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Sunaku Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

associativity of multiple "and"s

Hello,

I'm a bit stumped about the associativity of "and"s in this phrase:

All modified and unmodified copies and substantial portions of the Software

Does the "modified and unmodified" description apply to both copies & portions? like this:

All modified and unmodified (copies and substantial portions) of the Software

Or does the "modified and unmodified" description apply only to the copies? like this:

All (modified and unmodified copies) and substantial portions of the Software

Thanks for your consideration.
  

Top answer

From common sense it follows that in this context the adjectives apply to both "copies" and "portions". If you take an unchanged copy and remove a couple of lines, what do you get? A modified copy or an unmodified substantial portion?

— Ant_222

  • From common sense it follows that in this context the adjectives apply to both "copies" and "portions".
  • If you take an unchanged copy and remove a couple of lines, what do you get?
  • A modified copy or an unmodified substantial portion?
  • The scope of the adjective in the pattern _adj + _noun and _noun varies from context to context: "black cats and witches" vs.
  • "good cars and bikes"
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6 Answers
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From common sense it follows that in this context the adjectives apply to both "copies" and "portions".

If you take an unchanged copy and remove a couple of lines, what do you get? A modified copy or an unmodified substantial portion?

The scope of the adjective in the pattern
_adj + _noun and _noun
varies from context to context:

"black cats and witches"
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Excellent, thank you. But I wonder, is there any way to make this associativity explicit?

I suppose the simplest way is to distribute the adjective to each noun:

_adj1 and _adj2 + _noun and _noun => _adj1 and _adj2 _noun and _adj1 and _adj2 _noun

(black and white) + (witches) and (cats) => (black and white) (witches) and (black and white)
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It seems to me that it's your last choice, but maybe we don't have enough context to decide.

All copies, whether modified or unmodified, as well as substantial portions of the software, ...

It also might be

Any copy of the software or substantial portion thereof, whether these are modified or unmodified, ...

CJ
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The full context is here (see item #1).

Thanks for your consideration.
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Since this is a legal document, or can be thought of as such, I believe the intent is to include all possible combinations, thus:

modified copies
unmodified copies
modified substantial portions
unmodified substantial portions

CJ
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Excellent. Thank you very much.
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