0
Anonymous Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
list of descriptive elements
Hello everybody,
I have a paragraph that ends with a list of elements. I'm dealing with a sentence structure very uncommon to me.
Paragraph with a list inside it:
I sat on the porch and looked across at the Buckley house as I had done so many times before – Tudor, stucco, rhododendrons and a perennial garden fading fast, losing its pinks and white and blues, nursery colors."
I can see that the first 2 elements, "Tudor" and "stucco," refer to the Buckley house. What do the rest of the elements refer to? Do they also refer to the Buckley house? I don't see anything else they can be describing.
Can a list start to describe the house and then changes the subject of its description?
Thanks in advance
I have a paragraph that ends with a list of elements. I'm dealing with a sentence structure very uncommon to me.
Paragraph with a list inside it:
I sat on the porch and looked across at the Buckley house as I had done so many times before – Tudor, stucco, rhododendrons and a perennial garden fading fast, losing its pinks and white and blues, nursery colors."
I can see that the first 2 elements, "Tudor" and "stucco," refer to the Buckley house. What do the rest of the elements refer to? Do they also refer to the Buckley house? I don't see anything else they can be describing.
Can a list start to describe the house and then changes the subject of its description?
Thanks in advance
Top answer
This is not 100% clear. My interpretation would be that the Tudor and Stucco do indeed refer to the house, then the writer moves on to describing the garden - but in a sense this is describing the house too. The writer sees the 'rhodedendrons and a perennial garden fading fast' as part of the appearance of the house, then goes on to explain im more detail how the garden is fading: 'losing its pinks and whites and blues' (perennial flowers being those that tend to make a big splash of colour and then die out).
- This is not 100% clear.
- My interpretation would be that the Tudor and Stucco do indeed refer to the house, then the writer moves on to describing the garden - but in a sense this is describing the house too.
- The writer sees the 'rhodedendrons and a perennial garden fading fast' as part of the appearance of the house, then goes on to explain im more detail how the garden is fading: 'losing its pinks and whites and blues' (perennial flowers being those that tend to make a big splash of colour and then die out).
- The 'nursery colours' could either refer to the flowers or the house...
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
2 Answers
0
This is not 100% clear. My interpretation would be that the Tudor and Stucco do indeed refer to the house, then the writer moves on to describing the garden - but in a sense this is describing the house too. The writer sees the 'rhodedendrons and a perennial garden fading fast' as part of the appearance of the house, then goes on to explain im more detail how the garden is fading: 'losing
00
It seems to me that Nona the Brit's interpretation is the expected one, and that maybe it would be appropriate to think that the list that follows the dash is descriptive of the view, inclusive of the house and environs-- therefore, depending on what was in the range of vision, a thousand other details could be included: cars in the driveway, children at play, sleeping dogs, smoke from th
0
Related Questions