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Bubu prasant Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Help with "that" and meaning
Hello,
I have questions about the indented lines.
I was discussing with my students a paragraph of a story. The story is about a boy who vanished. In the story a father comes to know that his new born child’s feet must not touch the earth until the child completes his 12th year otherwise the child will face big trouble.
“Great care was taken that this should be avoided.” [Extract from the original text]
So he appoints nurses to take care of the baby. Everything goes fine until he reaches his 12th year. The father becomes very happy and one day arranges a big feast to celebrate his son’s release. But while a nurse was carrying the baby, a frightful, unearthly yell distracts her attention and she drops the child on the ground and goes over to the window to see what had caused the noise. But at the next moment-
“With a cry, she realized that she has disobeyed her master”. [Extract frm the orignl text]
This is how the story begins.
Now I would like to know the meaning and grammatical behaviour of the word “that” in the first indented sentence. Does it mean “so that”?
And in the second indented sentence I have this following question:
Doesn’t the sentence sound ambiguous?
“With a cry, she realized” I think may convey two different meanings 1] the cry made her realize or the cry was responsible to make he realize. 2] She realized her mistake and as a result uttered the cry [This is certainly the meaning the writer wants to convey]
Could any one plz explain? Thanks
Bubu
I have questions about the indented lines.
I was discussing with my students a paragraph of a story. The story is about a boy who vanished. In the story a father comes to know that his new born child’s feet must not touch the earth until the child completes his 12th year otherwise the child will face big trouble.
“Great care was taken that this should be avoided.” [Extract from the original text]
So he appoints nurses to take care of the baby. Everything goes fine until he reaches his 12th year. The father becomes very happy and one day arranges a big feast to celebrate his son’s release. But while a nurse was carrying the baby, a frightful, unearthly yell distracts her attention and she drops the child on the ground and goes over to the window to see what had caused the noise. But at the next moment-
“With a cry, she realized that she has disobeyed her master”. [Extract frm the orignl text]
This is how the story begins.
Now I would like to know the meaning and grammatical behaviour of the word “that” in the first indented sentence. Does it mean “so that”?
And in the second indented sentence I have this following question:
Doesn’t the sentence sound ambiguous?
“With a cry, she realized” I think may convey two different meanings 1] the cry made her realize or the cry was responsible to make he realize. 2] She realized her mistake and as a result uttered the cry [This is certainly the meaning the writer wants to convey]
Could any one plz explain? Thanks
Bubu
Top answer
I believe it's working as a conjunction in that sentence, but don't hold me to that unless someone else says the same thing. You could get away without saying that if you wanted to, so it really isn't that integral to the meaning of the sentence. I know this probably doesn't help much, but it's the best I can come up with right now.
- I believe it's working as a conjunction in that sentence, but don't hold me to that unless someone else says the same thing.
- You could get away without saying that if you wanted to, so it really isn't that integral to the meaning of the sentence.
- I know this probably doesn't help much, but it's the best I can come up with right now.
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2 Answers
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I believe it's working as a conjunction in that sentence, but don't hold me to that unless someone else says the same thing.
You could get away without saying that if you wanted to, so it really isn't that integral to the meaning of the sentence.
I know this probably doesn't help much, but it's the best I can come up with right now.
You could get away without saying that if you wanted to, so it really isn't that integral to the meaning of the sentence.
I know this probably doesn't help much, but it's the best I can come up with right now.
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I agree with Migo.
In the first sentence, it does mean "so that"...it's just one of the many different ways to say the same thing in English, something "that"
In the first sentence, it does mean "so that"...it's just one of the many different ways to say the same thing in English, something "that"
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