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Pb03 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
The Alhambra, Granada province and Cordoba
Hi everyone,
In the following sentence, do you think the artefacts are from three places -- the Alhambra/ Granada province / Cordoba --
or two places -- the Alhambra, Granad province / Cordoba ?
With the punctuation problem before "and" , it's so confusing to me.
Which interpretation do you think might be best ?
Thanks
pb
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On the ground floor, the Museo de la Alhambra has an absorbing collection of Islamic artefacts from the Alhambra, Granada
province and Córdoba, with explanatory texts in English and Spanish.
In the following sentence, do you think the artefacts are from three places -- the Alhambra/ Granada province / Cordoba --
or two places -- the Alhambra, Granad province / Cordoba ?
With the punctuation problem before "and" , it's so confusing to me.
Which interpretation do you think might be best ?
Thanks
pb
----------------
On the ground floor, the Museo de la Alhambra has an absorbing collection of Islamic artefacts from the Alhambra, Granada
province and Córdoba, with explanatory texts in English and Spanish.
Top answer
From the Wikipedia article : Betty, a maid and a rabbit. When the serial comma is not used, this is clearly a list of two people and a rabbit (assuming that the unlikely idea that Betty is both a maid and a rabbit is rejected), whereas Betty, a maid, and a rabbit may refer either to one person (Betty, who is a maid) or to two people (Betty and a maid) and a rabbit. It seems that if a comma was placed before the [and] in the list there would less ambiguity as the Alhambra, Granada province, and Córdoba, would denote that the artefact was found in either two places (Alhambra, in the province of Granada, as well as Cordoba) or three places.
- From the Wikipedia article : Betty, a maid and a rabbit.
- When the serial comma is not used, this is clearly a list of two people and a rabbit (assuming that the unlikely idea that Betty is both a maid and a rabbit is rejected), whereas Betty, a maid, and a rabbit may refer either to one person (Betty, who is a maid) or to two people (Betty and a maid) and a rabbit.
- It seems that if a comma was placed before the [and] in the list there would less ambiguity as the Alhambra, Granada province, and Córdoba, would denote that the artefact was found in either two places (Alhambra, in the province of Granada, as well as Cordoba) or three places.
- However, as this usage of the comma is not total, there will be ambiguity with this kind of sentence, unless there is another way to fix it.
- org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity
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2 Answers
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From the Wikipedia article :
Betty, a maid and a rabbit.
When the serial comma is not used, this is clearly a list of two people and a rabbit (assuming that the unlikely idea that Betty is both a maid and a rabbit is rejected), whereas
Betty, a maid, and a rabbit
may refer either to one person (Betty, who is
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Pb03On the ground floor, the Museo de la Alhambra has an absorbing collection of Islamic artefacts from the Alhambra, GranadaThe Alhambra is located in Granada, so the information about its location should be considered parenthetical.
province and Córdoba, with explanatory texts in English and Spanish.
Here is w
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