two possibilities.

joon,
thank you for your prompt reply and answer.
sitler

Guys,

I think it means the child has ginger (coloured) hair. If I was the writer and wanted to state that the old woman had ginger hair then I would possibly write the sentence as:
* I saw an old woman with a child and with ginger hair.
OR * I saw an old ginger-haired woman with a child.

~ Jennifer

I also would assume the kid has ginger hair.

Siân