Choked on oranges and lost consciousness

Question

1. "19-year-old student died on Tuesday, three days after she apparently choked on two slices of orange and lost consciousness."

I am not sure whether I am guilty of being too critical but when I read the sentence, the impression that I had from the prepositional phrase ("on two slices of orange and lost consciousness") is, the student choked on "oranges" and 'lost consciousness". (Am I right to say that? By the bye, is that called prepositional phrase?)

2. "Friends of polytechnic student Ailsie Lee Qiao Qi told The Straits Times that she had been eating oranges at home during breakfast last Saturday morning when she suddenly started choking and coughing, then fainted."

Sentence 2 is not as bad as the first. But I would have removed "morning". "Then fainted" doesn't seem quite right to me; but I am not sure.

Can someone comment on my views?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

I understand #1 the same way you do.

The prepositional phrase is "on two slices of orange."

The sentence has a compound predicate: She choked and lost.

"Two slices of orange" works like "two slices of cake."

You wouldn't say "She choked on cakes (plural).

Choking is a rather instantaneous act. She didn't die instantaneously, but she could have.

It's difficult to get two oranges in your mouth at the same time.

But we're naturally interested to know how many slices of orange it takes to choke a person.

(People often choke on things without dying.)

You could say that she choked while eating oranges (plural.)

Edit. I agree with MrM that #2 is perfectly natural as it is.

The two verbs, "started" and "fainted," work well in parallel.

If you meant to suggest that #1 was ambiguous, I missed that completely, and still do.

Mister Micawber · Answer

1. I am not sure whether I am guilty of being too critical but when I read the sentence, the impression that I had from the prepositional phrase ("on two slices of orange and lost consciousness") is, the student choked on "oranges" and 'lost consciousness".-- You are being too critical; many constructions can be considered ambiguous if you try hard enough. Such structures become a problem (or at least humorous) when they develop into syllepsis: 'She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair.'

(By the bye, is that called prepositional phrase?-- 'On two slices of orange' is a prepositional phrase, yes.)

2. Sentence 2 is not as bad as the first. But I would have removed "morning". "Then fainted" doesn't seem quite right to me; but I am not sure.-- Sorry, I see nothing wrong with the sentence.

Choked on oranges and lost consciousness

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