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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Ambiguity
Hello! I am assigned to draw syntactic tree for the following sentence, "Who do you want to shoot?" , which is said to be ambiguous in two ways, which I can not figüre out. What are the possible two readings of the sentence?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Top answer
" It can be read two ways: 1. Who is the person that you want to use the gun, to do the shooting? 2.
- " It can be read two ways: 1.
- Who is the person that you want to use the gun, to do the shooting?
- 2.
- Who is the person you want to be the victim of the gunshot, who will receive the injury?
- " That is the answer.
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2 Answers
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It's ambiguous if you don't use the pronouns "correctly." It can be read two ways:
1. Who is the person that you want to use the gun, to do the shooting?
2. Who is the person you want to be the victim of the gunshot, who will receive the injury?
Really, to express the second sentence, it should read "Whom do you want to shoot?"
Tha
1. Who is the person that you want to use the gun, to do the shooting?
2. Who is the person you want to be the victim of the gunshot, who will receive the injury?
Really, to express the second sentence, it should read "Whom do you want to shoot?"
Tha
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