Particular use of 'either'

Question

Hi everybody,The word 'either' has a use that confuses me a little bit. It is categorized as either a determiner or a pronoun. It is the third meaning here:http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/either_2Okay, very nice, there is a definition there, but I still can't distinguish it from the first meaning. There is this example:There are shops at either end of the street.How can I decide whether it is the first or the third meaning?First meaning:one or the other of two things or peopleThird meaning:both sides, ends, hands etc [= each]Thanks for your answer(s) in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hole One a New SeeHow can I decide whether it is the first or the third meaning?

As I suspect we have advised you before, HOANS, just as with any polysemic word (of which there are many!), you must use common sense and context to determine which meaning is reasonable or intended.

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thanks for the answer

Those many words have different meanings, easy to differentiate one from another. Monolingual dictionaries explain it very well in easier cases.

Either has a distinctive importance and very similar uses. It is a harder case (for me). I asked only one meaning. I hope that is not a problem. If I didn't use common sense then I would've asked about every word here (at www.EnglishForward.com). But you can see that I didn't do that.

That example sentence (the quoted one) is not the best in Longman online dictionary. There are many other examples (at other words) where this dictionary use a plus sentence to indicate that the context is important there. It wasn't the case here.

But now you helped me to clarify this thing, so thank you very much.

Please correct me if I made any mistake in this comment (maybe I wrote something silly but it wasn't intentional) and please, don't be grumpy

Mister Micawber · Answer

Hole One a New See, don't be grumpy

I am not grumpy at all; I have responded several thousand times to questions like yours over the past 10 years. Don't you be presumptuous.

Hole One a New See · Answer

Okay, sorry. I didn't want to insult you at all.

And besides my stupid emoticons, I'm really grateful to you. It is not a lie.

Hole One a New See · Answer

I have responded several thousand times to questions like yours over the past 10 years.

You also answered me at least 30-40 times (maybe it was more than that) and I'm just one person. I just want to say that I didn't forget it at all and I'm grateful (and the answers were useful and understandable to a beginner, too).

Particular use of 'either'

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