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Paco2004 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Negation/punctuation

0 Hello Teachers 02br
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00"She didn't like him because he was rich." 02br
00When you read this, which sense do you take as its meaning? 02br
00 (1) She liked him, but not because he was rich. 02br
00 (2) She didn't like him, because he was rich. 02br
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00paco 0-
  

Top answer

0 Short of translating these into Spanish, or into some other language where some grammatical machinery such as the subjunctive can save us from the ambiguity, we'll have to resign ourselves to the fact that the subject sentence is just plain ambiguous. 02br 02br 00Cleft sentences can sometimes save the day on these: 02br 02br 00It was not because he was rich that she liked him. 02br 00It was because he was rich that she disliked him.

— CalifJim

  • 0 Short of translating these into Spanish, or into some other language where some grammatical machinery such as the subjunctive can save us from the ambiguity, we'll have to resign ourselves to the fact that the subject sentence is just plain ambiguous.
  • 02br 02br 00Cleft sentences can sometimes save the day on these: 02br 02br 00It was not because he was rich that she liked him.
  • 02br 00It was because he was rich that she disliked him.
  • 02br 02br 00But to cut to the chase, I take (2) as the meaning if no other clues are available.
  • 02br 02br 00CJ 0-
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7 Answers
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0 Short of translating these into Spanish, or into some other language where some grammatical machinery such as the subjunctive can save us from the ambiguity, we'll have to resign ourselves to the fact that the subject sentence is just plain ambiguous. 02br
02br
00Cleft sentences can sometimes save the day on these: 02br
02br
00It was not because he was r
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0And, without the comma, I would presume #1-- a clear proof of ambiguity. 0-
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0 Hello Teachers 02br
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00Thank you for your replies. 02br
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00It seems a comma plays an important role in determining the scope of negation. 02br
00I should be careful in using a comma when making a complex sentence. 02br
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00paco 0-
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0 Hi Paco 02br
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00I hadn't known either the importance of punctuction until I took a grammar class a couple of months ago. 02br
00here is something that can be useful to remember: 02br
00when a adverb clause precedes an independant clause ,a comma is used to separate the clauses. When the adverb clause follows, usually no comma is used. 02br
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0 Hello Amandine 02br
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00Thank you for the information. It's really helpful. Yes, I agree we had better front an adverbial clause, especially in speaking, to avoid the ambiguity of negation scope; "Because he was rich, she didn't like him" rather than "She didn't like him because he was rich." But I often come across to sentences written in a way like "She didn't like him
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0 "She didn't like him because he was rich." 02br
02br
00Here's another possibility that hasn't been mentioned: 02br
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00"She didn't like him 01i00just02i00 because he was rich." 02br
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00 This one is also ambiguous, but I think it would be more likely to be interpreted as "she liked him, but not solely bec
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0 Hello Khoff 02br
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00I agree. We can parse "She didn't like him because he was rich" as "She NOT [(liked) (him) (because he was rich)]". Here three elements are candidates to be negated. When we specify the negation to (liked), i.e., "NOT (liked)", we have to use "disliked" for "NOT (liked)". 02br
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00paco 0-
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