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Alexclx Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Is this sentence ambiguous?

Hi, I had difficulty in understanding this sentence: He was happy. Does it mean "he was in the state of happiness" or "he became happy", or both readings are ok? Any help will be appreciated.
  

Top answer

" "He was in a state happiness" is one way to think about it.

— Caris

  • " "He was in a state happiness" is one way to think about it.
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5 Answers
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It means simple, He was happy (at the moment being described.) Not "he became happy." "He was in a state happiness" is one way to think about it.
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There is a hidden message in “he was happy” which is inferring a past state of happiness with a present voice. i.e. “ he was very happily married for the first few month of his marriage…”. Then something happened. The tone usually implies that he is no longer in the “happy” state.



He was happy with the promotion (but he found out he had to travel more). But at
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There is a hidden message in “he was happy” which is inferring a past state of happiness with a present voice. i.e. “ he was very happily
married for the first few month of his marriage… suggesting something happened. This tone usually implies that he is no longer in that“happy” state.



He was happy with the promotion (but he found out he had to travel
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There is a hidden message in “he was happy” which is inferring a past state of happiness with a present voice. i.e. “he was very happily
married for the first few month of his marriage…”, suggesting something happened that changed how he felt. The tone usually implies that he is no longer in the “happy” state.



He was happy with the promotion (but he found o
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Sorry about the triple posts...
Something funky was going on with the forum's website.
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