"Put the cat on the sofa by the window in the living ro

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"Put the cat on the sofa by the window in the living room." means:

Poll ended at Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:32 am

Put the cat on the sofa that is by the window in the living room.
2
33%
Take the cat that is on the sofa and put it by the window in the living room.
0
No votes
Take the cat off the sofa that is by the window and put it in the living room.
0
No votes
Any of of them.
4
67%
 
Total votes: 6
metal56
Posts: 3032
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 4:30 am

"Put the cat on the sofa by the window in the living ro

Post by metal56 » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:32 am

"Put the cat on the sofa by the window in the living room."
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Metamorfose
Posts: 345
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2003 2:21 pm
Location: Brazil

Post by Metamorfose » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:56 am

I voted in 'any of them' as a non-native speaker and I add, isn't it the matter of intonation when one says the sentence that will change its meaning?

José
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LarryLatham
Posts: 1195
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 6:33 pm
Location: Aguanga, California (near San Diego)

Post by LarryLatham » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:55 am

It's ambiguous in written English, especially in the absence of additional cotext or context, but can be made clear in a speaking situation both by context, and by patterns of stress (as our friend Jose' has pointed out). The trick for the listener is to determine what part is the noun phrase serving as the indirect object of the verb, "put", and what part is the direct object.

NP --> NP + (PP*) A noun phrase may consist of a noun phrase followed by any number of optional prepositional phrases. :wink:

Larry Latham
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