Two verbs in a sentence
Hello everyone,
I want to ask you a question.
I am curious which verb some objects or preposition or something belongs to.
For example,
I stopped being excited when I saw you..
Which verb does "when" belong to? Stopped or Being excited?
Because there are two meanings..
If it belongs to stopped, It means: "When I saw you, I stopped being excited."
If it belongs to "being excited", It means: "I was excited when I saw you, and I stopped it."
What do you think?
Top answer
If you take the following into account, then there should be little room for ambiguity. - context -punctuation (if in written form) - pauses (in spoken form)
- If you take the following into account, then there should be little room for ambiguity.
- - context -punctuation (if in written form) - pauses (in spoken form)
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If you take the following into account, then there should be little room for ambiguity.
- context
-punctuation (if in written form)
- pauses (in spoken form)
0I stopped being excited when I saw you.
"When" is head of the preposition phrase "when I saw you" functioning as a temporal adjunct. Without further context, it is strictly speaking ambiguous, but I think the salient interpretation is that the PP belongs in the matrix clause, not the subordinate being clause; in which case it modifies the upper verb phrase : stopp
0
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