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Taka Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

To native speakers:is it 'practically' possible?

0 01i00Hungry and thirsty as they march, they eat the pre-packed rice balls and drink the cans of tea 01font00that02font00 they brought with them in their backpacks, discarding the debris on the way.02br
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02i00Typical grammar books will say 'that' in red refers to 'the cans of tea'. But semantically, it seems to refer to 'the pre-packed rice balls' as well, because they are both 'foodstuff' and I think it would be weird if they put only the tea in their backpacks, but they didn't their rice balls.02br
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00So I'm wondering if such 'skip-modification' practically is possible or not.02br
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01i00(i.e. they eat 01u01font00the pre-packed rice balls02font02u00 and drink 01u01font00the cans of tea02font02u00 01font00that02font00 they brought with them in their backpacks, discarding the debris on the way.)02i02br
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00Could you native speakers help me? 02br
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00Sometimes texbooks are not enough. I would like to know the reality.0-
  

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13 Answers
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0>But semantically, it seems to refer 'the pre-packed rice *****' as well02br
00 right, some clarification is in order ....0-
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0 I agree with your assessment. "That", to me,. refers to both the rice ***** and the cans of tea. I say things like this fairly often, but I try not to since it can sound awkward. So yes, it's possible. But if I were writing a paper I would definitely rewrite that sentence.0-
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0to draw a mathematical analogy, it is like the difference between (a+b)c and a+bc02br
02br
00The restrictive relative clause is like an operator acting on b, but not a.0-
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0Not only is it possible; it's common as dirt! 05002br
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00 The books and papers that I lugged in from the garage this morning were heavier than I had expected.02br
00 There was something wrong with the onion and potato that she put in the stew.02br
00 Considering the beer and wine that he consumed last night, it's no wonder he feels rotten t
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0 Jim,02br
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00Those kinds are quite familiar to me. I've seen many of them too. But mine seems a bit different from those. It's:02br
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00SV01sub00102sub00O01sub00102sub00+(S)V01sub00202sub00O01sub00202sub00+01font00
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0But you can't apply the same verb to the rice and the tea - so the only way to write that sentence in the way you have seen is (paraphrasing) "They ate and drank the rice ***** and tea that they had brought with them." Which come out rather absurd, don't you think? I suppose you can write the entire thing to say "They had brought supplies and drank the tea and ate the rice *****," or something
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0 01blockquote
00SV11sub10112sub10O11sub10112sub10+(S)V11sub10212sub10O11sub10212sub10+11font10that12font12blockquote
10Oops! 05002br
00 If I do say so myself, that was a good answer to a quest
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0 I didn't know it was that common. Thank you, everyone!02br
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00But Erin Zale says:01blockquote
01cite10Erin Zale12cite10I agree with your assessment. "That", to me,. refers to both the rice ***** and the cans of tea. I say things like this fairly often, but I try not to since it can sound awkward. So yes, it's possible. But if
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0 Looks fine to me too. 0-
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0You rewrite 01i00when there is a possibility of ambiguity02i00.02br
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00If, in fact, the rice ***** were brought along, but the tea was purchased at a road-side stand (or vice-versa), then you need to rewrite to avoid the ambiguity.02br
02br
00Jane filed her nails and the folders that were left by her boss... this shouldn't need
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