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Navitasan Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Became rapidly soluble
1-The substance became rapidly soluble in water.
Can't this sentence mean two things:
a-The substance became a rapidly soluble substance. It acquired the quality of being rapidly soluble.
b-The substance was insoluble but rapidly became soluble,
I think the sentence would always (or at least almost always) have meaning "a", but is it not theoretically possible for it to have meaning "b".
Can't we say:
2-The substance became rapidly purple.
Gratefully,
Navi.
Can't this sentence mean two things:
a-The substance became a rapidly soluble substance. It acquired the quality of being rapidly soluble.
b-The substance was insoluble but rapidly became soluble,
I think the sentence would always (or at least almost always) have meaning "a", but is it not theoretically possible for it to have meaning "b".
Can't we say:
2-The substance became rapidly purple.
Gratefully,
Navi.
Top answer
I think you understand the issue perfectly. I would say, though, that meaning "b" is even less likely an interpretation than you think, mostly because the idea of something becoming soluble seems far-fetched, and the puzzled reader falls back on proximity.
- I think you understand the issue perfectly.
- I would say, though, that meaning "b" is even less likely an interpretation than you think, mostly because the idea of something becoming soluble seems far-fetched, and the puzzled reader falls back on proximity.
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3 Answers
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I think you understand the issue perfectly. I would say, though, that meaning "b" is even less likely an interpretation than you think, mostly because the idea of something becoming soluble seems far-fetched, and the puzzled reader falls back on proximity.
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Thank you both.
You are right Fivejedjon. I do not think it is possible in the real world, but I was interested in the grammatical structure of the sentence. Let us assume that we are in the context of a science fiction story!
Gratefully,
Navi.
You are right Fivejedjon. I do not think it is possible in the real world, but I was interested in the grammatical structure of the sentence. Let us assume that we are in the context of a science fiction story!
Gratefully,
Navi.
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