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Cho7712 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
build
When the verb 'build' takes only a direct object, the adverbial can be attached to the end of the sentence as representing the benefactive role, which is what I checked out in the dictionary.
e.g. They had a house built for them.
And here are my questions,
1. the reference of those each two 'they' (one in the suject, the other in the complement) is the same ?
2. If the underlined part is not considered as its general usage
(i.e. for oneself - an idiom) but as the separable
prepositional phrase, then is this sentence to be correct?
e.g. 'He built a new house for himself.'
3. Is it preferable to say, "He built himself a new house" ?
e.g. They had a house built for them.
And here are my questions,
1. the reference of those each two 'they' (one in the suject, the other in the complement) is the same ?
2. If the underlined part is not considered as its general usage
(i.e. for oneself - an idiom) but as the separable
prepositional phrase, then is this sentence to be correct?
e.g. 'He built a new house for himself.'
3. Is it preferable to say, "He built himself a new house" ?
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5 Answers
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cho77121. the reference of those each two 'they' (one in the suject, the other in the complement) is the same ?Not necessarily in the right context, but as an isolated sentence one would assume the same reference for each.
cho77122. If the underlined part is not considered as its general usage (i.e. for oneself - an idiom) but as the s
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Thank you for the answer,
e.g. They had the n
CalifJimbut as an isolated sentence one would assume the same reference for each.
there is no ambiguity of reference here. Both 'he' and 'himself' refer to the same person.And then, it might leave the matter of when to use the reflexive pronoun all to the discretion of the speaker.
e.g. They had the n
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cho7712So I have only one way of thinking that the use of relfexive should be the case if the reference in two of 'they' can be the same. If the pronoun is used, then the reference should be some group of people other than the subject 'they'.What is your thinking about my opinion?I agree. Using 'they'/'them' when you want the same reference would not be the
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Thank you for the answer, And actually it is very difficult for me to understand the use of reflexive. Not only this sentence but so many other sentences are there in my stuffy grammar book. Thanks again for your answer.
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